Displacement in the Vanni

Photo courtesy: puthinam.com

People from Killinochchi are getting displaced and are moving towards interior Mullaitivu - Tharumapuram, Puthukudiyiruppu etc. I listened to BBC Tamil service's daily programme day before yesterday which reported that people have to pay between 10,000-15,000 rupees to hire vehicles - mostly lorries - to get displaced with their belongings. Those who cant are leaving their belongings behind, carrying with them whatever they can.

The BBC interviewer in the course of interviewing a resident from Killinochchi, now stuck at the Killinochi hospital, asked as to why people are not going to Vavuniya. His reply was simply that there is no road that will take him to Vavuniya. I also wonder whether any road be safe enough to travel towards Vavuniya even if there was an accessible one. The interviewee also noted that there is no public transport system functioning between Vavuniya and Killinochi. Earlier when the A9 used to be open public transport within LTTE controlled areas were given by the LTTE's 'Thamileala Transport Board'. That is obviously not possible now. So much for the call of the Government asking people to come to Vavuniya. Where is this humanitarian corridor? A Thinakkural news item quotes the Commissioner for Essential Services admitting that the efforts to bring the people to Vavuniya was a failure. He is reported to have said that it might have been because the LTTE did not allow them to or because people thought it fit to remain in Vanni.

A representative from the World Food Programme was also interviewed. He had said that the food that was recently brought with the 'permission' of the Government can last only for about a week. Imalada Sugumar the GA from Mullaitivu noted that the availability of liquid money has become an issue of concern.

All over the North and East without any discrimination life for the tamil people has been always on the wheels. Of course its for their liberation one way or the other. So we should'nt be complaining. My staying in Clombo which was registered last week in a census exercise was also according to the government a census of those who had got displaced from the north. And yes whatever you say about how my eastern bretheren being different they are not being discrminated. They are queuing up to register today. And yes in this the Government does accept the North and East are from the same mould.