Note that this is all hearsay. I can’t source any of this officially, so call your own sources. This year, about 40,000 people have crossed over into IDP camps. There’s been heavy rain from 8-11 March, so living conditions extra suck. The GoSL has transported food and stuff using the A9 and by sea. Note that food and goods often come from some other agency and are distributed by the GoSL. India is making significant contributions, especially in medical terms. Some agencies have been denied access to hospitals etc. And there is still a pretty heavy war going on.

I think food is getting in but there’s still shortages of clothing, undergarments, etc. Again, information is hard to come by. The people on the government side coordinating aid to our civilians are Basil Rajapakse (Senior Adviser to President), Rishad Baddudin (Minister for Rehabilitation), Mahinda Samarasinghe (Minister for Disaster Management and Human Rights). They are coordinating with the UN, World Food Programme, Red Cross and a few local ‘NGOs’. On the private side people are organizing and trying to send support up there, with government approval.

Generally, however, nobody quite knows what’s going on, by intention. The suffering of Sri Lankans fleeing the warzone is officially manageable. Public discussion is therefore unnecessary. In private, however, many Sri Lankans are trying to help their fellows in the North. It is important for people to realize that average Sinhala/Muslim/Tamil/Burgher whatever people do care about our fellow citizens in the North and that we haven’t forgotten you.

If you want to do something you can donate to Red Cross, Sarvodaya, or pool time, money and energy among your network and try to connect with the various people in Colombo trying to organize support on a civilian level.

Posted on Monday, March 16th, 2009 in Current Affairs, GoSL, Human Rights, Sri Lanka, tamils, war.