THE COMPLEX EMERGENCY IN SRI LANKA 1

UNIVERSITY OF CONNECTICUT

MPS HSA

THE COMPLEX HUMANITARIAN EMERGENCY IN SRI LANKA

Instructor: Dr. Rodney Allen

Student: Madelen Muriel-Drew

Fall 2009
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Abstract

The Complex Humanitarian Emergency in Sri Lanka could be pointed out because of an ethnic
conflict that after all was politicized. For thirty years the Tamil population was labeled as an
enemy of the Sri Lankan Government and punished through human rights’ violations,
assassinations, abductions, child recruitment, disappearances, among other abuses. Population
mobilizations searching for safety were common bringing the need for assistance to which many
international organizations responded. This paper presents an overview of the Complex
Humanitarian Emergency in Sri Lanka and identifies technical aspects of the response by
organizations such as Caritas-SEDEC, United Nations (UNHCR) or World Food Programme
(WFP) but also the critical situation that Tamil suffer as Internally Displaced Persons (IDP).
 THE COMPLEX EMERGENCY IN SRI LANKA 3

Case Study 1. Module 1

Complex Humanitarian Emergencies in context

Through the first Case Study it is my goal to analyze the complex humanitarian
emergency in Sri Lanka from the point of view of its history, etiology, politics, society, and
culture. In the case of Sri Lanka, the conflict has been originated by the ethnical differences
between the Tamils from India and the Sinhalese. The conflict until May 2009 involved the
Tamil Tigers Eelam (LTTE) and the Sri Lankan government. The LTTE was requesting a free
state for the Tamil minority who are mainly locate in the north and east of Sri Lanka. See Annex
#1 to visualize a map of Sri Lanka.

Sri Lanka has a history with origins since the 6 th century B.C. when the first Sinhalese,
arrived on the island. In the 14th century, the Tamil arrived from South India establishing a
kingdom in northern Sri Lanka. For many years the island was controlled by different
civilizations such as Portuguese in the 16th century, Dutch in the 17th century and British in 1796,
when the island was ceded to them by the Dutch. In 1815 British had the total control of the
island. At that time, its name was Ceylon, it was independent in February 4, 1948 and its name
was changed to Sri Lanka in 1972 (Central Intelligence Agency, 2009).

Tensions between the Sinhalese majority and Tamil separatists began in 1983, with the
Tamil represented by the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE) (Velupillai Prabhakaran,
maximum military leader) which is an insurgent group founded in May 1976 and fights for a
separate state for the Tamil people. This group is notorious for recruiting child soldiers, carrying
out civilian massacres and suicide bombing. It is considered a terrorist group by countries such
as The United States (Central Intelligence Agency, 2009). Tamil people have different
origins (Wikipedia Contributors2); there are the Sri Lankan Tamil people or Ceylon Tamils
and the other two Tamil-speaking minorities in Sri Lanka, the Indian Tamils and the Moors. The
Sri Lankan Tamil are an ethnic group native to the island since the second century BC; they
speak Tamil language, and are mostly Hindus and Christian. The other Tamil people are
originally from India, descendents from workers sent from South India to Sri Lanka to work in
coffee, tea and rubber plantations in the 19 th and 20th centuries. They also immigrated by
 THE COMPLEX EMERGENCY IN SRI LANKA 4

themselves as merchants and other service providers. At their arrival to the island, they located
especially in central highlands such as the Malayakam, in urban areas, and in the Northern
Province. Their standard way to live was always below that of the national average of the Sri
Lankan citizens. In 1964, many of them were sent back to India but under bad conditions and
those who stayed, without a state or designated place to live (Wikipedia contributors1).

Since Sri Lanka was independent from Britain in 1948, relations between the majority
Sinhalese and minority Tamil communities have been strained through political tensions, ethnic
riots and problems particularly during 1956, 1958, 1977, 1981 and 1983 (Wikipedia
contributors2). Militant groups have strongly advocated independence for the Tamils. The Sri
Lankan Civil War has been the scenario for 26 years of conflicts after it began on July 23, 1983
characterized by the confrontation between the government and the insurgence represented by
the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE), also known as the Tamil Tigers. This group fights
for an independent state, the Tamil Eelam in the north and east of the island. After almost 30
years of military fighting, the Sri Lankan military defeated the Tamil Tigers in May 2009
(Wikipedia Contributors3).

