SL: 200,000 HELPLESS TAMIL IDP's VULNERABLITY!

Clearing ground for Vanni battle

The day before yesterday, the Government of Sri Lanka ordered all humanitarian organisations to cease all operations and remove all personnel (except Vanni residents) and assets from the LTTE controlled part of the Vanni. The question this observer wishes to explore is why the Government of Sri Lanka after ensuring the welfare of its citizens in the LTTE controlled Vanni for the last 18 years, appears to be renegading on its responsibilities, even on the verge of victory.
The Government of Sri Lanka, to its credit, has treated its people, many who are forcibly kept in LTTE controlled areas, as Sri Lankan citizens and have provided them with normal government services (education, healthcare) and also emergency aid (rations, non-food relief items). Furthermore, the government, realising that it could not ensure all services were adequately provided, requested humanitarian organizations to fill necessary gaps. These gaps were often created in emergency situations where the government did not have the immediate resources or capacity to ensure the continual well-being of its citizens. It is at these crises points that the neutrality, mobility and emergency response capabilities that humanitarian agencies possessed were most required and welcomed.

The current situation, even in the calamity familiarized eyes of the 200,000 trapped in the Vanni, can definitely be called a crisis. Many of these are IDPs (Internally Displaced Persons) who fled their homes and are currently without livelihood trapped within a small strip of land. For many, the food aid and shelter provided by humanitarian agencies are the sole means of survival and often, foreign humanitarian agencies need to fulfill the government’s responsibilities.

As David Patreus, Commanding General, Multi-National Force in Iraq and the 82nd Airborne in Afghanistan have realized, conflicts of this nature cannot be solved by brute force alone. Government and humanitarian aid is now an integral component of the United States holistic anti-terrorist campaign. President George Bush, who once noted that the 82nd Airborne should “not be wasted on guarding school-children” now oversees an 82nd Airborne that builds wells, homes and roads.

The government’s reluctance to cite reasons for this dramatic change in policy, especially at this point in time, leaves one to speculate whether the government is making a short-term tactical trade-off between brutal force and hearts and minds. Generally neutral humanitarian agencies have often been successful in highlighting the plight of the suffering, often due to LTTE human rights abuses. However, in turn, they often publicize the government’s human rights violations. One opinion has it that the LTTE is contained in a small, dense thorn jungle, with 200,000 people. The final solution would be to launch massive artillery attacks against the LTTE. However, the LTTE is not below using human shields (actually the entrapment of the 200,000 can be considered a human shield).

Currently, the sole neutral observers in the LTTE controlled areas are international humanitarian agencies. They are the only credible reporters of events. LTTE propaganda is not taken as it is discredited.

Hence, for LTTE human rights abuses to be highlighted humanitarian agencies need to be on the ground in LTTE controlled areas. Furthermore, in order to back up its military successes the government must ensure the hearts and minds of the people in LTTE controlled areas do not turn against the government who they often prefer to the LTTE regime. The LTTE will also use the removal of humanitarian agencies as a propaganda tool to convince the people of the Vanni and the Tamil Diaspora that the Government of Sri Lanka does not consider Tamils as equal citizens and is preventing them from surviving. As the experience in Iraq and Afghanistan has proven it is much easier to capture than to hold territory when facing unconventional forces.

Finally, the government has promised to continue providing its own aid to the Vanni. Yet, the irony is that this aid will in the future be delivered right into the hands of the LTTE in the areas under their control.

As it is given under the supervision of the LTTE authorities the LTTE will gain credit from the average Vanni citizens and member of the Tamil Diaspora as the sole provider of relief in the Vanni. Hence, the government will hasten its rout in the battle for the hearts and minds of the people of the Vanni. Hence, in this observer’s opinion, the Government of Sri Lanka is providing the Tigers with a psychological and propaganda edge in the war.

By Banana Tree
GROUNDVIEWS courtesy:dailymirror.lk