Cries From The Palmyra Grove

International Peace day (Sept. 21st)

(September 27, Jaffna, Sri Lanka guardian) This day had very special meaning and gravity to those in the North this year since the war in the North is taking a big toll of lives both civilian and armed and has caused and is yet causing the displacement and distress of hundreds of thousands and colossal loss of property. Under the banner of destroying the 'terrorists', the Tamil population is being targeted and driven into misery in all possible ways.

If the Government is sincere about finding true and just peace, it should, even ex parte, have put out its solution for the National question, the root cause of this decades old war. The demands of the Tamils have repeatedly been presented at various forums and even been partly spelt out in their presentation for the implementation of the post-tsunami rehabilitation through an interim arrangement. If a just and viable solution is presented and implemented without any prospect of reversal or retraction, then this war would have lost its cause would definitely have had a natural end.

The Peace day this year had this in view and its commemoration in the North, consisted in only crying out to the Almighty since all other appeals had apparently fallen on deaf ears and almost all involved parties, both foreign and local, making use of this miserable situation, are only playing the game of dirty politics advancing their own rivalries and concerns at the expense of Justice. The parishes in the western half of the peninsula gathered in their churches early in the morning and marched from all directions reciting the Rosary, towards the shrine of St. Anthony at Manipay at the centre of that region and at an average distance of about 8-9 Km. It was a heart-rending sight to see even the elderly people taking part in that prayer march. The exercise culminated with the offering of a Mass for Peace presided over by the Administrator of the Jaffna Diocese.

The food situation in the Vanni

This seems to need urgent attention as no food convoys had been sent to that area after all the foreign NGOs (except the ICRC) had been pulled out of that region. Even the Government Agents of that area have raised alarm about the food supplies. Though the Government tells the media that special arrangements will be made to meet their needs, yet de facto, no food has gone. Though the ministries in charge of such matters have tried to send food, yet the Defence Ministry has stopped all food from being passed through its barrier at Omantai. The 20 food lorries that were finally sent as emergency supplies were turned back at that barrier stating that no approval has been received from the Defence Ministry. Though it is a paddy cultivation area, quite a good part of the produce there was earlier taken out through the GAs for supplies to other parts of the country. Even the stocks that the cultivators and consumers had for themselves have been abandoned in their homes when displaced suddenly by the shelling by the State security forces. A Kg of sugar is reported to be available there only at Rs.1000/= (about $10/=). Food is being used as a weapon to draw the population out from that area.
On the other hand they cannot decide to move into the Govt. controlled area as they know it would be like jumping from the frying pan into the fire being sure that most youth and middle aged would be made to disappear as was and still is already being done to those in the Army controlled areas. - Sri Lanka Guardian