[b]The basic question is, if not now, When?[/b]

The basic question is, if not now, When?

17. November 2006

By: Kowsalyan.

Death Due To Starvation - first case reported in Jaffna peninsula. Dr. Kathiravetpillai

told TamilNet that there were no traces of food or water in Chandrapala's stomach and

that he had died purely due to starvation and cold. Dr. C. S.Kathiravetpillai, the District

Medical Officer of Health (DMH) pronounced the cause of death as 'death due to

starvation'. The reality has started to strike our faces. It’s not happening in a far away

land, now it’s on our door steps.

Since the closure of A9 highway, Jaffna Peninsula is cut off from the rest of the island,

the humanitarian catastrophic became a fact and the people of Jaffna peninsula started

facing imminent starvation and now death. The shortage of medical supplies and doctors,

have also wreaked havoc. The failure of the Government to expedite the urgent need of

the people has show the world that it doesn’t care about the welfare of the Tamil people

at all. When Starvation of a whole race is used as a way of winning wars and the

continues creation of the same pattern of starving people to death in the East of Sri Lanka

by the Government confirms this reality and their strategy. When ever food is used to

gain a military upper hand then the motto of “War for Food” becomes a reality.

In addition to all these the state Military machine along with several state sponsored

armed groups are going on a killing spree. Anyone can be shot and everyone can be

intimidated. Rape, mishandling, terrorizing and killing has escalated beyond the civilized

world’s wildest imagination in the peninsula and as the whole in the government

controlled North and east.

The Jaffna peninsula is in a desperate state. Every day that passes by is a day of survival.

“Will I die of hunger or will I be shot today?” this is the fundamental question on

people’s minds nowadays. People are afraid to even to wake up in the morning to face

reality of the peninsular. It has become a killing field. You can either be killed by a gun

or simply by starvation. The ICRC in a recent statement has said that “From Now on

every house in the Peninsula will have a funeral every day.” This statement alone will

describe the current state of the situation there, and sadly its proving to be true.

With the current crisis escalates in the north, the government of Sri Lanka has opened

another front in staving the Tamil, Muslim population in “Vaharai”, in the Trincomalee

district. Since the bombing and indiscriminate artillery barrages with multi barrel rocket

launchers of the refugee camps in this region, the military has stopped all transport to and

from the region. The wounded couldn’t be transported to other hospitals in the region and

the only functioning hospital in ‘Vaharai’ has no medical supplies at all. No food, No

heath care, these people have been virtually left alone to survive with nothing at all. The

rainy season has set in and this is the same population that are already affected by the

tsunami and after that driven from their homes into this region by the military operations

and heavy shelling of their traditional home areas by the Sri Lankan Government forces.

P. Ariyanenthiran (MP), who had rushed to Batticaloa to attend to the food transport issue

said that the reason given by the Mankerny SLA staffers was a lame excuse meant to

obstruct all relief assistance to the IDP’s, and a strategy employed by the SLA to force

IDP’s out of Vaharai by refusing food and medicine reaching them. Tamilnet website

quoted the following by a local volunteer "Even the ICRC are denied access at the

Mankerny SLA check post to reach the Vaharai IDP’s, one can imagine the fate of the

IDP’s trapped in Vaharai," More than 40,000 IDP’s from Trincomalee district have

sought refuge in the besieged Koralai Pattu North (Vaharai) Divisional Secretariat

division in the LTTE controlled Batticaloa district.

These atrocities by the Government of Sri Lanka have failed to open the eyes of the

donor countries, the international community or even India. The maximum they will do

or some of them have already did is issuing statements like “We regret the situation and

we wants the parties involved to solve this humanitarian crisis”. This is just to show that

they are still involved in the Sri Lankan problem and to be a part of it as long as they can.

Not to solve this human tragedy that is unfolding minute by minute in the north and east

of Sri Lanka. They know whom to blame for this crisis, but pointing a direct finger at the

Government is not something they are interested in as long as they don’t want to

jeopardize their own interests. The international community will always look after their

own interests.