The Tamil Tigers (LTTE) was formed at the end of the 1970s. In 1975, the government
of Sri Lanka instituted the draconian Prevention of Terrorism Act, and under its authority
thousands of Tamil youth were arrested. In 1983, the Tamil Tigers killed 13 Sinhalese soldiers
which set off an anti-Tamil rampage in Colombo and other areas of Sri Lanka (PBS, 2006).
The revenge of the Sinhalese was the killing of thousands of Tamils and destroying their
properties, an action supported by the army and elected officials who did not do anything to stop
the massacre. By then, more than 2,500 Tamils were killed followed by the emigration of half a
million of them seeking refugee status in India and other places. According to the United Nations
High Commissioner for Refugees (The UN Refugee Agency, 2001), as a result of renewed
fighting in the year 2000, in the Jaffna peninsula, an estimated 172,000 persons were newly
displaced during the year. A total of 1,620 persons sought asylum in India (The UN Refugee
Agency, 2001. Pg 2).

By this time was some hope of progress in the peace talks between the Sri Lankan
Government and the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE) at the end of the year, facilitated
by the Norwegian Government. On the other hand, a total of 37 asylum applications were
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received by UNHCR, and by the end of the year 16 recognized refugees continued to receive
protection and assistance, compromising of a limited monthly cash allowance, and assistance for
medical and school expenses. The Office made a significant effort to pursue two goals: the
introduction of a more formal legal basis for the treatment of asylum-seekers and refugees and
the issue of citizenship and/or residence for foreign male spouses of Sri Lankan women.
UNHCR continued its role of monitoring the return of rejected Sri Lankan asylum-seekers and
also intervened with the authorities to limit detention of rejected asylum-seekers at the airport,
but to no avail (The UN Refugee Agency, 2001).

In 1986 there was another retaliation by the Sri Lankan government against the Tamil
Tigers, which had been supplied with arms and training from India. In 1987, the Sri Lankan
government bombed the northern and the eastern parts of the country. Between 1987 and 2006
terror was common, and the Indian Peace Keeping Force (IPKF) agreement between India and
Sir Lanka in 1987 as an effort to find peace and negotiations, had not been enough to stop the
cruelty. In 2006, both the Tamil Tigers (LTTE) and the Sri Lankan government meet to reaffirm
a peace agreement but a suicide bomber attacked the Sri Lankan army headquarters pointing out
the Tamil Tigers (LTTE) as responsible increasing aggressions between both sides (PBS,
2006).

Today, the Sri Lanka’s prosecution of the war against the Tamil Tiger insurgency seems
to have ended after May 2009 with the government’s stunning defeat of the Tamil Tigers on a
narrow strip of beach at the north of Sri Lanka. The commander of the separatist group,
Velupillai Prabhakaran was killed, along with many others Tamil civilians, who were used by the
LTTE as human shields. The Tamil minority has suffered discrimination and violence at the
hands of various Sinhalese-dominated governments through many decades. Sadly, although the
war ended three months ago, there is still incredulity about the silence of the Tamil Tigers armed
group (The New York Times, 2009).

According to Sri Lanka’s President, Mr. Rajapaksa, and his comments about what
happened this past May, he said that sharing power with the Tamil minority won’t be done now,
any agreement would have to wait until after the next presidential election, scheduled for
November 2009, which keeps in limbo Tamils’ rights through democracy (Polgreen, L, 2009).
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Related to International Law and Human Rights, Sri Lanka is party to the International
Covenant on Civil and Political Rights (ICCPR) and the Convention against Torture and other
Cruel, Inhuman or Degrading Treatment or Punishment. In the same subject, this country must
follow international law as an act that seeks to regulate the conduct of hostilities and protects
persons affected by armed conflict (i.e. civilians and captured combatants)(Amnesty
International).

Since 1984, Sri Lanka has been under a state of emergency (Human Rights Watch,
2008). In these circumstances, the Sri Lankan Government may suspend temporarily some
provisions. According to Human Rights Watch (Human Rights Watch, 2008), enforced
disappearances is a human rights’ violation which requires that when there are detainees,
a process must follow such as informing the place of the detention, communication to their
families, accessing a lawyer and providing an official registry of all violations happened to the
detainees (Human Rights Watch, 2008). Detainees must be treated humanely and it is
tolerate their murder, mutilation, cruel treatment, torture, and executions without a
judgment under a regularly constituted court (Human Rights Watch, 2008).
Abductions are also human rights’ abuses which have been perpetrated by the LTTE and
followed by executions. The Sri Lankan Government is obligated to offer reparations to all Sri
Lankan citizens suffering from Human Rights’ violations, those, according to the UN Human
Rights Committee involve restitution, rehabilitation and measures of satisfaction, such as public
apologies, public memorials, and guarantees of non-repetition and others mentioned through this
web site (United Nations, General Assembly, 2006). Reparation to victims are also stated under
the Basic Principles and Guidelines on the Right to a Remedy and Reparation for Victims of
Gross Violations of International Human Rights Law and Serious Violations of International
Humanitarian Law, which claims for the adequate and earlier reparation to victims of acts that
attempt actions violating International Human Rights (United Nations, General Assembly, 2006).

