Sri Lanka can afford to buy weapons but not food

The Sri Lankan Government which was able to fire thousands of shells per day into the so-called safety zone to capture the civilians, doesn't have the means to feed them when they are captured according to Sri Lankan foreign minister who appealed to the international community for assistance.

On Tuesday, April 22, the Sri Lanka Army, which is still keeping the civilians inside the militarized zone, north of Oamanthai, for its screening, has asked the Tamil people of Vavuniyaa through loudspeaker announcements, to donate cooked-food packets to supply the captured civilians.

"The SLA move asking for food packets from people is seen only as a prelude to Colombo asking for huge international assistance to go ahead with its long-term structural genocide of Tamils and to buttress its sagging economy in the guise of refugee-maintenance and 'rehabilitation'," commented the District Secretariat official in Vavuniyaa.

As predicted by the District secretariat official, Sri Lankan Foreign Minister Rohitha Bogollagama met diplomats on the morning of 23 April, and appealed for more help for the surge of civilians arriving in government controlled areas, after the Sri Lankan Army entered the No Fire Zone following an offensive that resulted in over 1000 civilian casualties.

"With the unprecedented influx of large numbers of people in such a short period of time, obviously we do face an emergency humanitarian situation," he told the diplomatic corps at the ministry, and appealed for urgent supplies for shelter, safe drinking water, sanitation and medicine.

Bogollagama said at a press conference that the US government had pledged to provide a field hospital, and India was sending 40,000 emergency family kits. The European Union had pledged US$22 million worth of assistance and other aid was in the pipeline. The Foreign Ministry had set up a task force to liaise with foreign donors and coordinate assistance.

So far, no civil official is able to confirm the arrival of the new batch of civilians into the internment camps of Vavuniyaa town. The real situation of the civilians in the SLA occupied Vanni territory is not known to any civil sources.