Tamils’ daily misery in northern refugee camps
Colombo (AsiaNews) – Sri Lanka’s army and the Liberation Tamil Tiger Ealam continue to battle it out, relentlessly. Government forces continue to issue victory proclamations as they carry out combined air and ground attacks, however, no one dares to visit Mannar District, the current theatre of operation, as the Defence Ministry continues to reject issuing entry permits.
AsiaNews talked to Fr Sarath Iddamalgoda who last week visited the suffering population with a small group that included three Christian clergymen (Methodist, Anglican and Catholic) and a Buddhist monk.
The visit “had two main purposes [. . .]. The first purpose was to extend our solidarity to the Tamil community in the North and the East, which at this moment is experiencing death as a result of the ongoing war. They need the support of the Christian community.”
The other reason “was to communicate and share information and experiences gathered from such a visit with our people here in the South. Of course just visiting is certainly not enough. We need to raise our voice on their behalf.”
“We left Colombo on 15 April and went by train up to Madawachchiya. There a local priest came to receive us and pick us up. No vehicles from the South can go beyond that point.”
“After about an hour's drive we were told at a barrier that only residents, and no other, could enter Mannar. But we told the soldiers that this new rule had not been announced. Had we known we would not have come so far! The officers were helpless; they were only carrying out orders from the top. The priest who came to pick us up then contacted the vicar general of the diocese and got a special permission for us from the army commander of the area. We were about to return to Anuradhapura when we were told that permission had been granted. That took about two and half hours.”
Fr Sarath Iddamalgoda’ small group was not alone. “There were others,” he explained, “for instance some labourers who had come to Mannar for work. They were turned back. There was also a wife who wanted to join her husband in Mannar. She too was stranded at the check point not knowing what to do. It was like going to another country.”
“Luckily in our group there was a Buddhist monk. The soldiers who could not visit their homes villages and the temples during the New Year period were very pleased to see a monk suddenly among them. In general, except one or two, they were courteous towards us. Of course there was a suspicious look in some as to why a group of Christian clergymen and women from the South would visit the North.”
“On our way to Mannar we were stopped at 4 or 5 check points and on way back at another 5 check points. There was a thorough body check before we got into the train.”
“We were there for three days. We visited two refugee camps which were guarded by the police. They looked like open air prisons. In one camp were those who had escaped from the LTTE area. Among them, a desperate elderly woman had come by boat with her sister’s children, who though she would get back to her eight children and husband. But now she can't go back.”
“There was a young woman, an English teacher, who had also escaped by boat hoping to join her relatives in the South. She is to be married soon with her boyfriend waiting for her. Her father had recently come to take her spending her dowry money to get to her, but they too were denied permission to leave the camp.”
“Several NGOs such as the UNHCR, World Vision and the Red Cross are providing services but refugees complain about shortage of food, milk powder for children and health care for pregnant mothers. But the most urgent issue for them is being denied the right to join their relatives in the South.”
“In the second camp there was a soldier always standing with us when we talked with refugees.” Here we had the “impression in all the meetings that the most urgent and fundamental issue refugees had was being denied respect and dignity by the military because they were Tamils. There were also other issues concerning their livelihood, uncertainty, insecurity etc., but the ‘lack of respect’ was the most serious one.”
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