The International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) said Thursday it had been ordered by Sri Lanka to scale down relief operations. As a result, the ICRC said it was withdrawing expatriate staff from the battle-scarred northeast, where it has been helping civilian war victims, AFP reported. The ICRC has had a strained relationship with the Sri Lankan government which accused the Geneva-based charity of inciting panic over civilian deaths, AFP added. As a first step, the ICRC will pull out of the Eastern Province, where rights abuses by government forces and allied paramilitaries are continuing.
The BBC’s correspondents say that the announcement is significant because if the ICRC cuts back staff considerably, it could mean that eventually there is no independent monitoring of barbed-wire ringed camps in which over three hundred thousand people are interned.
“The government of Sri Lanka has asked the ICRC to scale down its operations in the country," the charity said in a statement Thursday.
The ICRC would now re-assess its operations, which presently include providing relief to those displaced by the fighting and visiting captured rebels to ensure their proper treatment in custody.
"As a first step, it will close its offices and withdraw its expatriate staff from the Eastern Province while winding down its operations in the area. … However, the ICRC will continue its dialogue with the Sri Lankan government on issues of humanitarian concern," the charity said.
ICRC spokesman Simon Schorno told the BBC the ICRC had to respect the government's decision.
He said: "Two sub-delegations are closing, Batticaloa and Trincomalee. A total of 140 national staff and about 10 expatriates worked in these offices."
As fighting escalated in the final days of the conflict with the Tamil Tigers, the ICRC had spoken of an unfolding "humanitarian catastrophe" in the war zone amid a surge in civilian casualties.
The ICRC was the only outside agency with access to the area of combat, taking in aid and evacuating wounded people by ship, the BBC pointed out.
The ICRC and Sri Lankan government were also at loggerheads over the issue of camps for the displaced, with the charity, like many international actors, demanding "unimpeded access" to the sites.
"In accordance with its mandate, the ICRC reaffirms its commitment to address the humanitarian needs of those directly or indirectly affected by the recent conflict, including displaced people and returnees," the ICRC said.
The ICRC has had a permanent presence in Sri Lanka since 1989, the BBC reported. It first began work in the southern part of the country in the late 1980s and continued its work in other parts as the conflict between government forces and the Tamil Tigers intensified.
Thursday, July 9, 2009
Sri Lanka restricts aid visas, equates its camps with Italy’s
Sri Lanka’s Disaster Management and Human Rights Minister, Mahinda Samarasinghe this week drew parallels between his government’s running of barbed-wire ringed militarized camps in which 300,000 Tamils are held with Italy’s management of camps for survivors of the L’Aquila earthquake. The state-owned Daily News also quoted Mr. Samarasinghe as saying Sri Lanka “would welcome all [foreign] help it can get if relevant organizations would fall in line with the national agenda.” On Thursday, the minister said future visa applications for foreign aid workers will be granted only if their work “could not be carried out by locals.”
The Minister’s comments equating Sri Lanka’s camps to Italy’s were made in a speech as Chief Guest at the inauguration of a National Symposium on “Promoting Knowledge Transfer to Strengthen Disaster Risk Reduction and Climate Change Adaption” in Colombo.
The Minister had pointed out that 80,000 Italian earthquake victims in Akila were being looked after solely by one of its government arms, the Civil Protection Authority, supported by the Army and the Navy, the paper reported.
No UN, INGO, NGO presence is allowed in these camps and also journalists are escorted by designated officials when visiting these welfare centres, the paper quoted Mr. Samarasinghe as saying.
The Italian Government has taken an independent decision and others should honour it, he is reported to have pointed out.
He made the same observation two weeks ago, rejecting more international calls for free access to Sri Lanka’s militarized camps from which persistent reports emerge of killings, torture, rapes and even officials running a prostitution ring.
“The EU ambassador tells us that they want unfettered access to the camps. Yet Italy right under their noses is doing something quite different. So if Italy can do that why can’t Sri Lanka?” Mr. Samarasinghe asked.
“ Of course we are a developing country and we need assistance. That is why we have asked the UN to help but we are not willing to give anyone unfettered access because we are an independent sovereign country,” he said.
