இலங்கை முகாம்களுக்கான உதவி நிறுத்தப்படும் - பிரிட்டன் அறிவிப்பு

இலங்கை முகாம்களுக்கான உதவி நிறுத்தப்படும் - பிரிட்டன் அறிவிப்பு

இலங்கையின் வடபகுதியில், சுமார் இரண்டரை லட்சம் இடம்பெயர்ந்த தமிழ் மக்கள் அடைத்து வைக்கப்பட்டுள்ள முகாம்களுக்கு அவசர உதவிகளை தவிர ஏனைய அனைத்து உதவிகளையும் நிறுத்தப் போவதாக பிரிட்டிஷ் அரசாங்கம் கூறியுள்ளது.

அங்கிருக்கின்ற மிகப்பெரிய முகாமுக்கு பிரிட்டிஷ் அமைச்சர் மைக் ஃபொஸ்டர் அவர்கள் விஜயம் செய்து திரும்பியதை அடுத்து இந்த அறிவிப்பு வந்துள்ளது.

அதே நேரம் பருவ மழைக்காலத்தில் அங்கு ஏற்படக் கூடிய எந்தவிதமான வெள்ளமும் வடிந்தோடும் வகையில் தேவையான வடிகால் வசதிகளை தாம் முகாம்களில் அமைப்பதாக இலங்கை அரசாங்கம் கூறுகின்றது.

ஆனால், அதனுடன் பிரிட்டனும், ஐநாவும் உடன்படவில்லை.

மனிக்ஃபார்ம் முகாமுக்கு விஜயம் செய்த பிரிட்டிஷ் அமைச்சர் மைக் ஃபொஸ்டர், அங்கு கடுமையான மழை பெய்தால், பெரும் அழிவும், தொற்றுநோய் பரவலும் ஏற்படும் என்று அச்சம் வெளியிட்டுள்ளார்.

முகாமில் உள்ளவர்களில் சுமார் 70 வீதமானவர்கள் அங்கிருந்து வெளியேறும் பட்சத்தில், அவர்களுக்கு ஆதரவு வழங்கக்கூடிய குடும்பங்களுடன் சென்று தங்குவதற்கான வசதியுடையவர்கள் என்றும் அவர் கூறுகிறார்.

அந்த முகாம்களில் தமது நிலலைமை குறித்து பேசுவதற்கு ஆர்வத்துடன் இருந்த மக்களுடன் பிபிசிக்கு பேசும் வாய்ப்பு கிடைத்தது.

அங்கு நிலைமைகள் மிகவும் மோசம் என்றும், நல்ல குடிநீர் கிடையாது என்றும், போதுமான வடிகால் வசதி கிடையாது என்றும், அதிக வெப்பம் காரணமாக மக்கள் பலர் நோயில் வீழ்வதாகவும், அங்கிருந்த பெண்கள் மாறி மாறி கூறினார்கள்.

முடிந்தவரை விரைவாக எங்களை எங்கள் வீடுகளுக்கு அனுப்புங்கள் என்று ஒருவர் கூறினார்.

மனிக்பார்ம் முகாமில் இரண்டு லட்சத்து நாற்பதினாயிரம் பேர் இன்னமும் இருப்பதாக கூறுகின்ற அரசாங்கம், இதுவரை இருபதினாயிரம் பேர் மீள்குடியேற்றப்பட்டு விட்டதாக, அல்லது விடுவிக்கப்பட்டு விட்டதாக கூறுகிறது.

கவலைப்படவில்லை

வவுனியா இடைத்தங்கல் முகாம்களில் உள்ளவர்களுக்கான உதவியை ஐக்கிய ராஜ்ஜியம் நிறுத்தினாலும், வேறு பல நாடுகள் இலங்கைக்கு தொடர்ந்து உதவ தயாராக இருப்பதாகவும் இந்த முடிவால் தாம் கவலைப்படவில்லை என்றும் இலங்கை சமாதானச் செயலகத்தின் பணிப்பாளர் ராஜீவ விஜயசிங்க பி பி சியின் சிங்கள சேவையான சந்தேஷியாவிடம் தெரிவித்தார்.

-BBC தமிழோசை

Britain demands freedom for Sri Lanka war victims

COLOMBO (AFP) – Britain on Tuesday expressed disappointment with Sri Lanka's handling of war-displaced civilians and demanded that they be given the freedom to leave state-run camps.

"Freedom of movement is critical if a humanitarian crisis is to be averted," visiting British Development Minister Mike Foster said after touring the camps, where over 250,000 civilians are being detained.

Foster, who began a two-day visit Tuesday, also voiced concern over the conditions in the camps.

Britain was helping Sri Lanka with resettlement as well as de-mining, he said adding, however, that he was "disappointed" with Sri Lanka's progress in allowing civilians to return to their homes in former war-zones.

Foster said 4.8 million pounds (7.6 million dollars, 5.2 million euros) is currently in the pipeline to assist Sri Lanka in resettlement work, but added that it could not use the money to transfer people from one camp to another.

