Asia-Pacific, Civil Society, Development & Aid, Global Governance, Headlines, Human Rights, IPS UN: Inside the Glasshouse

SRI LANKA: Civilians Urge UN Not to Leave War Zone

Feizal Samath

COLOMBO, Sep 16 2008 (IPS) - As the Sri Lankan army stands poised to capture the rebel headquarters of Kilinochchi in northern Sri Lanka, residents of the town are urging United Nations agencies not to vacate the region as ordered by the government.

Last week, the defence ministry asked all humanitarian agencies, including those from the United Nations, to pull out of the war-ravaged region, citing the government’s inability to guarantee protection.

However, on Thursday and Friday, residents blocked vehicles carrying out aid workers and stopped them from leaving. “The withdrawal has temporarily stopped,’’ a U.N. worker in Colombo, who declined to be named, told IPS on Monday.

Aid workers said on Tuesday that a group of ten U.N. personnel had begun moving out of Kilinochchi by road although residents have been blockading the buildings housing the U.N. offices in the town.

On Sep 9, U.N. Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon said both the government and the LTTE have a responsibility in taking ‘’active steps to ensure the safety and freedom of civilians, allowing humanitarian organisations to do their work in safety, as well as to reach persons affected by the fighting’’.

Thousands of Sri Lankan troops have gathered in the northern Wanni district, which includes Kilinochchi, preparing for what the government and military analysts say is the biggest offensive in recent years against the LTTE.

Last year the army captured the eastern province from the LTTE and is now concentrating on the Wanni region, especially the rebel bastions of Kilinochchi and Mullaitivu. The LTTE has, for 25 years, fought for a separate homeland for ethnic Tamils to be carved out of the north and east of the Sinhalese-dominated island.

While the government controls the flow of information to media on what is actually happening on the ground, troopers say they expect a huge battle in the Wanni. “The casualties on our side are rising as they (the Tigers) are giving a good fight,” one young soldier, who had returned on leave to his village in north-central Kurunegala from the warfront, told IPS by telephone.

The soldier said the rebels are urging civilians not the leave the area and are promising to take control of areas lost to the army in the next few months.

While the military says no time-frame can be given for the capture of Kilinochchi, the soldier, who cannot be named, said his colleagues have been told it would take till the end of December.

Much of the battle against the rebels, so far, has been through precision bombing of LTTE targets by air force fighter jets. The military also said that its deep penetration units have infiltrated into rebel-held areas and succeeded in killing key LTTE officials.

However, last week, the rebels hit back by launching an unexpected air-and- ground attack on the fortified security base at Vavuniya, a government-controlled town south of Kilinochchi, using small aircraft.

According to reports on Monday in the pro-LTTE website, ‘TamilNet,’ more than 22 soldiers were killed as the rebels stopped an army advance on Kilinochchi while suffering only ‘minimal’ casualties.

On the other hand, the defence ministry’s website spoke of 18 rebels being killed on Monday when the army stormed an earthen barrier being erected to ‘’delay the security forces’ movement toward Kilinochchi.’’ Three soldiers died in the fighting, the ministry’s statement said.

Kilinochchi houses the LTTE’s intelligence units and serves as a communications nerve centre. The group’s elusive leader Velupillai Prabhakaran is said to be operating from in or around Kilinochchi.

While there is a sense of anticipation in Colombo that the military is closing in on the rebels and set to capture Kilinochchi town, military analysts say it will not be easy. “The Tigers have been holding back their senior fighting cadres and have mostly used the younger lot in recent battles,’’ a senior military analyst, who declined to be named, said.

The analyst pointed out that it took nearly a year for the army rces to capture the northwest Mannar district. “The Tigers have so far been fighting a delaying war, and now that is changing into a full-blooded battle,” he said.

According to the LTTE’s Peace Secretariat, the air raids and bombings carried out in the Wanni region have forced more than 113,000 people to leave their homes. It said the action by Sri Lanka’s armed forces amounted to genocide.

Independent verification of the battles and the humanitarian situation in the Wanni is not possible as journalists are barred from visiting the district.

The influx of residents from the north into Colombo, due to the intensification of the war, and fears of worse battles ahead, is worrying the government. Defence secretary Gotabaya Rajapaksa was quoted in the state-owned ‘Daily News’ on Saturday as saying that, “an alarming situation has been observed by the security forces as a large number of people have come to the Colombo police division in August alone without any valid reason.”

According to the defence secretary there is a fear that LTTE cadres may mingle with the refugees and infiltrate sensitive areas in Colombo. Attempts by the government to transport people from the north out of Colombo were earlier stopped by the Supreme Court on the grounds that they were a violation of fundamental rights.

U.N. officials in Colombo said they were going ahead with the withdrawal from Kilinochchi and were trying to sort out the issues that were delaying their departure. On Monday, disaster management minister Mahinda Samarasinghe told the ‘Island’ newspaper that the U.N. Resident/Humanitarian Coordinator in Colombo, Neil Buhne, had reiterated the U.N. decision to leave LTTE-held areas.

Other aid agencies said the U.N. had asked for three weeks time to complete the pullout, but latest indications are that it could happen sooner, by Sep. 20. An aid worker said there are 12 international agencies working in Kilinochchi including Oxfam, Save the Children and UNICEF, and that all of them are pulling out.

That would leave workers of the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) which has been allowed to stay and play its traditional role as a neutral intermediary between warring groups.

Reports from Kilinochchi say residents are asking senior U.N. officials to give a written statement that the U.N. is leaving the area contrary to its stated principles of protecting civilians in a war zone.

Separately, the LTTE is also not allowing civilians to leave the area which, the government says, follows a previous pattern of using non-combatants as human shields.