Sri Lanka’s constitution includes the right to “life, liberty, and security of person, the
right to a fair trial, and the prohibition against torture” (Human Rights Watch, 2008, under
the subtitle Sri Lankan National Law, no page number indicated) , however, those
rights have not been continuous since 1971 because emergency laws which have been modified
and used by various Sri Lankan governments to gain power. In other aspects, under humanitarian
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law, Sri Lanka had suppressed and avoided, partial or totally, procedures through Emergency
Regulations mainly explained through two regulations, the Miscellaneous Provisions and Power
of August 2005 and the Prevention and Prohibition of Terrorism and Specified Terrorist
Activities of December 2006. Those regulations also include that security forces sweep powers
of arrest and detention, unnecessarily restricting freedom of movement, criminalizing a range of
peaceful activities protected under Sri Lankan and International Law, introduced a wide
immunity clause shielding members of the security forces from criminal prosecution. Emergency
Regulations used by the Sri Lankan government were used in parallel and not in accordance with
the country’s constitution. Modifications on limiting detention, duration of the detention and lack
of information about detention facilities which was a clear attempt against detainees’ lives
because of the lack of information and not having the knowledge about what government armed
force or police department is responsible for that detainee. In many cases, the security forces
routinely ignored the instructions and face no consequences for doing so (Human Rights
Watch, 2008).

According to the International Crisis Group 1, Sri Lanka’s judiciary system has failed in
protecting person’s human rights and the constitution and worsened ethnic conflicts. As an
example the group notes through the Asia Report No. 146, 2008 (International Crisis Group,
2008) where rather than constraining militarization and protecting minority rights, a political
bench under the just-retired chief justice has entrenched favored allies, punished foes and
blocked compromises with the Tamil minorities as a demonstration of favoritisms and personal
interpretations of law applied to the people of Sri Lanka. It was not usual for magistrate courts to
intervene to prevent or condemn ill-treatment, torture, or prolonged illegal detention
(International Crisis Group, 2008).

An especially important element of the judiciary system in Sri Lanka, the Supreme Court,
a centralized institution located in Colombo, is characterized as making applicability of
international law difficult including the difficult access for Tamil litigants who have only one
month to suite a case after the violation. Other fact-heavy cases involving torture by police or
military officials are treated but without an opportunity to introduce testimonial evidence,
1
The International Crisis Group (Crisis Group) is an independent, non-profit, non-government organization, with 145 staff members on 5
continents, working through field-based analysis and high-level advocacy to prevent and resolve deadly conflict. Crisis Group’s approach is
grounded in field research, nearly countries at risk of outbreak, escalation or recurrence of violent conflicts. Its information is provided from the
field and produces analytical reports with practical recommendations.
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nothing it more difficult for claims and counter-claims to be sustained. The pressure on judges
and lawyers also becomes much worse when they try to have legal rights recognized while being
victims of intimidation and violence. Cases related to a politically unpopular client or detained
persons involve the lawyers related to those cases being under risk of detention, harassment or
being beaten. “In October 2008, for example, one lawyer was detained and threatened in
Bambalapitiya police station in Colombo after he advises his client in detention not to confess,
invoking police wrath” (International Crisis Group, 2008 Pg. 22) .

Failure to protect fundamental rights is reflected in the absence of remedies in lower

courts for illegal detention. Available are resources and fundamental rights such as the right to
being present a “writ of habeas corpus” (International Crisis Group, 2009 Pg.23) to a
magistrate which challenges the detention’s legal basis or a fundamental rights petition provides
an effective resolution on detaining authorities because judges are under emergency laws which
limit their functions and magistrate courts functions. Police functions also include, not so
obvious, the impediment of investigations through the lack of basic tools which are necessary to
investigate cases related to torture. Ignored for example, was the rule about presenting a detainee
to a magistrate within 24 hours or the rule of notification to the detainee’s family and the
national Human Rights Commission. In the case of those examples, there are not stipulations to
enforce the rules (International Crisis Group, 2009) .

