UNICEF defends spokesman after expulsion order
The UN Children’s Fund (UNICEF) has defended its spokesman in Sri Lanka, saying the official did nothing wrong after the government ordered his expulsion from the country.
The Sri Lankan government said over the weekend that it had ordered James Elder to leave because of comments he made about the civil war against the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE).
But Sarah Crowe, UNICEF’s chief of communication for South Asia, said Elder had been doing his job by “speaking out on behalf of those who do not have a voice. We categorically stand by all the statements we made throughout the conflict and since the conflict on the situation of women and children in Sri Lanka,” she told IRIN.
The Island newspaper in Sri Lanka on 7 September quoted an unnamed government official as saying Elder had caused damage to Sri Lanka and strengthened the LTTE’s propaganda. The official said the expulsion would not be reversed.
Elder, an Australian citizen, has until 21 September to leave Sri Lanka.
Crowe said contradictory statements had been issued by government spokespeople and ministers over the matter, and that UNICEF was still trying to find out the reason behind Elder’s expulsion order.
“We are still seeking absolute clarity on the reasons, and if there isn’t some kind of miscommunication and misunderstanding,” said Crowe.
 Photo: Contributor/IRIN  |
| In the last days of the conflict, children often suffered the most |
She said UNICEF would appeal the decision and take the case to UN headquarters in New York if the Sri Lankan government did not change its mind.
“If it does come to this, and the government doesn’t appear to be rescinding the decision, we would have to take it to a higher level,” Crowe said.
“We would find it most regrettable if they were not going to rescind the decision,” she added.
The government declared victory against the LTTE in May this year, ending a 26-year war that has killed thousands of people.
Some 300,000 internally displaced persons (IDPs) who fled the fighting are languishing in government camps in the north of the country.
More than three months on, access to the camps by journalists – both international and local – remains highly restricted.
Elder had spoken about the poor conditions affecting children there, and the general effects of the war on them.
However, Crowe said UNICEF would continue its work in the war-torn country. “We will continue to uphold our mandate. That will not change,” she said.
UN calls for “maximum restraint” to protect civilians
April 21, 2009 by Webmaster · Leave a Comment
(IRIN) – The UN has called on the Sri Lankan government to exercise “maximum restraint” to protect the lives of tens of thousands of civilians still trapped in a tiny pocket of Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE)-controlled territory in northern Sri Lanka.
“While relieved at the numbers who have managed to escape from the fighting, there are still considerable numbers of civilians left inside,” UN Humanitarian Coordinator in Sri Lanka Neil Buhne told IRIN.
“Our calculations and reports from government officials still in the area suggest there are at least some tens of thousands, and perhaps as many as 100,000 or more left. We hope it is less, but we must be prepared for more,” said Buhne.
Over 100,000 people have fled the fighting between Sri Lankan government forces and the Tamil Tigers since December 2008, including over 39,000 that crossed the frontlines near Puthukkudiyiruppu on 20 April – the largest number of civilians to escape the fighting in a day in the last 15 months.
According to Sri Lankan military sources, the civilians escaped the fighting after government troops pierced an earth bund around the 20sqkm so-called No Fire Zone, just east of Puthukkudiyiruppu on 20 April morning.
Call for greater humanitarian access
UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon deplored the continuing use of heavy weapons in the vicinity of civilians, and the LTTE tactic of preventing civilians from fleeing the conflict zone. He also called for wider access for UN agencies in the combat areas and the “welfare centres” accommodating escaped civilians.
“The UN must also be allowed to have full access to screening centres and any other reception points for those escaping the conflict zone. It is also important to ensure the sustainable resettlement of these internally displaced persons (IDPs) as soon as possible,” his office said in a statement released on 20 April.
The UN Children’s Fund (UNICEF) warned that if civilians remained trapped within the combat zone, it could lead to “dreadful consequences”.
“If fighting continues and if the LTTE refuses to allow people to leave the conflict zone, then we face the intolerable inevitability of seeing many more children killed,” UNICEF’s regional director for South Asia, Daniel Toole, said in a statement on 20 April.
Gearing up to respond
International and Sri Lankan relief agencies told IRIN they were committed to continuing their assistance.
“For the US government the assistance to the World Food Programme (WFP) is extremely important and we are committed to continue with it,” Lona Middlebrough, spokesperson for the US Agency for International Development (USAID), told IRIN.
USAID is the single largest contributor to WFP assistance programmes in Sri Lanka, the spokesperson said. In 2008 it contributed essential supplies valued at US$29 million and recently made a $15 million commitment of supplies due to arrive on the island in June.
Middlebrough told IRIN funding by USAID would probably increase for WFP and other relief agencies.
 Photo: Sri Lankan Army |
| Civilians fleeing the no fire zones to government controlled areas on 20 April |
The International Organization for Migration (IOM) also told IRIN it was ramping up its aid as the numbers fleeing the fighting had dramatically increased.