"Mike Foster made clear that Britain's funding could not support people simply being transferred from existing 'closed' camps - which detain civilians for long periods of time - to new 'closed' camps," the British High Commission (Embassy) said in a statement. "Freedom of movement has to be allowed now."

Foster told reporters in Colombo that British aid in the post-monsoon season should be allocated to resettlement programmes, de-mining, and livelihood support programmes, not geared towards sustaining people in the camps.

"Our view is that those camps should not be permanent, should be a temporary fixture, and if we continue to fund day-to-day relief work then there is no incentive for the government to allow people to leave," Foster said.

He said Britain will also talk to other foreign donors to see if they would agree to withhold aid after the rains cease in a bid to force Colombo to dismantle the camps and free people.

In May, Sri Lanka ended decades of ethnic conflict after killing the top Tamil rebel leadership. Civilians who managed to escape the fighting have been held in internment camps which the government calls "welfare villages."

The government insists that they cannot be set free until they are screened for possible links with the defeated Tamil Tigers.

- http://news.yahoo.com/s/afp/20091006/wl_st..._20091006152136

UK to cut Sri Lanka camp funding

The UK says it will soon withdraw all but emergency funding for the camps where about 250,000 displaced Tamils are confined in northern Sri Lanka.

The announcement came after the UK Development Minister Mike Foster visited the biggest camp at Menik Farm.

He said 70% of people should be able to leave and stay with host families.

Refugees say conditions are poor, with inadequate drinking water and drains, and illness due to the hot conditions. Many are pleading to be allowed home.

Earlier, Sri Lanka's government said it was taking measures to ensure the camps could cope with the onset of monsoon rains.

'Send us home'

Mr Foster said that once the imminent monsoon was over, the UK government would only fund life-saving emergency interventions in the camps.

The minister described the sites as "closed" as their inhabitants cannot freely leave.

Sri Lanka's government has said it is installing adequate drainage to ward off any flooding. But the UK, the UN and others disagree.

Visiting Menik Farm, Mr Foster said he feared heavy rainfall might cause devastation and spread disease.

He said some 70% of the camp-dwellers could leave and stay with host families.

The BBC was able to meet refugees who clamoured to talk about their situation.

One woman after another said the conditions were poor - that there was no good drinking water, that the drainage system could not cope, and that people were falling ill in the hot weather.

"Please send us home as soon as possible," one said.

Media access to the camps, and the north of the island in general, has become rare, but the army which is in overall charge of the refugee facility did not stop the BBC having brief but spontaneous meetings with people.

The former military commander of the camp, now governor of the Northern Province, defended the slow progress of refugee releases, saying people could not just go back to areas from which landmines had not yet been cleared.

The government says about 240,000 people remain in Menik Farm, and that more than 20,000 have been resettled or released. This figure also includes those who have died.

- http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/south_asia/8293475.stm

Monsoon floods threaten displaced Tamils, says British ministerHundreds of thousands may face water shortage and disease in Sri Lankan internment camps

A quarter of million displaced Tamils are in dire humanitarian need of being allowed out of internment camps which face flash floods in Sri Lanka's monsoons, a British minister said after visiting refugees.

Mike Foster, a British international development minister, said he had been allowed unfettered access to the Manik Farm camp in the country's northern Vavuniya district, which Tamil war refugees cannot freely leave.

"There's a pressing humanitarian need for the civilians to be allowed to leave the camps," said Foster. "Although conditions have improved the tents are basically disintegrating. With the monsoons we will have sewage floating around – water-borne diseases will be rife.

"We will not be prepared to fund closed camps after the monsoons."

The minister said civilians had complained of water shortages. The ration of 20 litres per person per day was being given to a family. "That's a lot of people and not a lot of water," said Foster.

The civilians were herded by the army into the camps this summer after Sri Lankan government forces routed the Tamil Tigers in a battle on the north-east coast that ended the Tigers' 26-year fight for a separate Tamil homeland in the north and east of the Indian Ocean nation.

The minister pointed out that the government's pledge to free civilians from the internment camps by the end of the year had already seen "some slippage".

"It [the release date] is now January. These are closed camps, in the sense there's no freedom of movement. The international community supported the government because these were meant to be temporary. We do not, however, want these people taken to another closed camp, we want them to go home."

Sri Lanka denies that the Tamils are detained under "conditions of internment", a phrase used by UN officials. The government says people are being held in "welfare camps" while they are screened to see whether they were rebels.

The government says the resettlement of Tamils will also depend on how quickly mines are cleared from conflict areas. So far, ministers say, 30,000 people have been allowed to return to their "native places".

The United Nations has said the harsh conditions in the camps may result in growing bitterness. Two children were injured in a standoff between Tamils and the Sri Lankan army, which the UN said was a "sign of growing frustrations" in the camps.

-http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2009/oct/06/monsoon-floods-threaten-tamils