From the Attorney General’s office, there are generally no positive actions related to
human rights violations. Cases against state officials, when they do happen, take many years to
prosecute and a case related to torture might take even longer than on other charges. Those
delays are based on “non-summary proceedings” (International Crisis Group, 2009 Pg. 28)
or because the magistrate court decides whether there is sufficient evidence to hear a case
involving serious charges in the high court. The NGO Coalition for an Effective Human Rights
Council (NGO Coalition for an Effective Human Rights Council, 2008) described the
Sri Lankan government forces indicating that for the past two years have been implicated in a
wide range of serious abuses, including hundreds of extrajudicial killings and enforced
disappearances, widespread torture, and arbitrary detention. The Sri Lankan government is thus,
pointed out as a barrier to the council’s work, ignoring their recommendations, attacking senior
UN officials who speak out and claim on Human Rights issues, having a non-responsive position
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about discussions regarding UN human rights and refusing to face problems of torture and
enforced disappearances.

The Norwegian role in the Sri Lankan conflict failed and causes are pointed out as the
misunderstanding of the conflict and its nature. It offered inaccurate information to the
Norwegian officials involved in the process. The ethnic conflict includes the two parts; the LTTE
and the Sri Lankan government which might not be ready for a peace agreement or do not have
the adequate alternatives to negotiate the peace. While this happens, third parties could play a
role of “useful fools” (Muttukrishna, S, & de Soysa, I, 2008, fifth paragraph) ; useful
because you win without being on the battlefield and fools because you are easy to manipulate.
The problem with Norway and its peacemaker functions, according to Muttukrishna and Soysa,
might be the poor knowledge of the Tamil culture, and Eastern and Northern Provinces including
their problems since early 80s. Norway’s peacemaking role is defined here as facilitated by their
development work of sponsors at the grassroots level through various local NGOs, which
facilitate the access to local information.

Information sources might be, thus full of bias and misunderstandings. Sources being
used by Norwegian experts on the Sri Lankan conflict to have a picture of the culture,
communities, data, etc., were therefore fundamental misinformed. Bias on the information
sources are basically in that they are Sri Lankan emigrants from other localities within the island
and are living outside the country which are not facing the cruelty of the war and are not
expressing the right picture. Norway failed to understand the wide differences between Tamil
speaking communities in the Eastern and Northern Provinces, Muslims, Wanniars and the
Eastern Tamils (Muttukrishna, S, & de Soysa, I, 2008) . The major fallacy was to realize
and understand that the real truth of the conflict is within the same Sri Lanka, in its fields. For
the same reasons the ceasefire agreement (CFA) and the Norwegian peace process and ceasefire
have not succeeded are based on the violent actions by the insurgent LTTE, especially in July
2006, when the ceasefire collapsed. Violent acts between both sides included a full range of
offensive military actions with artillery and ground assaults, air and naval raids, ambushes and
use of mines, and also human rights’ violations. Brutal attacks are not only on civilians but also
on journalist and dissenting politicians including abuses such as disappearances, forcible child
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recruitment, and political killings and abductions that include Democratic institutions, this source
information indicated.

International participants in the conflict expressed their concerns on the resolution of the
conflict, countries such as India, Japan, China, Western governments and International financial
institutions, Norway, UN agencies, humanitarian NGOs, and especially the interaction of the
four co-chairs of the peace process, Japan, the U.S., the EU and Norway. This last one also
represented by the Legal Aid Commission of Sri Lanka, Norwegian Refugee Council, Sarvodaya
Economic Enterprise Development Services Gte Ltd. Sewa Lanka Foundation, all of them
insisting that there is not a military solution to the conflict in Sri Lanka but they would support a
negotiated settlement (International Crisis Group, 2008). All of them also agree that the
architecture of the year 2002 peace process is no longer appropriate to the changed nature of the
conflict and needs to be cleared away so new structures can be developed. A military action from
Sri Lankan armed forces against LTTE seeks to make their life more and more uncomfortable,
especially for the North of the Island, while LTTE seeks simply to survive but, beyond that,
increasing recruits of children to serve as a front-line. The goal of the government was to attack
and pressure them to make them return to negotiations. The Sri Lankan government considered
neither sharing power nor offering an opportunity to the Tamils to administer their own affairs.
Instead, they are determined to extend their strategy to the north. Antecedents and development
of the conflict indicates that the Sri Lankan government prefers to complete the job, in military
terms, as happened last May 2009 when the Sri Lankan military forces killed the LTTE leader
Velupillai Prabhakaran (International Crisis Group, 2008) .

