Over two months after the only supply road to Jaffna was closed by heavy fighting, the humanitarian crisis in the northern peninsula is reaching critical levels, with food and fuel running out and the Sri Lankan government refusing to open the A9 highway.
And amid mounting international concern, the government insists ample food is available in the Jaffna peninsula.
At the Norwegian brokered talks over the weekend, the first between the two sides since February, the Sri Lankan government rejected the LTTE’s raising the issue of the A9, saying the matter was an irrelevant trifle and demanding instead that a political solution be taken up for discussion.
But aid workers and residents civilians complain that over half a million people in Jaffna are now living on just one meal a day.
Even the limited sea-based supplies of food had not reached them for over 10 days amid turbulent seas, reports said. Food prices had once again skyrocketed in the absence of fresh supplies.
Civilians in Jaffna last week warned that if urgent steps are not taken to transport food to the peninsula, the security forces ran the risk of facing angry civilian mobs, The Sunday Leader reported.
The United Nations top relief official has also protested the lack of access for relief agencies to civilian communities in the conflict areas.
"As the Global Emergency Relief Coordinator, I have been shocked by the lack of access for relief agencies to civilian communities in many conflict areas," Jan Egeland said.
“[Both] the government and the LTTE should be reminded that they are under international legal obligation to enable unimpeded access to civilians in need of assistance irrespective of where they are or the circumstances under which they live.”
Even within days of the A9’s closure in August, Human Rights Watch said half a million residents in the peninsula were facing food shortages and unable to reach areas safe from the fighting.
The Sri Lankan military, which launched an abortive offensive against the Tamil Tigers along with A9 is opposing the reopening of the highway, fuelling suspicion another offensive is being readied.
Supply lines to the northern peninsula by air and sea have been disrupted by bad weather and also because international agencies such as the International Red Cross have refused to escort government convoys, citing security reasons.
Although government agencies have continued to sporadically supply the peninsula, aid agencies warn that if something is not done soon, the results could be disastrous for the 600,000 civilian population there.
The results of months of shortages have begun to show, with school children failing to attend schools as malnutrition takes hold, press reports said. Teachers have even reported cases of children fainting in schools.
“No citizen of Sri Lanka should be forced to depend on uncertainties, such as if a ship will arrive in the coming weeks or not,” the head of the international peace monitors in Sri Lanka, Lars Solvberg, told IPS after returning from a tour of Tamil areas in the northeast.
He described the situation as ‘'totally unacceptable.''
Sri Lanka’s main Tamil political party wrote to the Liberation Tigers and the United Nations last week urging action to open the A9 and accusing the Sri Lankan government of using the situation as a weapon of war.
The Tamil National Alliance (TNA) appealed to LTTE to take-up the opening of the A9 highway as a matter of top priority at last weekend’s talks in Geneva.
The LTTE made the humanitarian crisis its prime focus in the inconclusive negotiations.
“The Jaffna peninsula is a humanitarian catastrophe waiting to happen,” the TNA noted, adding that “since the closure of the A9 highway … the humanitarian situation has reached critical levels.”
The TNA said that the Jaffna peninsula, with 653,755 people, requires 11,000 metric tons of food supplies per month.
But over the last three months, only 14,000 metric tons of food items had been sent in total by ship, resulting in a short fall of 19,000 metric tons, the MPs’ letter said.
The MPs also noted that fuel levels are grossly insufficient, but added that they are unable to provide details because “official figures are being withheld” by the Sri Lankan government.
“Due to the severe shortage of all conceivable items in the Jaffna peninsula, families are forced to stand in queues that stretch for miles on end,” the letter notes, adding that the queues start forming as early as 4am.
The MPs appealed to the LTTE to take-up the opening the A9 highway “as a matter of top priority” at the talks in Geneva.
They also appealed to the UN High Commissioners for Human Rights and Refugees, protesting that the Government of Sri Lanka was using the humanitarian crisis as a tool of war.
“It is our humble submission that the manner in which the [government] has been conducting military operations demonstrates the intent to inflict maximum harm on the Tamil civilian population,” the TNA said in the letter to the UN.
"It is [also] our submission that the GOSL’s plan is to progressively exclude the International Community, diminish its involvement in Sri Lanka and, in particular, its ability to witness the curtailment of humanitarian and human rights abuses and ensure their eventual withdrawal, so as to be able to unleash, unfettered indiscriminate, even genocidal attacks against the Tamil people," the TNA said.