Unnecessary meddling in domestic affairs would bring forth political issues such as the ones experienced after certain organisations requested unhindered access to conflict affected areas and displaced people’s camps, the Daily News quoted him as saying this week.
In mid-May, Walter Kälin, the UN Secretary-General’s Representative for the Human Rights of Displaced Persons called on Colombo to allow the UN and other agencies “full and unfettered access to all civilians and detainees.”
The call was repeated by UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-Moon himself when he visited the island in late May as Sri Lanka interned hundreds of thousands of Tamils in militarized, overcrowded tent camps.
The United States also pressed for unimpended access for humanitarian agencies.
The calls were flatly rejected by President Mahinda Rajapakse and government officials.
The president of the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC), Jakob Kellenberger, also called for access to the camps on 27 May, saying: “Needs [in the camps] are great, especially for medical care, and those needs are not being fully met.”
This week Sri Lanka ordered the ICRC to reduce its operation in Sri Lanka.
Mr. Samarasinghe said the order was extended to all aid agencies in Sri Lanka.
"We have not specifically targeted the ICRC. It is something we have told all international agencies," he told AFP.
"Since there is no more fighting now, we have told them and others that they should scale down their work.”
"We have told all foreign relief organisations that we will let them bring down expatriates only if they can't find people locally to do their job," he said.
"What we are looking for is to add value to what we are doing."
The Minister’s comments equating Sri Lanka’s camps to Italy’s were made in a speech as Chief Guest at the inauguration of a National Symposium on “Promoting Knowledge Transfer to Strengthen Disaster Risk Reduction and Climate Change Adaption” in Colombo.
The Minister had pointed out that 80,000 Italian earthquake victims in Akila were being looked after solely by one of its government arms, the Civil Protection Authority, supported by the Army and the Navy, the paper reported.
No UN, INGO, NGO presence is allowed in these camps and also journalists are escorted by designated officials when visiting these welfare centres, the paper quoted Mr. Samarasinghe as saying.
The Italian Government has taken an independent decision and others should honour it, he is reported to have pointed out.
He made the same observation two weeks ago, rejecting more international calls for free access to Sri Lanka’s militarized camps from which persistent reports emerge of killings, torture, rapes and even officials running a prostitution ring.
“The EU ambassador tells us that they want unfettered access to the camps. Yet Italy right under their noses is doing something quite different. So if Italy can do that why can’t Sri Lanka?” Mr. Samarasinghe asked.
“ Of course we are a developing country and we need assistance. That is why we have asked the UN to help but we are not willing to give anyone unfettered access because we are an independent sovereign country,” he said.
Unnecessary meddling in domestic affairs would bring forth political issues such as the ones experienced after certain organisations requested unhindered access to conflict affected areas and displaced people’s camps, the Daily News quoted him as saying this week.
In mid-May, Walter Kälin, the UN Secretary-General’s Representative for the Human Rights of Displaced Persons called on Colombo to allow the UN and other agencies “full and unfettered access to all civilians and detainees.”
The call was repeated by UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-Moon himself when he visited the island in late May as Sri Lanka interned hundreds of thousands of Tamils in militarized, overcrowded tent camps.
The United States also pressed for unimpended access for humanitarian agencies.
The calls were flatly rejected by President Mahinda Rajapakse and government officials.
The president of the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC), Jakob Kellenberger, also called for access to the camps on 27 May, saying: “Needs [in the camps] are great, especially for medical care, and those needs are not being fully met.”
This week Sri Lanka ordered the ICRC to reduce its operation in Sri Lanka.
Mr. Samarasinghe said the order was extended to all aid agencies in Sri Lanka.
"We have not specifically targeted the ICRC. It is something we have told all international agencies," he told AFP.
"Since there is no more fighting now, we have told them and others that they should scale down their work.”
"We have told all foreign relief organisations that we will let them bring down expatriates only if they can't find people locally to do their job," he said.
"What we are looking for is to add value to what we are doing."
