As the last reserves of food ran out amongst the Tamil people in the Vaharai region, the United Nations warned of an impending crisis this week.
But Sri Lanka’s military tightened its blockade and continued to shell refugee camps in the Tamil Tiger-held enclave.
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| Thousands of refugees in Vaharai protest against the Sri Lankan government embargo. Photo TamilNet |
“A humanitarian tragedy is unfolding in Vaharai and the international community should not remain silent any longer, the Tamil Rehabilitation Organisation (TRO) said.
“The situation in Vaharai is grave and demands an urgent response,” the United Nations office in Colombo said this week.
“15,000 people are isolated without access to food or basic supplies as stocks are decimated,” the UN said.
“Displaced people and residents are trapped in a conflict zone with hardly any food, medicine or clean water,” the ICRC (International Committee of the Red Cross) said.
The Sri Lankan military has maintained a total embargo on supplies into the area since October as part of a major onslaught against the LTTE in the east.
Only one convoy of humanitarian aid has been allowed in since then. And that was on November 29th, after the government of Sri Lanka (GoSL) briefly came under intense pressure from the international community.
That pressure has tailed off, even as Sri Lanka has stepped up its military offensives against the LTTE in the east, directing indiscriminate bombing and shelling at human concentrations in the area.
“We stand ready to assist those still trapped in Vaharai. These persons are the most vulnerable of the vulnerable,” the UN’s Acting Resident and Humanitarian Coordinator, Amin Awad, said in a statement.
“We must always recall that it is the most weak who remain behind – the elderly, the sick and the disabled. They are still without access to food, emergency medical services, and shelter, and continue to be caught in the middle of relentless fighting,” Awad added.
In a desperate appeal on Friday, the TRO said there was food for only one or days.
But, amid silence from the international community, the embargo has not been lifted.
“We only have enough food for one or two more days,” TRO’s Vaharai Director of Operations, Mr. Moorthy, told reporters in a telephone message from there.
“The people are suffering and there is nothing that we can do due to the SLA embargo on food and medicine.”
“It is the responsibility of the GoSL and the international community to ensure that these civilians are not made to suffer due to a lack of food, medicine or the threat of bombing or shelling.
After refugees around Vaharai hospital were targeted by Sri Lankan heavy guns, the TRO pleaded for the area to be defined a ‘safe haven.’
The Sri Lankan military says it will capture Vaharai within a month and says it will not ease the pressure on the region.
After taking control of the eastern province in the next two months, Sri Lanka’s military will recapture the areas held by the Liberation Tigers in the north of the island, the Army (SLA) Chief, Lt. Gen. Sarath Fonseka, said last week.
On Tuesday Sri Lankan artillery shells hit the Verugal area to the north of Vaharai, killing two people and wounding nine others. The victims had fled shelling in Vaharai on Tuesday.
Vaharai hospital was hit during Monday’s bombardment which was directed at a refugee encampment around it.
Three people were killed and eleven wounded.
Four critically injured civilians were moved by the ICRC to Valaichchenai District hospital in government-controlled territory. One of the four succumbed to her injuries at Valaichchenai hospital.
“[We] urgently appeals to all parties to the conflict to respect their obligations under international humanitarian law and thus ensure that the civilian population and civilian objects are respected and protected at all times,” the ICRC said.
“This law prohibits attacks against civilians and civilian objects in all circumstances.”
Tamil parliamentarians are appealing to the international community to act.
Last week Batticaloa district parliamentarian, S. Jeyanandamoorthy, urged Ban Ki-moon, the new UN Secretary General, to prevail upon the Sri Lankan government to declare a safe-haven Vaharai for civilians to take shelter in.
"The international community that has played a role in the peace process, has a moral responsibility over the Tamils, as a people, suffering in the hands of a failed post-colonial state," Mr. S. Jeyanandamoorthy.
The GoSL has already rejected an earlier call to declare a humanitarian zone encompassing the Vaharai hospital and the surrounding areas for the protection of the civilians.
Meanwhile, 20,000 people who last month trekked through jungles to escape the SriLankan shelling by crossing into government controlled areas are also living in miserable conditions, the UN said.
“Despite reaching relative safety they still they face many problems and an uncertain future,” a UN news report said.
Even government controlled parts of the Tamil-dominated are running short of food.
“Sites are hosting people at twice their actual capacity, the district is facing a potential food shortage and many families have been separated in flight or during transport to emergency sites,” according to the head of the UN High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) field office in the town of Batticaloa, Yoko Akasaka.
Many of those fleeing Vaharai and gone into the enclave to escape Sri Lankan offensives against their homes in areas such as Sampur in the Trincomalee district.
UNHCR has offered the authorities assistance in organizing so-called “go and see” visits so that community leaders and other volunteers can visit their former homes, many further north of Vaharai in Trincomalee district, and decide whether return would be safee.
“Many people first fled to Vaharai because of violence elsewhere and they are worried about whether it will be safe to go back,” Ms. Akasaka said.
“They simply don’t know where they will be safe. Even here, there are reports of abductions from displacement sites.”
