An estimated two hundred thousand people attended the Tamil Resurgence celebrations in Jaffna last Friday, massing at the Jaffna University Grounds and calling for the Sri Lanka Army (SLA) to vacate the Tamil homeland and declaring that the Tamils right to self-determination is non-negotiable.

Two days before, thousands of people attended the Tamil Resurgence rally in Mannar, despite an oppressing Sri Lankan military presence.

Speakers at the Jaffna rally said the event recognizes the Vavuniya proclamation (the declaration read out at the first of this series of protests) and condemned the one-sided punitive measures taken by the European Union against the Liberation Tigers.

Sri Lankan troops were deployed in large number in and around University area, but failed to deter people flocking to the event from across the peninsula.

All twenty two Tamil National Alliance parliamentarians, led by the coalition’s leader, Mr. R. Sampanthan, attended the event.

So did the leader of the Up country People’s front(UPF) Mr. P. Chandrasekaran, and Mr. Mano Ganeshan head of the Western Province People’s Front(WPPF). Both parties represent the Estate Tamils – though the largest of the estate parties, the Ceylon Workers Congress (CWC) did not attend.

Participants demolished a large dummy representing an SLA soldier as symbolic event to highlight the feeling of the Tamil people. Students went on a procession denouncing the travel restrictions imposed on the Liberation Tigers by the European Union last week.

“Time has come for break away from unitary setup and to commence our journey towards self determination,” was the theme taken up by the

Speakers at the rally repeatedly took up the argument that the time has come for break away from unitary state and a commencement of the drive towards self determination.

They also called the international community to desist from taking action that will strengthen the hands of the extreme Sinhala nationalists.

Residents of Mannar woke Wednesday to witness a heavy SLA presence in the town and in the vicinity of the Tamil Resurgence rally’s venue. Large number of military vehicles including armoured cars patrolled the area.

Despite the tension building up, the organisers went on with the final hour preparation for the day’s event.

The TNA MPs Sivanathan Kishore, Sivasakthi Anandhan and Norathalingham expressed exasperation at excessive army presence as an “intimidating tactic to shy the crowd away.”

They expressed despair at SLA senior officers going back on their word to keep their forces away from the venue.

Furthermore, after the event, the military went back on its word to keep the border crossing points open, leaving five thousand people who had crossed over from Tamil Tiger-held territory stranded overnight in the government-held town.

Organizers of the convention made arrangements to provide shelter for stranded villagers in schools and other public buildings Wednesday night. They said the SLA had refused to honor their prior agreement because of the hoisting of the Thamil Eelam flag at the convention.

Like the Mannar rally, the Jaffna event was staged successfully – and the Tamil Eelam flag was prominently raised - despite harassment by the Sri Lankan security forces

In the days preceding the event, the military in Jaffna had stepped up the harassment of those it suspected to be involved in organizing the next Tamil resurgence event. SLA soldiers also intensified armed patrols in the parts of the peninsula under military control.

“The success of the Tamil Resurgence Rallies in Vavuniya, Batticaloa, Kilinochi and Mullaithivu has alarmed Colombo, and that is why I think SLA has intensified its intimidating tactics to sabotage the forthcoming rally,” TNA MP Selvarajah Gajendran said.

Days after the Jaffna rally, about hundred Tamil activists and representatives of Tamil organizations attending a discussion held at Trincomalee Vigneswara Maha Vidiyalayam to plan a similar event in the eastern port town. They picked October 22 for the date.

Compiled from TamilNet and local reports

Tsunami relief efforts were hampered by rivalries between charities, the vast sums donated and the failure of the United Nations to co-ordinate help, a report published this week by the British Red Cross says.

The devastation and chaos wreaked by the waves that hit southern Asia meant that many charities duplicated aid but neglected some of the worst-affected areas.

Some aid agencies, eager to raise their profiles, concealed information about the disaster rather than share it with rival organisations, the annual World Disasters Report claims.

About 250,000 people were killed by the tsunami on Boxing Day last year.

A total of £5 billion was donated by people and pledged by governments worldwide in response to the tragedy. Up to 400 charities and organisations went to help the injured, homeless and orphaned and to rebuild the region.

The report, written by independent experts and commissioned by the International Federation of Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies, says that although charities from around the world were overwhelmed by the death toll many failed to co-ordinate efforts.

“The enormous scale of national and international interest in the disaster, flooding the area with material goods and money, complicated the flow of information,” it says.

“The sheer number of organisations involved led agencies to compete for space, which encouraged them to conceal rather than share information.”

Although the report does not name which charities were the main culprits, it is understood that they were inexperienced and small organisations from around the world.

The report notes that some local emergency services became furious at “disaster tourists” taking the places of doctors.

Iolanda Jaquemet, a journalist writing about relief efforts on the island of Sumatra, Indonesia, said: “Rivalries between agencies competing to spend unprecedented budgets did not encourage information sharing. Can it be right, just because donors have given so generously, for certain agencies to fly their own flag rather than work alongside others?”

The report adds that the UN failed to co-ordinate and unite its own agencies, let alone the other organisations.

Matthias Schmale, the British Red Cross international director, said that the UN had done “a remarkable job” but had been seriously challenged by the scale and complexity of the disaster.

“While the adrenalin rush at times may have prevented us sharing information, I think it would be hard to find a case where it prevented us saving lives,” he said.

Mr Schmale backed calls for the UN to train more of its staff in reporting and sharing information.

While it says that the aid effort did eventually succeed, the authors expressed concern that the needs of women were often neglected because many of those assessing their problems were men.

The region was inundated with surgeons — Banda Aceh in Sumatra had ten field hospitals and a hospital boat with twenty surgeons “competing” over one patient — but was desperate for midwives and nurses.

There was growing concern about a “glut” of money that sometimes funds misguided goodwill, the report adds.

To tackle the issues raised, the report recommends joint assessment of the needs of the people affected by disasters, by appointing an information co-ordinator in the field and for agencies to work with local charities.