US concerned about IDPs, peace process: ambassador-designate to India
The Ambassador-designate of Obama administration to India, Tim Roemer, appearing before the US Senate Foreign Relations Committee, Wednesday, said the US is very concerned about the internally displaced people, resettlement, reconciliation and a peace process to go forward. “I think that’s something that would be important for the next ambassador, to continue to work with the Indian government on, to see that the Sri Lankan situation moves in a peaceful process, with reconciliation as a high goal”, he said in his testimony. While appreciating India’s role to US in Afghanistan, about Sri Lanka, the nominee was appreciative of India’s humanitarian aid.
“With respect to Sri Lanka, the Indian government has sent high-level, I think their foreign minister and their national security advisor have been there if not once, twice. They have committed 20 million dollars in aid. They have pledged another 100 million dollars in aid,” he said.
The nominee was of the opinion that it is important for US to “grow the middle class in India spiritually and economically” so that they can buy US products and exchange trade.
Academic circles of India said that this is an area of overlapping interest between the two governments. The Indian Establishment in the last two decades has been grooming the growth of such a class for the benefit of its own capitalism, they said.
Tamil circles, while recognizing the importance of strategic partnership and agreement between US and India in resolving their long-standing national question, said that so far either the competition or connivance of US and India have brought in only misery to Eezham Tamils.
Adding comments, they said: “Both US and India have made a mistake in allowing China and Pakistan to militarily meddle with the national question in the island. So far in contemporary history, China has not demonstrated anywhere that its political culture is capable of resolving issues of the kind faced in the island of Sri Lanka.”
“Only US and India have to do it. US have a long global experience. India actively helped liberation movements in Asia and Africa in the past. Both have to see the realities of the deep divide in the island and the humanitarian questions involved. They have to seriously work together in conceiving a model to identify their geopolitical interests with the aspirations of Eezham Tamils who are always victimised by the geopolitics of the region,” the Tamil circles said.
However, an Asian diplomat in a Western country was sceptical. India at the moment has no idea or preparedness for any innovative political solutions other than appeasement with Colombo for maintaining its status quo, he said, adding that the US may have to put an extra effort to convince India.
In his opinion, the US, which was the first to tilt the balance against Tamils, cannot now simply pass the blame only on India and China. Any change in the outlook has to be again first demonstrated by the US and it is now perhaps time for it to consider strengthening the politics of Eezham Tamils by removing all proscription.
“With respect to Sri Lanka, the Indian government has sent high-level, I think their foreign minister and their national security advisor have been there if not once, twice. They have committed 20 million dollars in aid. They have pledged another 100 million dollars in aid,” he said.
The nominee was of the opinion that it is important for US to “grow the middle class in India spiritually and economically” so that they can buy US products and exchange trade. Academic circles of India said that this is an area of overlapping interest between the two governments. The Indian Establishment in the last two decades has been grooming the growth of such a class for the benefit of its own capitalism, they said.
Tamil circles, while recognizing the importance of strategic partnership and agreement between US and India in resolving their long-standing national question, said that so far either the competition or connivance of US and India have brought in only misery to Eezham Tamils.
Adding comments, they said: “Both US and India have made a mistake in allowing China and Pakistan to militarily meddle with the national question in the island. So far in contemporary history, China has not demonstrated anywhere that its political culture is capable of resolving issues of the kind faced in the island of Sri Lanka.”
“Only US and India have to do it. US have a long global experience. India actively helped liberation movements in Asia and Africa in the past. Both have to see the realities of the deep divide in the island and the humanitarian questions involved. They have to seriously work together in conceiving a model to identify their geopolitical interests with the aspirations of Eezham Tamils who are always victimised by the geopolitics of the region,” the Tamil circles said.
However, an Asian diplomat in a Western country was sceptical. India at the moment has no idea or preparedness for any innovative political solutions other than appeasement with Colombo for maintaining its status quo, he said, adding that the US may have to put an extra effort to convince India.
In his opinion, the US, which was the first to tilt the balance against Tamils, cannot now simply pass the blame only on India and China. Any change in the outlook has to be again first demonstrated by the US and it is now perhaps time for it to consider strengthening the politics of Eezham Tamils by removing all proscription.
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