The conflict might be described as a crisis of the state and the failure of the centralized,
Sinhalese-dominated state to cater to minority aspirations. But, beyond what could be the
consequences of the conflict, there are deeper frameworks that could be the answer to the root
causes of this conflict.

Still there is not a comprehensive and acceptable theory of the causes and consequences
of ethno-political conflict, but there are factors that lead to those conflicts and the politicization
of ethnic disputes have aggravated the violence and tragedy in Sri Lanka. The “primordial
approach” (Imtiyaz, A.R.M., & Stavis, B, 2008 Pg.2) claims that ethnic identity,
interpreted by language, culture, and religion and also genetically determined characteristics
 THE COMPLEX EMERGENCY IN SRI LANKA 11

such as pigmentation and physiognomy limit the ethnic identity which increases nationalism, a
natural phenomenon. The constructive theory defines ethnic identities within a group of human
actions and choices which are collected from the past. Nationalism was more evident in
European States, which might be related to the pre-colonial roots of the ethno-political conflict in
Sri Lanka. Before 1505 the Tamil and Sinhalese kingdoms were located in Sri Lanka and were
fighting back the Portuguese colonialism with the goal of keeping and extent their territories.
Many colonial history theorists define that the ethnic conflicts in Sri Lanka have roots in its
colonial history due to the colonial process that divide colonies, make borders and define and
identify their populations and culture. But the problem is when colonial rulers seek to favor
particular groups, especially minorities, which open doors for more educational, social, political
and economical power. When majority groups gain power, the minority groups are marginalized
and struggle for power. Sinhalese majority have been challenging minorities, especially Tamils,
which had administrative positions during British colonization. During the post-colonial period
tensions between those groups increased due to the ethnicization of politics which included the
Sinhala-Only language policy in the 1950’s and the use of ethnic ideas to handle the feelings of
Sinhalese and get their votes. The constitution of 1972 conferred preferences to Buddhism as the
national religion and many Tamils were killed, maimed, robbed and rendered homeless due to
culturally biased policies. The ethnicization of the Sinhala policy produced the Tamil militants or
LTTE as a guerrilla movement but, before this, Tamils were seeking their rights through peaceful
protests which soon degenerated into violence. The marks of the Sinhalese attacks have been the
inspiration for the “Sinhalese-inspired” (Imtiyaz, A.R.M., & Stavis, B, 2008 Pg. 11)
LTTE which argues that the LTTE shows that when a particular community feels it is being
continuously terrorized by the dominant ethnic/religious or political group, many will join a
politico-military movement to resist the oppression and violence of the persecutors (Imtiyaz,
A.R.M., & Stavis, B, 2008).

The Sri Lankan conflict has been marked by aggravated tensions by political leaders,
recruiting people to instigate acts of violence and then condone and protect them and the
government indifference about seeking a non-violent resolution of the conflict.
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Case Study 2. Module 2

The Global Response Network

Through this module, some of the most representative organizations are chosen to explain
their participation during the Sri Lanka’s complex emergency, including their structure,
operating philosophy and methods. The humanitarian crisis in Sri Lanka is characterized mostly
by the presence of the internally displaced persons (IDPs), which have been located in different
camps since the beginning of the fighting, in the north and east of Sri Lanka. The largest camps
are: Jaffna, Kilinochchi, Mullaitivu, Vavuniya, Mannar, Trincomalee, Batticaloa and Ampara.
IDPs arrived at those camps exhausted and traumatized, depending entirely on food assistance. A
primary possibility to return to their original residences would be during the cropping season of
April and May 2010 (The United Nations. Consolidated Appeals Process. Humanitarian Appeal,
2009).

During almost 30 years, many organizations have been involved in the humanitarian
response to the armed conflict. The United Nations is perhaps, the first organizations that began
its work in Sri Lanka in 1952, which made of this country one of the first ones in the world to
have a UN programme (United Nations). The goals of UN in Sri Lanka, through partnerships
with the government, civil society and other NGOs as well as donors and international financial
institutions, are to address challenges during emergencies, but also supporting the country in
meeting the Millennium Development Goals. Today, UN is appealing for USD 145 million to
carry out its assistance programmes for victims by the conflict “in the aftermath of disaster, the
UN family of organizations supplies food, shelter, medicines and logistical support to the
victims-most of whom are children, women and the elderly” (United Nations Pg. 3).

