Outside the primary school in Vavuniya, northern Sri Lanka, the warning signs are everywhere. Scores of civilians caught up in the crossfire between government forces and the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE), who have been fighting for an independent Tamil homeland since 1983, stand in the midday heat awaiting assistance.
“We barely got out alive,” one woman from Kilinochchi town told IRIN, recalling in vivid detail her escape along with hundreds of men, women and children into government-held territory one week earlier.
“We had to think about our children. We had to flee,” said a Tamil man, who, with his wife and two children, fled with nothing more than the clothes on their backs.
The school is one of 16 government transit sites set up to help fleeing Tamils since the beginning of this year.
But what is proving particularly difficult is that these facilities are now effectively closed off. Access to aid workers and family members remains limited, while those inside are prevented from leaving. Even mobile telephone communication is barred.
Many of those arriving had not eaten for days and seemed dazed, while children suffering from chest infections lie naked on classroom floors coughing.
Worse to come
Yet despite these dire conditions, things are only going to get worse, warned aid workers, who are already struggling to cope.
In this scenario, maintaining international standards of humanitarian assistance for those inside will prove impossible, said aid workers, who asked not to be identified.
At 18 February, some 35,000 conflict-displaced or more than 8,000 families had arrived, with many more expected.
“In the last 10 days there has been a very sharp increase in the number of people coming out,” UN spokesman Gordon Weiss told IRIN in Colombo, about 230km southwest of Vavuniya. “We expect it to increase still further.”
According to the UN, more than 200,000 people remain trapped in the war zone in and around the north-eastern town of Mullaithivu, where fighting to the north is intensifying.
And while the government, with the support of international agencies and NGOs, is providing humanitarian assistance, it too is feeling the strain.
Originally designed to accommodate people for seven to 10 days, the transit sites, mainly schools and other public buildings, are overcrowded and ill-equipped.
Even more controversial, however, is what happens after the arrivals have been screened by the authorities for security purposes.
The government plans to build two camps or “model villages” for the newly displaced, but with international assistance largely dependent on government assurances over how such camps will be run, the proposal is proving contentious.
On 13 February, the British government said it would not fund any open-ended camps.
Human rights activists are concerned the camps will be used to detain Tamils the government fears are associated with the LTTE. The government, however, describes them as “welfare villages”, complete with post offices, banks and libraries, where more than 200,000 civil war-displaced would be housed for up to three years.
“The principle is still that civilians should be treated as civilians,” Weiss emphasised. “That’s the bottom line.”
Outside the first such “village” at Menic Farms, a 1,000 acre (404ha) site outside Vavuniya, residents are heavily guarded, kept out of sight of visitors, and access by outsiders is restricted.
“You cannot treat civilians who are entitled to equality under the law of Sri Lanka, never mind international principles, cooped up behind barbed wire,” Weiss said, reaffirming the need for further clarification from the government
“People are waiting for better definition of what the government’s plans really are,” he said.
contributor/ds/mw
“We barely got out alive,” one woman from Kilinochchi town told IRIN, recalling in vivid detail her escape along with hundreds of men, women and children into government-held territory one week earlier.
“We had to think about our children. We had to flee,” said a Tamil man, who, with his wife and two children, fled with nothing more than the clothes on their backs.
The school is one of 16 government transit sites set up to help fleeing Tamils since the beginning of this year.
But what is proving particularly difficult is that these facilities are now effectively closed off. Access to aid workers and family members remains limited, while those inside are prevented from leaving. Even mobile telephone communication is barred.
Many of those arriving had not eaten for days and seemed dazed, while children suffering from chest infections lie naked on classroom floors coughing.
Worse to come
Yet despite these dire conditions, things are only going to get worse, warned aid workers, who are already struggling to cope.
In this scenario, maintaining international standards of humanitarian assistance for those inside will prove impossible, said aid workers, who asked not to be identified.
At 18 February, some 35,000 conflict-displaced or more than 8,000 families had arrived, with many more expected.
“In the last 10 days there has been a very sharp increase in the number of people coming out,” UN spokesman Gordon Weiss told IRIN in Colombo, about 230km southwest of Vavuniya. “We expect it to increase still further.”
According to the UN, more than 200,000 people remain trapped in the war zone in and around the north-eastern town of Mullaithivu, where fighting to the north is intensifying.
And while the government, with the support of international agencies and NGOs, is providing humanitarian assistance, it too is feeling the strain.
Originally designed to accommodate people for seven to 10 days, the transit sites, mainly schools and other public buildings, are overcrowded and ill-equipped.
Even more controversial, however, is what happens after the arrivals have been screened by the authorities for security purposes.
The government plans to build two camps or “model villages” for the newly displaced, but with international assistance largely dependent on government assurances over how such camps will be run, the proposal is proving contentious.
On 13 February, the British government said it would not fund any open-ended camps.
Human rights activists are concerned the camps will be used to detain Tamils the government fears are associated with the LTTE. The government, however, describes them as “welfare villages”, complete with post offices, banks and libraries, where more than 200,000 civil war-displaced would be housed for up to three years.
“The principle is still that civilians should be treated as civilians,” Weiss emphasised. “That’s the bottom line.”
Outside the first such “village” at Menic Farms, a 1,000 acre (404ha) site outside Vavuniya, residents are heavily guarded, kept out of sight of visitors, and access by outsiders is restricted.
“You cannot treat civilians who are entitled to equality under the law of Sri Lanka, never mind international principles, cooped up behind barbed wire,” Weiss said, reaffirming the need for further clarification from the government
“People are waiting for better definition of what the government’s plans really are,” he said.
contributor/ds/mw
This article was produced by IRIN News while it was part of the United Nations Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs. Please send queries on copyright or liability to the UN. For more information: https://shop.un.org/rights-permissions
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