Aid agencies frustrated over access to refugee camps
Updated
International aid agences say the Sri Lankan government is restricting their access to camps for refugees displaced by the just-ended civil war.
The United Nations wants the Government to allow aid groups into war-ravaged areas in the north of the country to help the estimated quarter of a million people who have been displaced. Most have lost their homes, possessions and livelihoods, and the UN says some displaced civilians have not received any aid for more than a week.
Presenter: Bruce Hill
Speaker: James Elder, UNICEF spokesman in Sri Lanka
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JAMES ELDER: Well, previously - that is, before this last weekend - it's been pretty good access, almost unimpeded access, which is obviously critical given the size of the camps, the huge number of people that need to be reached. That changed over the weekend and access to reach these people has become restricted. It's obviously, as I say, critically important that full and unimpeded humanitarian access is ensured so that these children and women, who have endured such extreme conditions of war, are now able to receive the help that they so desperately need. This really is the moment. This is a monumental operation, even with full access and all systems going. To have that hindered in any way is just making a difficult situation much harder.
BRUCE HILL: What kind of restrictions have been placed on you and what reasons have been given?
JAMES ELDER: Well, the restriction at the moment is basically that while supply vehicles, trucks basically, can continue to enter the camps, other vehicles cannot. UN staff, NGO staff get off, do a full - get searched fully before going into the camps and then don't have a vehicle inside the camps. Now, that may not seem like much, but when you're talking about camps, that you know, that are hundreds and hundreds of acres, where there are hundreds of thousands of people and the enormity of need is very hard to capture, then not to be able to drive around and do your service delivery, not to be able to drive around and see people in need but to have to walk on foot, is just going to slow it down at a point where people are already working around the clock to try and supply the most basics in health and nutrition and water and sanitation.
BRUCE HILL: Well, those people that have been in those camps for a while now. What about the civilians who are actually trapped in the conflict zone itself? Have you been given access to them?
JAMES ELDER: No, it's all the same. Most people are lumbered in essentially the same camps. So no, it's the same restricted access. It is access, yes, but it's restrictions that are making, as I say, a difficult job that much more frustrating. It's just important to remember too, that - what these people have been through. They're arriving into these camps sick. They're arriving malnourished. Some still have bullet and shrapnel wounds from what was fierce fighting. So they really are long-suffering people who - you know, children, babies elderly, who have seen and witnessed things that are unimaginable and they desperately need humanitarian support from the UN, from the government, from everyone.
BRUCE HILL: What about local relief organisations? What about the Sri Lankan people themselves? The war seems to be now over, is there a mood of national unity coming together? Are people trying to resolve the problems that led to the war in the first place?
JAMES ELDER: There's certainly a joyous moment where I am, in the capital. There are, of course, you know, 25-year-olds who have known nothing other than this conflict and all the restrictions and military security and suicide bombings that came with it. So for them, yes. Beyond, of course, even immediate humanitarian assistance, can I continue on, it's critical that Sri Lanka seizes what is a historical moment and as you say, seeks reconciliation that will bring a long-lasting and a sustainable peace. This will start with the government very quickly making it very clear that they're going to separate the Tamil Tiger rebels from what is a large number of civilians who are currently in camps behind barbed wire, so that these civilians can once again move freely and are therefore able to, you know, resettle to their villages and towns of origin and restart their lives.
