… as Sri Lanka rejects aid access

Sri Lanka's president on rejected a call by the UN Secretary General to lift restrictions on aid delivery to overcrowded displacement camps, saying the army must first finish screening the hundreds of thousands of Tamil civilians held in the internment camps in north of the island.

President Mahinda Rajapakse's statement, on Sunday May 24, came in response to an appeal by Ban Ki Moon during a 24-hour visit to Sri Lanka for unfettered access for aid agencies to the camps, where nearly 300,000 Tamils were herded during the final stages of the war.

Ban's hurried visit was intended to press the government to ease what aid agencies described as a humanitarian crisis in the camps, with inadequate food supplies and reports of epidemics because of improper sanitation.

But Rajapakse said security had to be assured "in view of the likely presence of LTTE infiltrators" among the refugees. "As conditions improved, especially with regard to security, there would be no objections to such assistance, from organizations that were genuinely interested in the well being" of the displaced Tamils, he said.

The bluntness of the president's statement contrasted with the milder tone of a joint communique with Ban, released almost simultaneously.

In that statement, Ban said the U.N. would continue providing humanitarian assistance to the displaced people, and Rajapaksa promised to "continue to provide access to humanitarian agencies."

Meanwhile, the Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR), one of the UN agencies operating in Sri Lanka expressed concern about the fate of people newly arriving at the camps.

The UNHCR reiterated calls for more assistance, citing the lack of services available for aid workers assisting the refugees who have left the former conflict zones.

"There are several issues that need urgent attention, including overcrowding and the limited services available at the camps,'' said Ron Redmond, the UNHCR spokesman.

"Civilians coming out of the conflict zone are sick, hungry and suffering from acute malnourishment and dehydration,'' he said in Geneva.

Redmond said he did not know why the authorities were blocking access to the camps.

"It's urgent that assistance gets into those camps and that we are able to deliver. We've got lots of humanitarian supplies that need to be delivered," he told the briefing.

“The latest massive influx of people, who have endured extreme conditions, will put an even greater strain on the internally displaced people sites in Vavuniya, Jaffna and Trincomalee,” he said.

The UNHCR is concerned about government restrictions that are hindering the agency’s access and delivery of aid supplies, particularly in Vavuniya district, the UN said on its Web site.

"We need to have access, I repeat, total access, without the least let or hindrance, for the UN, for NGOs and for the Red Cross," Elisabeth Byrs, spokeswoman for the U.N. Office for the Co-ordination of Humanitarian Affairs, told a news briefing.

Byrs said NGOs (non-governmental organisations) were encountering difficulties getting into camps for displaced people, even though the military authorities in the Jaffna region had promised them total access.