30 August 2006 - CRIN Children and Armed Conflict 99
Special Edition on Sri Lanka

Breaking news: 'Military 'killed Lanka aid staff' – BBC

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SRI LANKA: The Crisis at a Glance [background]

VIOLENCE: Sri Lankan Army Warns Children Can Be Targets [news]

HUMAN RIGHTS: Monitors' Departure Leaves Void in Protection [news]

AID: Global Aid Workers Walking a Tricky Tightrope [news] 

RESOURCES

**NEWS IN BRIEF**

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SRI LANKA: The Crisis at a Glance [background]

A surge in violence in Sri Lanka has stoked fears the island is sliding back into civil war after four years of relative peace. Hundreds are fleeing their homes in the north and east. Meanwhile the country is also recovering from the 2004 tsunami with more than 450,000 people still displaced.

• 3,800 child soldiers recruited since 2002
• 1 million mines remain from last war
• 800,000 displaced by conflict and tsunami

Some 64,000 people died and a million fled their homes during two decades of civil war between the government and Tamil Tiger rebels fighting for an independent state in the north and east of the island.

Landmines and explosive debris have left large areas uninhabitable. The fighting has also laid waste to agricultural land, contributing to child malnutrition. One of the biggest tragedies has been the rebels' use of child soldiers, some as young as nine.

The conflict has its roots in ethnic tension between the Buddhist Sinhalese majority and the mainly Hindu Tamil minority who accuse the government of discrimination.

The two sides signed a ceasefire in 2002. The Tigers relaxed their demand for a separate homeland, but withdrew from peace talks in 2003. Violence has escalated since the end of 2005, prompting fears the island is slipping back into war.

The Indian Ocean tsunami, which killed more than 35,000 people in Sri Lanka, underlined the ethnic divisions - a deal to share international aid has still not been implemented.

Visit: http://www.crin.org/resources/infodetail.asp?id=10011

Further information

• UNICEF: Statistics on children in Sri Lanka
• BBC: Sri Lanka - Stories from Conflict Zones
• CRIN's news page on Sri Lanka

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VIOLENCE: Sri Lankan Army Warns Children Can Be Targets [news]

[16 August 2006] - The Sri Lankan government has defied growing condemnation and declared that it considered children and young people killed in an air strike to be combatants and legitimate targets. "If the children are terrorists, what can we do?" said a military spokesman, Brigadier Athula Jayawardana.

The government claimed that children killed and injured in the bombing on Monday were child soldiers conscripted by the Tamil Tiger rebels.

The United Nations children's organisation, UNICEF, condemned the air strike as "shocking" in a statement issued in Geneva and New York. UNICEF's head, Ann Veneman, said: "These children are innocent victims of violence."

The Tamil Tigers are known to use conscripted child soldiers. But UNICEF said its information indicated that those killed in the air strike were schoolchildren attending a first aid course. And there was international concern yesterday at the government's statement that it was prepared to target and kill child soldiers.

The full details of what happened in Monday's air strike near Mullaitivu remain confused. The area where it took place is largely cut off from the rest of Sri Lanka by the fighting. But what is clear is that a large number of children and young people were hit. UNICEF staff who were allowed to reach the site saw more than 100 people between the ages of 16 and 18 being treated in hospital, many of them critical.

It is also clear that there were deaths. Members of the European ceasefire monitoring mission were also allowed to visit the site, and they saw 19 bodies aged between 17 and 20, according to Thorfinnur Omarsson, the monitor's spokesman.

"Even if it is a 17-year-old child in terms of age, they are soldiers who are prepared to kill whoever comes in front of them," Keheliya Rambukwella, a Sri Lankan government defence spokesman, said yesterday. "Therefore the age or the gender is not what is important."

The Tamil Tigers said that 61 schoolgirls were killed in the air strike, but no one has been able to confirm that figure. The Tigers initially claimed that the air strike had targeted an orphanage, but it has emerged that all the orphans had earlier been moved to another site.