“IOM plans to increase its assistance as the displaced numbers rise. It will continue its support in responding to the pressing needs of IDPs in shelter, water and sanitation facilities, transport, registration and logistic support,” Passanna Gunasekera, a spokesperson for IOM, said.
The UN Refugee Agency (UNHCR) is also gearing up to respond to the growing numbers of displaced people. “UNHCR has stepped up its emergency response in Sri Lanka’s north, where displacement numbers are growing,” it said on 17 April.
“UNHCR – together with the government and other partners – is responding with massive shelter support and regular distribution of non-food aid items while undertaking protection monitoring.”
London march and lobby for opponents of Sri Lanka bloodshed
April 11, 2009 by Webmaster · Leave a Comment
(Ekklesia) – One of the two Tamil demonstrators on hunger strike opposite the House of Commons in London has agreed to suspend his fast, reports the BBC. But the protests against the killing in Sri Lanka continue.
Sivatharsan Sivakumaraval, aged 21, and Prarameswaran Subramaniam, aged 28, said they were prepared to die unless the UK government intervened in the war in Sri Lanka.
But Mr Sivakumaraval has suspended his fast for 10 days amid efforts to arrange political talks.
Thousands are to march through central London later today in protest at Sri Lanka’s offensive against Tamil rebels, which is also having a devastating impact on civilians.
Humanitarian agencies and the UN are warning of a catastrophe.
Many of the protesters who arrived in central London at 4pm on 6 April have relatives in the country. They say the world and the European governments are turning a blind eye to the killing going on in their homeland.
Organisers say the demonstrations and occupation of Parliament Square, technically illegal but largely peaceful, have already been successful in raising media and public awareness of what is going on.
The Foreign Office and the Prime Minister have also been keeping track of events, both in London and Sri Lanka.
A United Nations human rights expert has warned of a continuing bloodbath in Sri Lanka unless government and rebel forces can stop fighting for long enough to allow tens of thousands of civilians trapped in the war zone to flee.
The civilians are in a precarious position, huddled in a narrow ‘no-fire’ zone on the island’s northeast coast where the rebels are holed up after a series of military defeats at the hands of government troops.
Walter Kaelin, an independent human rights expert and a representative of UN secretary general Ban Ki-moon, said: “It’s absolutely necessary to avoid a bloodbath.”
Talking to Geneva-based radio station WRS, he continued: “If the Sri Lankan army would try to go into there, if the LTTE would not be ready to let these civilians go, then we’ll end up with a bloodbath, and this must by all means be avoided.”
Following a four-day visit to Sri Lanka, Kaelin said he urgently called on the rebel movement , which has been accused of using Tamil civilians in the war zone as human shields, “to allow all civilians under its control to leave.”
He also urged both sides in the conflict to pause the fighting “to allow civilians to leave” and allow aid workers “to provide life-saving relief to the remaining population.”
Churches want the freeing of civilians trapped in Sri Lanka slaughter
April 10, 2009 by Webmaster · Leave a Comment
(Ekklesia) – An international ecumenical consultation has appealed to the government of Sri Lanka and the rebel movement Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE) to halt fighting in order to free tens of thousands of civilians trapped in a war zone in the north of the country.
In a statement released at the end of an international ecumenical consultation held in Bangalore at the beginning of April, participants expressed “deep concern over the continuously worsening humanitarian crisis in the northern parts of Sri Lanka”.
Some “180,000 people are trapped in the war zone amidst shelling and crossfire, lacking basic amenities like food, medicine, shelter [and] sanitation,” says the statement issued by the consultation, which was organized by the World Council of Churches (WCC) together with the Christian Conference of Asia (CCA) and the South Asian Councils of Churches (SACC).
Participants at the consultation appealed “to the Sri Lankan government and the LTTE to immediately stop the ongoing military operations to ensure safe passage arranged by credible and neutral agencies for those who are trapped in the war zone”.
The LTTE should “facilitate safe conduct for the people who want to leave such areas and refrain from any form of forced conscription, of both children and others,” the statement urges. Meanwhile, the Sri Lankan government is called to “allow international and national agencies to address and assist the persons in camps and in the conflict areas.”
While the country faces a “humanitarian crisis exceeding all imaginable proportions,” it is up to the government to initiate “talks with all concerned and also to present an outline of a political formula with a view to finding a lasting solution to the issues behind the conflict,” the statement says.
“As the CCA’s Asia Sunday – which will be observed this year on 15 May – will have a special focus on Sri Lanka, the consultation has called churches from all over the world to join in prayer for peace in Sri Lanka on that occasion,” says WCC programme executive for Asia Dr Mathews George Chunakara.
The International Consultation on Peace, Security and Development in South Asia took place in Bangalore, India, from 30 March to 2 April 2009. It gathered some sixty participants, mostly South Asian church and ecumenical leaders, together with representatives from member churches of the WCC, the CCA and the SACC, as well as ecumenical development and relief and humanitarian aid agencies from the region, Europe and North America.
