Community kitchens have been set up to provide three regulation meals, but the business of distributing food and provisions to more than two-and-a-half-lakh people remains a challenge.

The camps are protected by barbed wires and armed guards ensure no one gets in or out without prior permission. These days, only non-government organisations or charity workers are permitted into the area, which is divided into various zones and spread over 600 hectares.

The refugees have been divided among ‘transitional relief villages’ or zones, named after late Tamil leaders including Kadirgamar, Anandakumarasamy, Ramanathan and Arunachalam. The zones have been further divided into blocks and administered by officials of the ‘presidential task force for resettlement’ and several grama niladharis (village headmen).

To the very end is located Zone IV — yet to be named — housing refugees who, along with LTTE cadres, had been driven by a relentless army to Mullivaikal, the last strip in north-east Mullaitivu. Their sufferings were the worst. The camp makes sure that their struggle for existence continues.

The Cheddikulam camp has been described by the UN as the world’s largest displacement camp. Their conditions were qualified as ‘appalling’ by the recently retired chief justice of Sri Lanka, Sarath Nanda Silva, as well as NGOs allowed to distribute relief, and UN chief Ban Ki-moon himself.

Life is all about queues here. In front of a dispensary where they fall into an uneasy slumber after waiting for hours for medicines, or in front of a water pump, or the worst of all — for toilets.

Vandhana Chandrashekar (28), who is nine months pregnant and already has five children, has been waiting in a line for water for three days. After the long wait, each family gets just 100 litres for drinking, bathing and washing clothes. Water brought in by small tankers is hardly sufficient for thousands of refugees.

Manik Farm camp - UNHCR pic

Refugees in their own land

On the night of June 25, a small group of Tamil youths gathered furtively inside Arunachalam camp in Cheddikulam, Sri Lanka. As heavily-armed guards patrolled the camps perimeter, one of the men climbed a tree and tied a red cloth to the topmost branch.

The next day, as soldiers changed shifts and camp inmates dragged themselves out of their tents, a red flag with a tiger emblazoned on it was fluttering in the morning breeze. All the young men in the camp were rounded up and thrashed for the rebellious act of hoisting the LTTE flag.

The incident is symbolic of the tension brewing in Sri Lanka’s relief camps for the displaced. In the Cheddikulam camps in Vavuniya, there is real fear the wretched conditions and curtailed freedom could sow the seeds of insurgency and undo the government’s efforts to rebuild the nation.

President Mahinda Rajapaksa has set an ambitious 180-day deadline to send the displaced Tamils back home. But international aid over $1 billion, including India’s relief package of Rs 500 crore has been slow to reach the affected, and slower still have been the mine clearing operations in the former war zones.

In the meantime, nearly 2.8 lakh displaced civilians in camps continue to suffer for basic amenities like water and medicine. There are over 50,000 children, about 1,000 of them orphaned by the war, and nearly 4,000 maimed men and women.

“It doesn’t take much to push the displaced in the camps over the edge,” said Gordon Weiss, UN spokesperson in Colombo. “The way they are treated at this point of time is important for the future. It is important to treat them with compassion, respect and acceptance,” said Weiss.

The Lankan army and police have launched a de-indoctrination exercise for LTTE cadres. The army estimates about 10,000 Tiger combatants, including about 65 child soldiers, are housed in special camps in school and college premises. Nimal HG Lewke, DIG of police, in-charge of Vavuniya, said, “It is essential to build the cadres confidence so that they can join the mainstream. All these years, the Tamil diaspora has been pumping in money, which has been used to buy bombs and bullets. Now, there is need for development.”

In the east, there are clear signs of attempts to return to normalcy. Work has begun on repairing roads, houses and buildings that were shelled. For the north, the government has already prepared an economic blueprint.

Central Bank governor Ajith Nivaard Cabraal said, “We are ready with a package of incentives, as well as delivery of credit, which we will soon unveil. The north needs a short but sharp burst. From Central Bank, we have allocated three billion (Sri Lankan) rupees.”

Other ministries, including education, power, roads and infrastructure, are also ready with plans, which will be rolled out soon after the UN certifies the land as being clear of mines. With the lifting of the ban on fishing and the A9 highway to Jaffna being opened up for trade, the economy in the north is expected to rev up and, in turn, boost the country’s commerce. [Times of India]