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Executive Summary
Armed conflict in Sri Lanka has affected the majority of the
population living in the districts of the North and East and those
on their borders for over fourteen years. Children and women
have suffered disproportionately among over a million persons
cumulatively displaced during this period. Many children have
been killed and maimed while thousands have witnessed
extreme forms of brutality and violence. Many have been
rendered homeless or separated from their families which is often
compounded by grief at the loss of parents and loved ones. Many
children have also been enlisted as combatants and forced to
participate in brutality themselves. Because a whole generation
of children have grown up in an environment of war, violence is
perceived as normal. Children have been injured and have
particulady lost limbs as a result of landmines and shrapnel and
have little or no access to rehabilitation services.
Sri Lanka's internal conflict continues to be costly in human and
material terms. This has led to economic and social deprivation.
The Nation's generally favourable achievements in the fields of
health4 immunisation and education are fast sliding in these
areas, and children are once again becoming victims of malaria,
immunisable diseases, diarrhoea and trauma.
Around 800,000 persons depend upon the Government
assistance for food rations, including over haifa million internally
displaced persons. (IDPs). 140,000 persons remain in about 350
government-run camps. The humanitarian situation is fragile
especially in the areas that are not under Government control.
The condition of the affected population in terms of health,
nutrition and access to basic education continues to be difficult.
The economic cost includes the financing of the war, the value of
physical assets damaged and destroyed, the economic output
and opportunities of growth and development forgone. The direct
expenditure incurred by the government and the LTTE during the
period 1983-1996 amounts to about Rs. 228 billion. The human
loss comprises the death, injury of combatants and civilians, the
anguish of the bereaved widows and .orphans, the displacement
of people and homelessness. This is immeasurable and cannot be
reduced to economic values.
The total burden of the war, economic and human has impacted
most heavily on the population in the North and East. The
exigencies and demands of the war are reducing the capacity for
good governance. With the continuance of the war all these
damaging effects of the war will intensify affecting generations to
come.
This report is an update of Report No. 1, of February 1998, and is
an initiative by The Save the Children Fund (UK) and aims to
highlight the situation of children affected by the armed conflict in
the North and East and the enormous suffering and impact it has
had on their lives. Several recommendations have been made so
that Government, NGOs and other humanitarian agencies may
come forward to provide assistance to improve the situation for
these children affected by armed conflict in the North and East Sri
Lanka.