The first UN agency responding to the emergency in Sri Lanka was The World Health
Organization (WHO) (World Health Organization) which specializes in health and begun
operations in 1952, WHO seeks to address the challenges in health needs and the promotion of
equitable access to health care for the poor and the marginalized. Partners of WHO are the
ministry of Healthcare and Nutrition, UN agencies, all members of the Inter Agency Standing
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Committee (IASC)2 (Inter-Agency Standing Committee). The agency focuses in the following
issues:

 Health System

 Human resources for health

 Communicable diseases

 Non-communicable diseases and mental health

 Emergency preparedness and response

Over the years of conflict, as the health sector co-coordinator for the UN family, WHO
supports areas such as epidemiology, disease surveillance laboratory capacity building, water
and sanitation, psychological and mental health care and health information system (World
Health Organization).

In general, the UN team in Sri Lanka is composed by the following agencies in Sri
Lanka:

FAO, ILO, IOM, OCHA, UNAIDS, UNDP, UNFPA, UN-HABITAT, UNHCR, UNICEF,
UNOPS, UNV, WFP, WHO, and World Bank.

Some of them are here related with their support during the conflict:

Response of World Food Programme (WFP)

Although the war ended in May 2009, this organization is still supporting operations
providing full rations to over 290,000 people located in transit camps. Provisions with fortified
food have been supplied especially to provide for children under the age of five years, pregnant
and lactating women. At the same time, WFP (World Food Programme) is continuing to request
support from donors in the amount of US$35 million for 2009. It is not because this organization
does not have food supply, but because it takes 6 months to translate money to food for the IDPs.

2
IASC is in charge of coordinating and developing policies that include decision-making and involves UN and non-
UN humanitarian partners. This Committee had begun its functions in June 1992 as a response of the UN General
Assembly Resolution (46/182) and one of its objectives is strengthening the humanitarian assistance.
 THE COMPLEX EMERGENCY IN SRI LANKA 14

World Food Programme activities in Sri Lanka seek to help the most vulnerable groups.
It has three basic components:

 Nutritional supplementation to pregnant, nursing women and children 6 months to 5

years.
 Schools meals in primary and secondary schools.
 Food for work for unemployed people and landless laborers. Work in Sri Lanka is
seasonal.
 Emergency assistance for those who have emigrated from the conflict area to the camps.
This emergency assistance is used when it is necessary.

In general, for the World Food Programme good nutrition is fundamental (World Food
Programme/Nutrition), especially in the first years of life because it is the support for growth and
mental development. The WFP’s food basket includes a staple such as wheat flour or rice, lentils,
chickpeas or other pulses, vegetable oil (fortified with vitamin A and D), sugar and iodized salt.
It also could be complemented with a blended food such as Corn Soya Blend (CSB).

It is important to note that under an agreement with UNICEF, WFP addresses moderate
malnutrition and UNICEF focuses on severe malnutrition. According to Adnan Khan 3 (World
Food Programme, 2009), by May 2009, WFP was providing full rations of food to 80,000 IDPs
located in Vavuniya district which received cooked meals and WFP together with a partner in
Omanthai (a town in the northern Vavuniya district), Sevelanka have been cooking round the
clock. Today, WFP is feeding almost 200,000 IDPs just in northern Sir Lanka, located in 24
government-controlled temporary transit centers and villages in Vavuniya, Jaffna, Mannar and
Trincomalee districts. Humanitarian Assistance response was done between the Sri Lankan
government and the UN to favor the continuous supply of food deliveries for IDPs and other
vulnerable populations (World Food Programme, 2009).

Response of the World Health Organization (WHO)

One of the responses of the World Health Organization (WHO) during the conflict time
was through the Common Humanitarian Action Plan (CHAP) (United Nations/ Common

3
Adna Khan is the World Food Programme Representative and Country Director in Sri Lanka
 THE COMPLEX EMERGENCY IN SRI LANKA 15

humanitarian Action Plan (CHAP), 2007). It is a strategic plan for humanitarian response in a
given country or region and is based on the following elements:

 A common analysis of the context which humanitarian action takes place

 A clear statement of longer-term objectives and goals
 Framework for monitoring the strategy and revising if it is necessary.

