Zone Zero in Sri Lanka

by Michael Bear · 2009-07-07 08:20:00 UTC
Topics:

It's always fun to play bad news, good news when it comes to Sri Lanka.

Bad news - Months after the Sri Lankan military defeated the rebel Tamil Tigers, hundreds of thousands of Tamil civilians are still trapped in displaced person camps.  According to the Enough Project:

"But, after what was touted as the end to Sri Lanka’s 26-year civil war, the effects of the crisis on civilians are still unfolding. The Sri Lankan government has thus far been woefully cavalier with the lives of the more than 300,000 Sri Lankans who have been forced to remain in squalid IDP camps while the authorities work to filter out all former Tigers"

Good news - Well, ummmm, at least massive infringements of civil rights are better than war crimes.  After all, just a few months ago, the Sri Lankan military was happily bombarding 50,000 civilians trapped behind Tamil Tiger front lines.  So there's that.

Bad news - Looks like those displaced person camps might be permanent.  So much for the war-displaced going home again.

Good news - There's some humanitarian access.  After all, the Sri Lankan government has divided Manik Farm - the largest displaced person camp, holding 230,000 people - into six zones, and is allowing aid workers to access four of them.  That's 67%.  Not too shabby.

Bad news - According to The Times, aid workers are barred from the other two zones at Manik Farm, "including the mysteriously named Zone Zero."

Oh, and Sri Lanka has proudly joined Burma - Myanmar, I mean Myanmar - as the only countries in the world taxing funding for aid groups.  And they're backdating the tax to 2005.

For more information on the humanitarian situation, please see the most recent UN OCHA Emergency Situation Report.

[Photo of Tamil IDPs from Lakruwan Wanniarachchi / AFP / Getty Images]

Michael Bear
PREVIOUS STORY:
Aid Workers Kidnapped in Darfur, Afghanistan
NEXT STORY:
Campaign about Apple Factories in China Gains Wide and Diverse Support

COMMENTS (1)

    Comment Policy

    · All fields are required to comment.

    [X]

    Comments on Change.org are meant for further exploration and evaluation of the campaign on Change.org. To that end, we welcome constructive comments. However, we reserve the right to delete comments which, as determined solely in our discretion: (1) are offensive, abusive, or off-topic; (2) include content solely intended to personally attack the campaign creator, (3) are designed to subvert or hijack comment threads rather than contribute to them; and/or (4) violate our terms of service and/or privacy policy. Repeat offenders may be permanently removed from the site at our discretion. Please also be advised that: (A) we do not actively curate and/or monitor in any manner whatsoever the comments made on the Change.org platform, and (B) the creator of each campaign on Change.org may remove any comment at her/his/its discretion.