A-9 Highway Closure Has Changed Life in Jaffna
March 10th, 2008
The evening of 11 August 2006 is etched in the minds of those who live in the northern Jaffna peninsula. At around 5.30pm, the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE) attacked the front lines that separated government-controlled Jaffna and areas under Tiger control farther south. The onslaught prompted the closure of the A-9 highway, the only land link between the peninsula and the rest of the island.
[A retail trader at the Jaffna town market. Open market commodity prices fluctuate depending on supply and other considerations-Photo: Brennon Jones/IRIN]
About 100km of the A-9 runs through LTTE-controlled areas and it has not opened for civilian traffic since, leaving Jaffna residents isolated.
“The A-9 closure has been the key date that changed life in Jaffna,” Mirak Raheem, a human rights researcher from the Colombo-based Centre for Policy Alternatives (CPA), told IRIN. “Everything else that followed stemmed from the closure.”
Jaffna’s 632,000 civilian population now depends on the limited number of ships and aircraft for commodities and other essentials such as medicine, according to the Jaffna Food Security Bulletin, January 2008, released by the World Food Programme (WFP), the International Labour Organisation (ILO), UN Children’s Fund (UNICEF) and the Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) on 18 February.
However, compared with 2006, the situation on the peninsula has improved. “The very good cooperation between local authorities and international agencies working in the peninsula has meant there is a wide availability of food and shelter material,” Neil Buhne, the UN Resident Coordinator in Sri Lanka, who recently toured Jaffna, told IRIN.
Price fluctuations
“Almost all essential food items are available in Jaffna; however, open market commodity prices fluctuate depending on supply and other considerations,” the Jaffna Food Security Bulletin stated, adding that despite prices being slightly higher than in the rest of the country, they had dropped compared with August 2007.
“Most food stocks in the peninsula are sufficient for three months,” the report stated. Eight cargo ships were transporting supplies to Jaffna and “in total 30,000MTs per month can be transported by these cargo vessels, more than the total monthly full requirement for food and other essential items of 25,000MTs per month”. The report also stated that 326,000 people in Jaffna benefited from government and WFP relief programmes.
However, Raheem remains concerned that the security situation could deteriorate again very swiftly. “Things are very tense, especially after 16 January (when the Sri Lankan government ended the 2002 ceasefire agreement with the Tamil Tigers), and there is an overwhelming military presence,” Raheem told IRIN.
Economic challenges
“There are still significant challenges to overcome,” Buhne said. “As long as Jaffna remains this isolated, there is a very limited chance of its economy recovering.”
“All road movement by civilians is subjected to the military convoys and there are parts of the peninsula where civilians are not allowed called high security zones; these two combined are definitely impacting on the mobility of agencies,” Jeevan Theeyagaraja, executive director of the Consortium of Humanitarian Agencies, an umbrella group of local and international relief organisations working in Sri Lanka, told IRIN.
“The high security zones, curfews and road closures all have restricted movement one way or the other,” Gordon Weiss, chief of communications at UNICEF in Sri Lanka, told IRIN.
Other agencies said they had worked their routines around the movement of the convoys and other restrictions, in order to minimise delays.
“Work is not affected if you plan your own movements not to clash with the convoys and curfews,” Menaca Calyneratne, spokeswoman for Save the Children UK, told IRIN. “We take alternate routes and pre-plan the work so that they don’t clash with any restrictions.”
The Sri Lankan military said the restrictions were in place for the safety of the civilians and that extra care was taken not to cause undue delays. “When Claymore mines and other attacks targeted the military in Jaffna, ordinary civilians also got caught and killed,” military spokesperson Brig Udaya Nanayakkara told IRIN.
[This is an Integrated Regional Information Networks (IRIN) report that was originallly released under the heading “SRI LANKA: Tough times continue for Jaffna residents”.]
