200 gram/day/person Food Help Only During Last 10 months to Vanni IDPs!!!

Wanni Displaced in for hard times

By Ranjith Jayasundara
Statistically the number of internally displaced persons in the Wanni is now more than 225,000. A majority of them are from the Yodhawewa area in Mannar who left the area for safer locations when the security forces launched their military operations. The displaced families had temporarily settled in Pudukuduirippu, Malliyawalai, and Vishvamadu areas in close proximity to Mullaitivu but had been used as human shields by the LTTE that considered the heavy influx of displaced persons a blessing in disguise. The LTTE that made capital out of the situation abducted young men and women from their families. The people who fled the war torn area soon fell prey to the LTTE as they abducted their children. However, they are reluctantly compelled to remain in the LTTE controlled area due to restrictions of the LTTE who do not permit them to leave.

More than 18,000 of them who do not have a fixed abode are still living in temporary huts covered with polythene sheets. The UNO said they are not in a position to provide shelter to the displaced families for want of adequate facilities and that the sudden influx of civilians was a serious challenge to its relief workers. Meanwhile, the strategy of the LTTE to prevent the advancing government forces that are about to storm into Mullaitivu, its stronghold, is to use displaced people as a human shield. To this end, LTTE leader Velupillai Prabhakaran ordered his subordinates not to allow the displaced people to leave the area under any circumstance. However, people continue to flee from LTTE controlled areas and enter government controlled areas for safety.

More than 300 civilians who fled from the LTTE controlled areas by sea surrendered to security forces in Jaffna, Mandathivu, Mannar, and Pulmudai areas. They claimed the LTTE abducted their children to be sent to the battle field and that the people who refused to erect bunkers and defence lines for them were liable to pay a fine Rs.100, 000. They said displaced persons in LTTE controlled areas are waiting for an opportunity to escape. The spread of contagious diseases including malaria, viral fever, sore eyes, diarrhoea and skin diseases they say added to their woes.

Meanwhile the government says it maintains regular supplies of consumer goods to the area. Consignments of food as well as other requirements of the people are dispatched by lorry continually through the Omanthai check point and distributed free under the supervision of the Government Agents of Mullaitivu, Killinochchi and Vavuniya districts.

However, it is not a secret that the LTTE have a fair share of the supplies dispatched to the uncleared areas by the government and the UNO. The residents of the uncleared areas said the consumer goods and fuel meant for the civilians are often looted by the LTTE. Statistically, the government dispatched 8030 metric tons of rice, 6217 tons of wheat flour, 1246 metric tons of sugar 1704 metric tons of lentils and large stocks of other goods including infant milk powder and fuel to the uncleared areas in the Wanni from January to October this year. However, it is in doubt whether the civilians received the entirety of the supplies.

The intensified military operations in the North would further aggravate the situation. The security forces are planning to launch military operations to capture the LTTE’s Mullaitivu stronghold and it would be an arduous task to provide protection to the civilians unless they are evacuated soon as possible from the war torn area in view of the LTTE’s attempt to use these people as human shields against these operations. Under the circumstance, it is the duty of the UNO, the ICRC and human rights organizations to provide adequate protection to civilians and evacuate them from these areas and compel the LTTE not to obstruct people leaving the area to safety.
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