The Sri Lankan government yesterday said that what it hit was a Tiger military base, showing journalists what it said were aerial photographs of firing ranges and weapons stores at the site.

The European monitors said they saw "no evidence of a military installation" during their visit. UNICEFf says its information is that the compound was being used for a first aid course, and that children from schools nearby were staying overnight for the two-day course.

UNICEF estimates that the Tigers currently have 1,300 child soldiers in their ranks, with an average age of 16, a practice UNICEF has been working to make the Tigers end. "For us it's not a question of intention," says Dr Haque of UNICEF. "What matters is that children are being affected. A child soldier can be any child with a military, whether he or she is peeling potatoes for the soldiers to eat or carrying arms. The responsibility is with both sides to take measures to ensure children are not affected."

Schools were ordered to be closed in government-controlled areas for two weeks for fear of retaliatory attacks on children after a known Tiger front group threatened to target civilians in revenge for the air strike. Fighting continued around the Jaffna peninsula in the north yesterday.

Norwegian mediators have been working without success to persuade both sides to return to a 2002 ceasefire.

The current fighting began when the government launched a ground offensive near Trincomalee, saying it was intended to force the Tigers to reopen a vital water supply they had closed. But the Tigers have succeeded in spreading the fighting to the Jaffna area, scene of some of the worst battles of the civil war.

[Source: The Independent]

Visit: http://www.crin.org/resources/infodetail.asp?id=9818

Further information

• UNICEF statement: Children are victims of the conflict in Sri Lanka (15 August 2006)
• AlertNet: Youth abductions haunt Sri Lanka as violence rises (June 2006)
• UNHCR: Sri Lanka - UNHCR helping many who have fled recent fighting (August 2006)
• Updates on the conflict in Sri Lanka

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HUMAN RIGHTS: Monitors' Departure Leaves Void in Protection [news]

[NEW YORK, 2 August 2006] – Amid an upsurge in violence in Sri Lanka, the withdrawal of three European Union countries from the ceasefire-monitoring mission underscores the urgent need for a strong international human rights monitoring presence to help ensure civilian protection, Human Rights Watch said on Wednesday.

On August 1, Sweden joined Finland and Denmark in announcing their pullout from the Sri Lankan Monitoring Mission in response to a demand from the armed opposition group the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE). Since the beginning of the year, about 800 people, mostly civilians, have been killed in conflict-related violence and human rights abuses in Sri Lanka.  

“With the dramatic increase in violence in Sri Lanka, more international monitors are needed, not fewer,” said Brad Adams, Asia Director at Human Rights Watch. “The lives of countless civilians are at risk at this critical time.”  

Small-scale clashes between Sri Lankan government troops and the LTTE throughout the year have been overshadowed recently by more serious fighting. On July 20, the LTTE closed a reservoir sluice gate in an LTTE-controlled area near the eastern town of Trincomalee, cutting the water supply to about 60,000 people in government-controlled territory. In response, Sri Lankan armed forces conducted air strikes over several days against LTTE positions in the area and on July 30 began a ground offensive to capture the reservoir’s control point.  

The LTTE has reportedly attacked government military camps in the east. There are also continuing reports of numerous killings of civilians in the north and east that have been attributed to government forces, the LTTE, the breakaway LTTE faction under Col. Karuna and other armed groups.  

While a senior LTTE official said on July 31 that the 2002 ceasefire agreement was “null and void,” a spokesman for the Sri Lanka Monitoring Mission said they had received no formal letter from the LTTE about withdrawing from the agreement.  

Ceasefire monitors from five Nordic countries have been deployed in Sri Lanka’s north and east since the government and the LTTE signed a ceasefire agreement in February 2002. Following the European Union’s decision in May to list the LTTE as a terrorist organization, the LTTE called upon EU countries participating in the monitoring mission to withdraw their monitors by September 1.  