Entry Filed under: NGO Report
5 Comments Add your own
1. Subra S.Massey | March 11th, 2008 at 5:58 am
No country ever benefited from the restrcitons place on ordinary people. Jaffna People just hang in there! We know you can do it. In the name of survival prudence is the only choice. Just do farming and educate your children. Remember there are no super powers greater than super minds of ordinary people. US,EU,China, India are just big countries they don’t have great minds. We have to break the enemy down at his mind level. Remeber the mind can absorb only so much injustice. Injustice is a poison that will paralyses the enemy’s mind. Go to www.Srilankaunite.com. We are working on massive project to make SriLanka a just country. Just -Justice you got it. no nonsence a just society.
2. Justin | March 11th, 2008 at 6:55 am
If one were to take each of the schools occupied and houses not released to the owners in “High Security Zone” in Jaffna as a violation of the Ceasefire Agreement signed in 2002, the government has committed more ceasefire violations than the LTTE.
Closure of A9 and occupying schools and houses in Jaffna is an act of “Collective Punishment” on Tamils. It is not a security necessity.
3. Suresh M | March 12th, 2008 at 9:03 am
Jaffna would be one of the region highest military present per capita in the world!. For every ten Tamil civilian, one occupying Sinhala Army on their door step. In other word for every family there are two to three occupying Sinhala Army on their doorstep.
Often, the Sinhala army would close the main roads ( i.e. KKS, Palaly Road) for more than three hour to transport their men and materials to the front line. Even once the war is over, the psychological scar that the occupying Sinhala Army is inflicting upon the innocent Jaffna Tamils will be long lasting. Still Jaffna Tamils have not gotten over with the bad memories of Indian Armys’ ‘‘peace keeping’ activities.
Generally, we, Jaffna Tamils are resilient, and we will bounce back. We have seen Portuguese rule that forcefully converted the whole population to Catholicism , Dutch, English, and now Sinhalese who is trying hard to wipe our identity from the Island.
Time will tell that we will survive, and thrive
4. Subra S.Massey | March 14th, 2008 at 6:39 am
Suresh,
We will absorb every army fellow in Jaffna. The army in the field is a false objective and perspective. We should feed every guy and get them on to our side.The shortest route to a man’s heart is through his stomach. We will bounce back. We are already bouncing back around the world. We are already squeezing the neck of Sri Lanka and make them obey International laws. Guaranteed. Some of them if they leave Sri Lanka may get arrested! Things are being cooked up to put some of them behind bars. When we suceed in puttting the first thug behind bars they will begin to fall in line.
5. ilaya seran senguttuvan | March 31st, 2008 at 8:14 am
Subra Massey (4) I must say I like your final dream - a Sri Lankan family of Sinhala, Tamils, Muslims, Burghers and others. I also congratulate you on your rise from the bottom as a Valet in France (based on what you write in the LTTE blog) But, forgive me, Sir, your name is somewhat unusual for a Tamil. It sounds almost like the Umbalakade from the Maldives. I have no grudges against the LTTE except I am deeply grieved outstanding Tamils like Amir, Yoges, Neelan, Kethees, Rajini were brutally done to death.
There certainly were other options to deal with them if you
disagree with their politics - but to kill them in the fashion they were done away with runs totally against Tamil culture. Tamils throughout the land here and abroad stood condemned for these ghastly murders….I agree with you those who rob Sri Lanka’s assets and stash them away in foreign lands must be eventually caught - with the help of the Police in their countries - and
the loot confiscated. This is now becoming a habit here and the Sinhalese too are very upset about this……Those in uniform who commit crimes of an inhuman nature - in excess and outside their official roles - should naturally be asked to own up. More so their political C-in-C’s so these barbaric HR excesses never feature
in Lankan life in the future. If you gave me the choice of the 2 options you suggest (Somalia or Singapore?) for a future Sri Lanka I would rather chose Singapore naturally. Here’s to the success of your dream - our dream - perhaps is more appropriate.
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