Shortages in Jaffna due to the Sri Lankan government’s refusal to open the A9 highway to the peninsula are biting hard, reports said.
Shortages of food have sent prices soaring in the peninsula home to half a million Tamils and controlled by 40,000 Sinhala troops.
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| Long queues of people waiting to buy whatever they can.The government's closure of the main land access route in mid August has led to virtual siege conditions for 600,000 people there. Photo Lakruwan Wanniarachchi/AFP/Getty Images |
“Limited access by land to the peninsula has impeded the population from receiving sufficient food, medicine and other essential supplies since August 2006,” OCHA pointed out.
"The price of a kilo of rice was Rs. 180 early this week. Now it is Rs. 200. The price of soap was Rs. 125 last week. Today it is Rs. 150. People cannot cope with these increases," residents in Jaffna told The Sunday Leader newspaper.
A kilo of sugar is sold at Rs. 200 while an egg is sold at Rs. 30, the paper said.
Many families can only afford one meal a day, the Sunday Times reported this week.
Long queues of people are seen at the shops opened by the military where dry food items are sold at controlled prices. These same goods are sold in the black market at five times or 10 times the amount of the market price.
“The racks at grocery stores and pharmacies are empty. The food distributed via the Corporative stores are inadequate,” a resident lamented to the paper.
People were unable to even buy the simplest drug, Panadol, during a recent outbreak of Chickungunya that affected about one fourth of the population.
The only affordable food in Jaffna these days are grapes with vendors unable to transport them to other parts of the country.
Restaurants are closing down with owners unable to carry on the daily operation. As many as 2,000 people have lost their jobs and those who earn a daily wage are facing near starvation.
Even a kg of firewood is sold as Rs. 12.
Amid this major food crisis, even exercise books are being severely rationed, the Sunday Times reported this week.
“Parents are seen in a long queue to obtain their ration of just two exercise books for a child as the new school year begins in the war torn district,” the paper said.
The hardships faced by residents of Jaffna including soaring food prices appear to have seen little relief in spite of claims by the government that there are no shortages.
Last week a limited amount emergency food supplies from Tamil Nadu, India were said to be enroute to the region, cut off from the rest of the island.
Before the A 9 land route was closed, an average of 8000 people travelled via the route to and from the North. Now civilians have to travel via air or sea.
A ship takes passengers between Jaffna and Trincomalee once a week while two local airlines have a daily service from Colombo to Jaffna.
However, residents say these means are inadequate and thousands of people are stranded in Trincomalee awaiting transport to Jaffna.
Military personnel are also moved on these routes.
Sailings have been disrupted by rough seas and, like last week, by clashes at sea between the Sri Lanka Navy and the Sea Tigers.
Before the land route was closed an average of 200 (12 seater) vans used to carry passengers from Colombo to Jaffna daily, the Sunday Times said, adding now these van owners are facing financial problems and are unable to pay the monthly lease.
Meanwhile the military presence has been tightened in Jaffna with checkpoints at every junction, the paper said.
A daily curfew is imposed from 8 p.m. to 5 a.m. The town is deserted after 3 p.m. with shops close at about 2.30 p.m. Some of the govt. departments close at about 2 p.m. and banks at 12. Buses do not ply after 5 p.m.
Most roads are closed to the public and many have been turned into one way routes for security reasons.
But kidnappings and killings appear to be the order of the day with the Human Rights Commission saying it has received 163 complains of missing people since August 11 last year.
Meanwhile security forces say they have only detained 50 people.
Hundreds more people went missing before that and scores of bodies are found dumped, sometimes with their hands tied, usually with gunshot or knife wounds.
