Latest report on ICRC activities in the field
ICRC oversees safe passage of nearly 25,000 civilians
Additional security measures introduced by the Sri Lankan government at the Medawachchiya checkpoint in Anuradhapura and the Omanthai crossing point in Vavuniya slowed down the movement of civilians between areas controlled by the government and those held by the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE), and left many commercial vehicles stranded. The ICRC responded to a government request to help clear the tailback of trucks waiting to cross at Omanthai by extending its presence there from five to six days a week. The authorities also deployed extra personnel at Omanthai to speed up the process.
ICRC staff oversaw the passage of nearly 25,000 civilians at Omanthai in both directions in February alone. More than 400 people travelled from north to south for hospital treatment. ICRC staff also facilitated the passage of almost 3,500 vehicles, including over 200 ambulances, at the crossing point.
'Civilians living in the Vanni must be able to travel between government-controlled and LTTE-held areas for medical care, to visit their families or for work," said Toon Vandenhove, the ICRC's head of delegation in Colombo. "But they must also be able to buy medicine and other goods where they live. That is why the passage of cargo trucks into the Vanni is so important and why we are present at Omanthai six days a week.'
Acting as a neutral intermediary
By transporting the remains of fallen fighters across the front lines, the ICRC helps elucidate the fate of many people who might otherwise remain unaccounted for. It carries the remains through the no-man's land separating government and LTTE forces only after both sides have agreed to the transfer. In February, the ICRC transported 40 bodies of fallen fighters through the Omanthai crossing point.
Protection of civilians and security detainees
The ICRC continued to monitor violations of international humanitarian law affecting civilians throughout the country and to discuss them with the parties to the conflict. Families regularly reported cases of missing or arrested relatives, extra-judicial killings and ill-treatment.
With the cooperation of both government officials and the LTTE, the ICRC carried out more than 60 visits to 45 different places of detention, registering or holding private interviews with nearly 520 people arrested for security reasons.
Restoring family links
Working closely with the Sri Lanka Red Cross Society, the ICRC handled close to 540 messages between family members separated by the conflict.
Support for returnees in Batticaloa
As part of its efforts to help displaced people returning to their homes in Batticaloa, the ICRC continued to run an inland fisheries project that will eventually benefit 404 households in Vaharai and 77 households in Pattipalai, in the western part of the district. Most of these families were displaced as a result of military operations between the end of 2006 and November 2007. The ICRC set up the project on the basis of information provided by the Ministry of Fisheries about the specific needs of these communities, whose main livelihood is fishing.
The first phase of the project, involving the restocking of four fish tanks in the area with 400,000 fingerlings, started in January 2008.
Health facilities
The ICRC provided basic medical and surgical supplies for the Padawiya and Sampathnuwara hospitals in Anuradhapura, improving their capacity to deal with emergencies.
It also distributed almost 400 mosquito nets to families with children under five years of age in Trincomalee in an effort to boost the Ministry of Health's dengue fever-prevention programme.
The ICRC-supported Jaffna Jaipur Centre for Disability Rehabilitation supplied prostheses and mobility aids to over 40 patients, almost 30 of whom were amputees, including 15 victims of mines or explosive remnants of war.
In February, the ICRC also:
Health care
- arranged for the return of 45 patients accompanied by four medical staff, from Colombo, where they had received medical treatment, to Jaffnaby commercial airliner;
- continued to facilitate an immunization programme run by the Ministry of Health and antenatal care in Vavuniya North, where 165 children were vaccinated and more than 30 women received routine antenatal care;
Displaced persons and returnees
- provided 3,175 returnees with 1,540 supplementary food parcels and 1,075 internally displaced persons with 275 hygiene kits, 15 baby parcels, over 300 mosquito nets, 560 sleeping mats and 290 jerrycans,in Batticaloa;
- provided 14,655 returnees with 8,755 supplementary food parcels, 25 hygiene kits, 15 baby parcels, 25 tarpaulins, 55 jerrycans and over 90 mosquito nets,in Trincomalee;
- distributed 700 kitchen sets, 700 hygiene kits, 100 baby parcels, 95 sets of essential household items and 115 mosquito nets to 700 displaced persons, and provided over 460 returnees with agricultural equipment (water pumps, sprayers, hoes, shovels, pickaxes), seed, pesticides and 720 polypropylene bags for fishing, in Kilinochchi;
- handed out household items for 180 residents of children's homes and homes for the elderly, including bed linen, towels, cutlery and crockery, along with rope, sprayers, pickaxes, tomato seed, hoes and rakes,in Vavuniya;
- provided over830 host families with 100 tarpaulins, 105 baby kits, eight sprayers and over 360 hygiene kits to help them care for displaced people from Kankasanthurai, Palali and Maileddy,in Jaffna;
Water and habitat
- provided shelter materials for 25 returnee families in the Chenkalady division of Batticaloa, and repaired eight toilets and cleaned four bathing wells in the Mavadivembu camp;
- gave electric water pumps and 30 barrels of chlorine to the national water board so that it could improve the water supply in the Jaffna peninsula, and built or repaired 15 toilets, one septic tank and five wells in the Kopay and Sandilipay divisions of Jaffna;
- provided over120 returnee families with shelter materials, cleaned seven wells and built four toilets in the Seenanveli and Uppural divisionsof Trincomalee;
- repaired water-supply systems and pumps in the Nadankandal, Uruthurapuram and Mulankavil divisional hospitals and cleaned more than 10 hand pumps and 15 wells in the Vanni, in Kilinochchi;
- renovated one well and one hand pump in Namal Oya, in Ampara;
Respect for international humanitarian law
- organized information sessions on the rules of international humanitarian law and on the ICRC's work for more than 700 civilians (including students in secondary schools, members of non-governmental organizations and community leaders) and almost 250 army personnel, 70 members of the Special Task Force and 80 policemen;
Support for the Sri Lanka Red Cross Society
- trained members of 26 branches of the Sri Lanka Red Cross Society in disaster response, the handling of Red Cross messages and the dissemination of Red Cross and Red Crescent principles.
For further information, please contact:
Carla Haddad, ICRC Geneva, tel. +41 22 730 2405 or +41 79 217 3226
Aleksandra Matijevic, ICRC Colombo , tel. + 94 11 250 33 46 or + 94 777 289 682
Sarasi Wijeratne, ICRC Colombo, tel. + 94 11 250 33 46 or + 94 773 158 44