Now the Sri Lankan Tamils have been left alone. They need to find their own way of

survival. The only viable question now is not How but When. The LTTE as the sole

representative of the Tamil people, have to take immediate measures’ to put a stop once

and for all to this human created catastrophe. The Government has created this, the donor

countries and the International community at whole has failed in finding a solution to

this. Now there is no one who can help the population but the LTTE. The whole

responsibility lies in the hands of them. Now there is no question or answers, needs only

action.

The question of opening the A9 highway has been long dead and gone from the

Government side. When they are doing this on purpose, one cannot get a real good reason

from the Government as to why the A9 cannot be opened at ‘Muhamali’ which connects

Vanni and the Jaffna Peninsula. The sea and air routes are out of the question when

Government purposely wanted to stave the population to death. They won’t use this to

supply the urgently needed items to the people. These routes will be only used to resupply

the 40,000 or so armed forces in the peninsular.

So what are the immediate alternatives available? There is only one solution to this

problem. LTTE needs to open the road all the way to Jaffna and starts supplying the

needed food and medicine to the people themselves. In short this means “Re-capturing

the Jaffna Peninsula” and brings it under the full control of the LTTE’s Civil

Administration. This is the only available mean that will bring a lasting solution to the

people’s suffering there. The war that’s needed is a quick and decisive one. The suffered

people cannot be let to suffer on a long term war. The LTTE has a legitimate right to

solve this crisis. It’s their people that are suffering in the hands of the Sri Lankan

Government and its armed forces.

When 40,000 Sinhalese people suffered without irrigation water ( note : Not drinking

water ) at ‘Mavilaru’ the Government started a military operation to capture this area

from the LTTE even though the LTTE agreed to reopen the water gates with the SLMM

present. When asked if they are violating the CFA (Ceasefire Agreement) the government

stated that it’s a humanitarian offensive. This is an operation to restore the water supply

to the Sinhalese villages and not a violation of the CFA. Sri Lankan Government used

this humanitarian war terminology because; they knew that the international community

will not oppose this type of offensive operation if the correct terminology was used. This

is because the US started the Iraq war on humanitarian basis, India, violating the airspace

of Sri Lanka airdropped food parcels to Jaffna people on humanitarian basis, Kosovo war

started on the same basis and even the Afghan war was started on the same basis. An

offensive operation and capture of territory on humanitarian grounds is accepted by the

whole world.

If the ‘Mavilaru’ operation by the Sri Lankan government forces was on the same

terminology, then LTTE has the world’s blessings and approval to do the same kind of

offensive operation to ‘Re- Capture’ Jaffna or even more rights to do that because the

people affected are their kit and kin. Even a former JVP member said in a recent

interview that the Sri Lankan conflict was not started by the LTTE, it’s the tamil people

who after suffering under successive Sri Lankan Governments, created the LTTE and

handed over the responsibility of saving them and to find a permanent solution to the

ethnic problem. So it’s the sole responsibility of the LTTE to resolve this human tragedy

that’s unfolding every minute.

By ‘Re-Capturing Jaffna’ LTTE will also pave the way for solving the ‘Vaharai’ crisis.

When Jaffna falls in the hands of the LTTE, the bargaining power of the LTTE will be

tremendously high and also the whole Jaffna peninsular people will whole heartedly rally

behind them and this will open the eyes of the international community. They will be

forced to exert more pressure on the Government of Sri Lanka to adapt to a political

agenda to resolve the crisis than to think of a military solution. The Government of Sri

Lanka will not even think of using food as a tool of winning war in the future if they

loose Jaffna.

Its time the LTTE takes its responsibilities seriously and by doing the same kind of

operation that every country in the world has done in the past, to save their people from

certain death. It’s not the question of how, because it’s completely clear that there is no

other solution to this crisis than an offensive on Jaffna and bringing it under the LTTE’s

civil administration. Now the question is when are they going to do it. Every minute

counts and every second there will be more deaths in the Tamil homeland. Enough is

enough. The suffering people cannot be left to die in the hands of State terrorism.