The ceasefire agreement states that the Sri Lanka Monitoring Mission shall be composed of representatives from Nordic countries, and requires that any modifications to the agreement have the mutual consent of the government and the LTTE. Denmark, Finland and Sweden apparently agreed to pull out their monitors without agreement from the Sri Lankan government. This withdrawal will leave only the non-EU states of Norway and Iceland as part of the mission by September.  

Human Rights Watch urged concerned governments to call on the Sri Lankan government and the LTTE to support the establishment of a strong and widely deployed international human rights monitoring presence. Monitors should be based in Sri Lanka’s north and east, Colombo and other areas of heightened political violence. A mechanism for the public reporting of human rights violations should be established.  

Human Rights Watch said it was surprised and disappointed by the decision of the three EU member states to withdraw from the Sri Lanka Monitoring Mission.  

“By withdrawing their monitors, Denmark, Finland and Sweden will deal a devastating blow to the protection of civilians in Sri Lanka,” said Adams. “Concerned governments must take urgent steps to get more international monitors on the ground.”

Visit: http://www.crin.org/resources/infoDetail.asp?ID=9630&flag=news

[Source: Human Rights Watch]

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AID: Global Aid Workers Walking a Tricky Tightrope [news] 

[TRINCOMALEE, Sri Lanka, 9 August 2006] - The brutal murder of 17 Sri Lankan aid workers last week highlights the difficulties faced by relief organisations around the world trying to balance helping people with politics.

The massacre, which took place in the northeastern town of Mutur after days of fighting between troops and Tamil Tiger rebels, was one of the bloodiest attacks on an aid group in history.

"This will change how we operate, who we help and how we do it," said one aid worker in Trincomalee, aid hub both for the conflict area and also for a swathe of the island's east coast hit by the 2004 tsunami.

In the last few days, aid crews have found access to the area limited by angry mobs, mainly from the island's ethnic Sinhalese majority, who say non-governmental organisations (NGOs) are biased in favour of minority Tamils and the rebels.

"Ever since this government got into power, it has whipped up anti-NGO feeling," said Rohan Edrisinha, analyst at the Centre for Policy Alternatives in the capital, Colombo. "I think that has percolated down to the army, bureaucrats and officials."

It is not only in Sri Lanka that aid workers are under fire. In Sudan's Darfur region, aid agencies say July was the worst month on record with eight Sudanese staff killed and access restricted by violence and intimidation.

In Iraq and Afghanistan, aid staff say western agencies are often seen as simply an extension of the United States military and its allies.

In Zimbabwe, aid agencies continually have to lobby the government simply to remain -- and so barely dare talk about their conditions, food shortages or abuse.

Some have ceased work all together.
 
"When aid gets politicised, you have to negotiate simply to have the space in which to operate," said one Trincomalee-based aid worker who also worked in Africa. "That makes things much more difficult. It can also make it more dangerous."
 
With governments increasingly moving into the aid sphere, and relief programmes more involved in trying to engineer long-term social change that can involve contact with rebel groups rather than simply handing out food, it seems a growing trend.

In Sri Lanka, some attribute the rising anti-NGO sentiment to political pressure from hardline Buddhist and Marxist government allies.

With rebuilding after the 2004 tsunami slower than many hoped, aid workers and officials also blame each other.

"Here, problems seem to have been exacerbated by the fact that some foreign governments want to work through the NGOs rather than the government," said Edrisinha.

The government says it will launch a proper investigation into the killing of the 17 staffers from the aid group Action Contre La Faim, but family members and increasing numbers of aid workers say it already appears likely that government troops were responsible.
All but one of the victims were Tamils, trapped in a majority Muslim town.

With a large number of victims of both the tsunami and the two-decade civil war being Tamils, aid workers say with hindsight that they probably did not do enough to win over hearts and minds of Sinhalese and Muslim residents -- although with thousands of Muslims now displaced by the current crisis, they are trying hard.

"They see our white vehicles go through their village almost every day and they see us give them nothing," said one aid worker. 

Further information