In 2007, different organizations participated with World Health Organization (WHO) in

its goal of supplying all necessary items to Sri Lankans IDPs. Through the Sri Lanka Common
Humanitarian Action Plan 2007, referred above through the respective citation, those
organizations were registered by their support and participation in areas such as Health, Food,
Education, Agriculture, Shelter/Non-food items, Human Rights, Economic Recovery and
Infrastructure, Coordination and Support Services and Security. Within the Food chapter,
included within this document, I chose as examples of participation two, the Danish Refugee
Council (DRC) pg.61 and United Nations Children’s Fund (UNICEF) pg. 59(United Nations/
Common humanitarian Action Plan (CHAP), 2007)..

Danish Refugee Council (DRC), according to CHAP 2007, participated with provisions
to 10,000 families in the districts of Jaffna, Kilinochchi, Mullaitivu and Trincomalee. Provisions
were composed of food rations with complements to those rations provided by World Food
Programme (WFP) during January and June 2007. Each family would be provided with two
week rations per month over a six-month period. Beneficiaries were 10,000 families or 40,000
individuals, including 20,000 children and 10,000 women. Food ration by the Danish Refugee
Council included additional protein (soy meat, dried and tinned fish) and calories (coconut oil)
plus spices to help ensure that 10,000 families have a usable food package which was culturally
appropriate and balanced.

United Nations Children’s Fund (UNICEF), also, according to CHAP 2007, is another
organization that participated in this Action Plan in 2007. It’s response between January and
June 2007 in accordance to WHO was to promote access to essential and quality nutritional
services, in collaboration with other partners. Beneficiaries of this program by UNICEF were
200,000 people, including children under five 17,000, lactating mothers 3,000 and pregnant
women 3,000. UNICEF response was focused on:
 THE COMPLEX EMERGENCY IN SRI LANKA 16

 Supporting maternal, infant and young child feeding and micronutrients supplementation.
 Establishes and maintains mechanism for nutritional assessment of vulnerable groups.
 Facilitate government and inter-agency consultations to develop a protocol for
management of severe acute under nutrition.
 Delivers critical supply items in nutrition.

Other main activities developed included:

 Conduct joint nutrition assessment

 Provide fortified supplementary food (High energy/ Protein Biscuits) for less than five
years old children, pregnant women and nursing mothers.
 Procure food commodities for rehabilitation of children with severe acute under nutrition.
 Establish mother/ baby friendly space

Returning to World Health Organization (WHO), it is important to emphasize, as I

understand through the WHO web sites, that despite multiple displacements and lack of fuel for
cold chain maintenance, children continue to be vaccinated, although as the conflict intensifies,
setbacks to maintain high immunization coverage can be expected. This conflict has also caused
significant psychological and social suffering to those individuals, post-traumatic stress
disorders; chronic mental health problems, depression and hopelessness which combined with a
lack of income, disrupts the community’s abilities to participate in any activities. WHO
responses include also offering quality preventive and curative health services including
reproductive, mental and emergency care.

Response of United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR)

United Nations in Sri Lanka had a determinant role protecting and assisting internally
displaced persons (IDPs) and also refugees arriving from other countries, Sri Lankan refugees
returning from overseas and stateless people who resided in Sri Lanka.

International organizations and their interventions are focused on establishing normality

in the area which might take long time. On August 4, 2009, Joint Humanitarian Update, North
East of Sri Lanka (Joint Humanitarian Update, North East, Sri Lanka, 2009) indicated in its web site
 THE COMPLEX EMERGENCY IN SRI LANKA 17

that the minister of Power and Energy, W.D.J. Senevirathne, said Rs. 4 6,000 million is being
spent to provide electricity to the Northern Province within the next two years. On August 10,
2009, USAID offered a new donation of US$15 million in food aid to support the return of IDPs.
It consists of wheat, lentils and vegetable oil, USAID’s second shipment of vital food aid this
year will be consigned to WFP and will fulfill the essential food needs of 300,000 people for four
months. With the last donation, USAID will have provided nearly US$59 million of food aid to
Sri Lanka in 2008 and 2009, according to the Joint Humanitarian Update Report #5 August
2009, and UNHCR.

