Renewed Fighting in Sri Lanka Drives Out Over 155,000; Christian Groups Respond
Christian relief groups are working to support Sri Lanka's displaced people as renewed fighting in island nation has forced more than 155,000 civilians to flee their homes in recent weeks.
Violence in the Batticaloa district in the east of Sri Lanka has driven people from their towns and villages, forcing them to either stay in camps for displaced people or with friends and relatives in safer areas.
Around 292,000 people are displaced in Sri Lanka due to the conflict, according to the latest United Nations figure from March 2007.
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Christian organizations that have been working in some of the camps in Batticaloa and in Trincomalee districts say that many of these camps are no longer entirely safe. Some were recently targeted by shelling, while others are being visited by armed groups.
There have been cases of people being arrested or threatened, while families fear their children could be forcibly recruited by paramilitary groups.
According to OfERR (the Organization for Eelam Refugees Rehabilitation), a local partner of U.K.-based Christian Aid that works with refugees and tsunami survivors, a group of people from Trincomalee last month who had fled to the camps in Batticaloa were forced by the authorities to return to their homes in Muttur without adequate provision being made for their safety and welfare.
A group of international agencies, including Christian Aid together with its local partner, is due to assess the situation in Muttur town in order to give help to returnees and those families that remained throughout the clashes.
The fighting is destroying basic infrastructure such as schools, places of worship, roads and houses including those built for and by tsunami survivors, while electricity supplies are unreliable in many locations. In many eastern and northern districts, boats are not allowed to go to sea as they are seen as a security risk, making life difficult in coastal areas where fishing is the backbone of the economy.
"There is no alternative to a negotiated agreement," said Laurent Viot, Christian Aid's representative in Sri Lanka. "In the meantime we need to remind parties to the conflict of their moral and legal responsibilities towards civilians in war zones and offer as much physical and psychological support to the safe and voluntary return of displaced people and more generally to all civilians affected by this conflict."
