Absence of War Has Yet to Improve Quality of Life

Amantha Perera

COLOMBO, Oct 23 (IPS) - The 20-month-old ceasefire between Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE) and the government, the longest in Sri Lanka's history, has delivered a mixed bag of blessings to people, especially those who live in conflict-affected areas.

The absence of war has no doubt created a better living environment and increased chances for a negotiated settlement as never before, but community leaders activists say it has yet to go further and translate into changed quality of life for many.

”The bulk of the people in the north and east (of Sri Lanka) have regained security of life,” observed Muttukrishna Sarvananthan, an economist with the Colombo-based International Centre for Ethnic Studies who has researched the economy of the war-affected areas.

Several multilateral donor agencies and aid organisations have also started projects in the north and east or revived pre-ceasefire projects.

For instance, the World Bank has two major projects in the north-east, the North-east Irrigated Agriculture Project and the North-east Emergency Reconstruction Project with combined funds of 23 million U.S. dollars.

The Manila-based Asian Development Bank is funding the North-east Community Restoration and Development Project to the tune of 25 million dollars. The German Technical Cooperation (GTZ) is assisting in the rehabilitation of schools while the Norwegian Agency for Development Cooperation (NORAD) and the U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID) are involved in demining efforts.

The opening of the A9 highway, the main road that links the war-ravaged North with the South, supplemented by the lifting of the economic embargo during the truce, has greatly increased the movement of goods as well as persons.

”The lifting of the economic embargo in January 2002 has paved the way for the civilians to fulfill their pent-up demand for consumer goods, including consumer durables,” Sarvananthan said. The embargo had limited the transportation of goods like fertilisers and batteries.

However, donor agencies and other observers have warned that the war-affected areas still lack not only infrastructure -- but basic sanitation, health and education facilities.

”There is much more room for reconstruction in the North. The important part of Memoranda of Understanding (between the LTTE and government) was to bring about normalcy to the north-east. We expected an immediate influx of refugees and that the resettlement would go on smoothly, but to our dismay this has not happened,” the Catholic bishop of Jaffna, Thomas Samudranayagum, was quoted as telling the Colombo-based English weekly 'The Sunday Leader'.

Figures from the United Nations Children's Fund show that 2.5 million people live in the conflict-affected areas and that some one million are children under the age of 18.

Some 800,000 people have been displaced by the 20-year conflict, which has resulted in over 60,000 deaths. Of the displaced, UNICEF estimates that one third are children. Over 183,000 internally displaced persons returned to their places of origin in 2002.

Hollywood actress Angelina Jolie, who visited Sri Lanka's war zones in April with the sponsorship of the U.N. High Commissioner for Refugees, details the plight of children and women as the biggest casualty of the war in her journal.

”UNICEF estimates that in the LTTE-controlled areas of the north, one third of school-aged children have dropped out or have never attended school,” the U.N. agency says in a document titled 'The Big Picture'.

The World Food Programme estimates that 20 to 25 percent of school-aged children in the north-east ”suffer from acute malnutrition”. In September, it launched a school-feeding programme targeting 33,000 children.

The continued recruitment of children by the LTTE has also been a constant concern despite the ceasefire. In early October, UNICEF opened a rehabilitation centre to prepare child soldiers released by the LTTE to civilian life.

But at the opening ceremony itself, Ted Chaiban, UNICEF representative in Sri Lanka, spoke of continuing recruitment. ”There are still cases of recruitment and it has to be understood that if the reintegration of child soldiers is to be successful, then the new recruitment of children has to stop.''

The LTTE's political head, S P Tamilselvan, blames the allegations of child recruitment on biased media reports.

Others point out that despite the absence of open conflict, the lives of civilians in LTTE controlled areas continue to be restricted due to landmines and the Tiger rebels' de facto tax system.

In a recent study, Sarvananthan said that the LTTE was not only taxing civilians but buying farm and fish products below market prices and thereafter selling them at higher prices.

”Arbitrary and extralegal taxes imposed by the LTTE have become further entrenched and widespread,” he said in the study about Sri Lanka's economic freedom.

Even donor agencies trying to work with LTTE-backed organisations have come under criticism. UNICEF and the World Bank have been hit for their working relationships with Tamil Rehabilitation Organisation, which critics call an LTTE front.

The LTTE's suspension of its participation in the peace talks since April has also restricted rehabilitation and reconstruction efforts due ”overall political uncertainty,” according to Sarvananthan.

Despite donors' pledge of 4.5 billion U.S. dollars spread through three years at a meeting in Tokyo in June, no official agency has been tasked with the development of the north-east.

The LTTE has refrained from supporting a subcommittee, which consists of government and LTTE representatives, that is tasked with development work, arguing that Colombo uses a lethargic approach.

It has stuck to its proposal for an interim administration in the north-east that has greater powers, laying this down as a prerequisite to resuming talks.

”It was felt that that an interim administrative arrangement alone could deliver the dividends of peace to the civilians,” Tamilselvan said during a meeting with Norwegian Foreign Minister Jan Petersen in Norway last week.

But the grant of greater powers to an LTTE-controlled administration would put the Colombo government under severe pressure.

The two sides have been wrangling over the setting up of the interim administration in the last six months. ”I would not be surprised if the situation leads to the resumption of war once again,” Samudranayagum warned, voicing a fear shared by many Sri Lankans. (END/2003)