Sri Lanka compared to Somalia

A UN official in northern Sri Lanka has said that conditions for displaced people in LTTE-held areas are "as basic as in Somalia".

John Campbell, from the World Food Programme (WFP), told the BBC Sinhala service that conditions were "as basic as can be" and "much less than ideal".

Campbell was speaking from the LTTE-held village of Tharmapuram. The area is close to recent heavy fighting between the Tamil Tiger and the Sri Lankan army.

Independent journalists are prevented by the government from travelling to war-hit areas of the country - the WFP is one of the few foreign agencies allowed to deliver aid to the area.

Campbell said that many of internally displaced people in Tharmapuram were living in flimsy shelters soaked by recent heavy rainfall.

"They are extremely uncomfortable in waterlogged camps and depending almost entirely on international aid for food," Campbell told the BBC.

Sri Lankan officials say that the rain has also brought much of the fighting in the north to a halt and that only "intermittent skirmishes" between the Tamil Tigers and the army have recently taken place.

Campbell insisted that displaced people were getting enough food, despite their miserable living conditions.

"It is basic as it can be. I haven't seen anything so basic since when I was in Somalia."

Somalia has been without an effective central government since President Siad Barre was overthrown in 1991. Years of fighting in the African nation between rival warlords and an inability to deal with famine and disease have led to the deaths of up to one million people.

The UN estimates that there are about 230,000 displaced people throughout LTTE-held areas in the north of Sri Lanka.

A UN aid convoy - comprising of 50 trucks - arrived in the area after December 9 being given clearance by the Tigers and the Sri Lankan military.

Campbell told the BBC that the supplies included rice, flour and school equipment.

He said that the convoy was only the seventh to bring food to LTTE-held areas in the past two months.

The Sri Lankan government responded with a major outcry and a demand for an apology. WFP country director for Sri Lanka, Adnan Khan, was immediately summoned to the Defence Ministry where he made a personal apology on behalf of the errant official.

Khan, later said Campbell was giving a "personal opinion" and that such "statements given by staff members do not necessarily reflect the official policy of WFP".

He added that WFP was working in cooperation with the government and was "fully committed to continue the weekly dispatches of convoys to the Vanni" region.

He also told The Sunday Times that the WFP would look into every aspect of the incident, and take necessary action against the official, adding that he may even be suspended from operating in the country.

“However everything depends on the outcome of the ongoing internal inquiry,” Mr. Khan said.

The WFP later said in a statement that its mandate was to provide food and assistance to those in need and that statements made by staff members do not necessarily reflect the official policy of the organisation.

Following the incident the WFP has put a gag on its staff and in future only a few selected officials at the very top will be allowed to make statements to the media, Khan further said.

British journalist Peter Foster, in his column in UK Telegraph, said Campbell stepped unwittingly into the minefield of Sri Lankan politics.

"This piece of mealy-mouthism [of Khan] reflects the invidious position of all aid agencies in Sri Lanka, and particularly the UN which I know from personal contacts has a rocky relationship with the Sri Lankan government," he said.