OXFAM CANADA URGES SRI LANKAN GOVERNMENT TO LIFT RESTRICTIONS

by Tamiya | May 25, 2009 at 08:00 pm

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In an immediate release on May 21, 2009, Oxfam urged the Sri Lankan government remove restrictions on aid reaching the Tamil IDPs in the detention camps of the Sri Lankan government.

Sources have confirmed that there are over 300,000 Tamil IDPs in the detention camps and the Sri Lankan government is blocking international aid agencies to reach out to these people and help rebuild these Tamils IDPs lives.

While blocking foreign aid to get to these Tamils IDPs and captured regions, the Sri Lankan government is working on elaborate plans for North and East to bring in Sinhalese settlements, sources confirmed.

OXFAM URGES SRI LANKAN GOVERNMENT TO LIFT RESTRICTIONS AS CONDITIONS IN DISPLACED CAMPS DETERIORATE

Thousands of lives are at risk in Sri Lanka because aid to refugees is being restricted by a government ban on aid agency vehicles entering the camps, and difficulties in securing access for staff , Oxfam said today.

2009-05-21

Thousands of lives are at risk in Sri Lanka because aid to refugees is being restricted by a government ban on aid agency vehicles entering the camps, and difficulties in securing access for staff , Oxfam said today.

Without appropriate staff and access for vehicles agencies cannot adequately provide urgently needed services including food, water and sanitation equipment, leading to health risks amongst the war-weary refugees who are almost totally reliant on aid.

There is already an epidemic of chickenpox and skin diseases and a growing number of hepatitis cases because of poor sanitation.

As UN Secretary General Ban Ki Moon prepared to visit the camps, Oxfam called on the Sri Lankan government to allow better access to the camps and to drop its vehicle ban, which has been in place since Sunday.

David White Oxfam’s Acting Country Director said: “The camps in Sri Lanka are huge. They stretch over 1,000 acres and take nearly an hour to walk across. Without vehicles we can’t do our work properly and that’s putting lives at risk.

“Thousands of people are arriving from the war zone in a very weak condition. We’re very worried about their health, with small children and the elderly being particularly at risk. Keeping aid agencies out will only make their condition more critical.

“We’re asking the Sri Lankan government to adhere to the guiding principles, agreed to by them, international donors and aid agencies, and let us do our job properly.”

The Menik Farm camps, near Vavuniya in the north of the country, are still expanding with traumatised people pouring in from the conflict zone. They already hold 120,000 people. The military have told aid agencies to expect another 50,000 refugees in the next few days. The new arrivals are the people who were held on the beach by the Tamil Tiger rebels until their defeat on Sunday.

Sri Lanka is the latest example of the worldwide conquest of the White Christian Church over non-Abrahamic nations and peoples. Before the Christian invasion, Hindus and Buddhists lived peacefully in the island and Tamil Hindus made immense contributions in various fields for the progress of the land.

Independence emboldened the Sinhala Buddhist majority to assert supremacy brutally, and in 1958 the first major conflict with the Tamil Hindu minority occurred, which was repeated in 1977.

By then Tamil militancy had taken shape; Prabhakaran formed the LTTE in 1976. If the divide created by British was a major reason, the vicious assertion of Sinhala supremacy was an added reason for the emergence of Tamil militancy. The White Church, waiting for the right time to strike, gleefully utilized the emergence of Tamil militancy and aided and abetted the LTTE.

This prolonged the conflict for more than three decades. The long term objective of the west was to establish a Tamil Christian nation comprising Lanka’s north-east and Tamil Nadu, by using the ‘Sinhala-Tamil’ and ‘Aryan-Dravidian’ divide.

We must remember that the West will try to connect with Tamils in the guise of ‘human rights organisations’ and ‘aid merchants,’ and will castigate the Lankan army for ‘war crimes.’

The ‘conversion’ motive behind these NGOs and ‘aid merchants’ is an open secret; they wreaked havoc in coastal Tamil Nadu after the tsunami in 2004.That is one of the reasons behind the cries when foreign NGOs diallowed access to the IDPs.

Lot of people in NP who writes stories about the plight of Sri Lankan Tamils are really are the agents of this Christian church.

he Methodist Church’s Fund for World Mission is working with local churches in Sri Lanka to deliver immediate aid and relief.

The Church is appealing for people to help alleviate the suffering caused by the conflict by donating to the fund.

A £15,000 grant from the Fund for World Mission will be sent to Sri Lankan Church leaders to help assist victims affected by the Sri Lankan humanitarian crisis and to take initiatives to build peace.

The gift follows an earlier £20,000 Fund for World Mission grant made in October after around 200,000 residents in the Wanni region in the north of the country became trapped by heavy shelling and aerial bombing.

Rev Ebenezer Joseph, President of the Methodist Church in Sri Lanka, said: “The willingness of the Methodist people in the UK really strengthens us. The demands are increasing as the number of refugees rises. Our needs for the next six months may be something around Rs 20 million (£113,000) at least.

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OXFAM CANADA URGES SRI LANKAN GOVERNMENT TO LIFT RESTRICTIONS

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