Also, in the same report (JHU, 2009) there is an indication of the food supply to the
community of Trincomalee. Rations consisted of 4 MT of mixed food commodities, and were
distributed to the 552 returnees from IDP camps in Vavuniya. In Jaffna District, for example,
organizations such as Save the Children in Sri Lanka (SCiSL) and Caritas-Hudec, located in
Chavakachcheri D.S. Division and Kopay, Chavakachcheri Jaffna D.S. Divisions offered
assistance. It is also included in this report that Save the Children in Sri Lanka has provided
supplementary food named Samposha for grade 1 to grade 5 children in Kaithady TLS,
Kodikaman GTMS TLS, Ramavil TLS, and Mirusuvil TLS and a total of 1397 IDP children
benefited. Also, Caritas-Hudec provides Subsidiary Food Distribution to 10,907 Vanni IDPs
daily (JHU, 2009).

In general, UNHCR activities in Sri Lanka were focused on covering IDPs and returnee’s
needs such as protection, emergency shelter and non-food relief and camp management for IDPs
in camps in the north and the east. Camp management duties includes gender considerations to
ensure that the needs of men, women, boys and girls are fully considered and will be
incorporated into activities and carried out in coordination with protection and camp
management agencies. Shelter assistance is guided by the Guiding Principles in Internal
Displacement and other international/national guidelines such as the Inter-Agency Standing
Committee (IASC) Gender Handbook on Humanitarian Action, SPHERE project, UNHCR
Handbook for Emergencies and the SCC Emergency Shelter in Sri Lanka Handbook of Options
(United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees, 2007).

Response of Agriculture Food Security (FAO)

4
Rs. Represents Sri Lanka money.
 THE COMPLEX EMERGENCY IN SRI LANKA 18

FAO is in charge of immediate assistance to IDPs, returnees, host families and other
conflict-affected families in the districts of Batticaloa, Trincomalee, Vavuniya, Mannar, and
Jaffna to strengthen household food security. Other objectives, according CHAP 2009 (United
Nations CHAP 2009 pg. 22) are:

*Reduce dependence on external and unsustainable food aid assistance by supporting local food
production and by facilitating the resumption of agriculture, fisheries and livestock activities.

*Contribute to a return to normality by promoting alternative coping mechanisms and income

generating opportunities equally amongst men and women.

*Reduce post-harvest losses and promote efficient use of agricultural, fishery and livestock
resources.

FAO “monitors the price of fish (dry and fresh), eggs, vegetables and the cost of
agricultural livestock and fisheries inputs to provide early warning to prevent and mitigate the ill-
effects of potential food shortages” (United Nations CHAP 2009 pg. 22). Those activities are
done together with WFP, UNICEF and ILO with the goal of faster response interventions.

Response of United Nations Children’s Fund (UNICEF)

UNICEF in Sri Lanka is in charge of education, nutrition, health, protection, human

rights, rule of law and WASH (Water, Sanitation and Hygiene) (United Nations CHAP 2009 pgs.
26-33).

Description of duties is described as follows:

*Quality education for children affected by conflict.

*Maternal and Child Nutrition increasing emphasis on management of severe acute malnutrition.

* Maternal and Neonatal Health.

*Protection of children affected by conflict and displacement.

*Emergency Water, Sanitation and Hygiene (WASH) in conflict affected districts.

 THE COMPLEX EMERGENCY IN SRI LANKA 19

UNICEF understands that the complex conflict and the returning of IDPs in the North
and the East of the country require a continuous WASH response. Emergency responses to
reduce vulnerability are based in the SPHERE standards and “Do not harm” principles.
Following those will guarantee an adequate standards/quality of drinking water supply, hygiene
and services to IDPs. It is a crucial issue due to the vulnerability of contamination by outbreaks
of diarrhoea and other water-related diseases. WASH response includes planning,
implementation, monitoring and evaluation activities (United Nations CHAP 2009). To see an
example of displacement figures of IDPs through different districts in Sri Lanka refer to Annex
#2: Displacement figures as of 30 of September 2008.

Caritas

Caritas (Caritas Sri Lanka-SEDEC, 2006) is a Roman Catholic organization that seeks to
ensuring assistance to the poorest and the most marginalized during an emergency response
focusing in six key areas such as:

 Peace & Reconciliation

 Emergencies

 Economic Justice

 Climate Change

 HIV/AIDS

 Women & Migration.

Caritas has 164 members; a member is a national charitable organization or a collective

group that work with the support of their respective church. Caritas works is extended worldwide
with locations in Africa, Europe, Latina America & the Caribbean, the Middle East and North
Africa, North America and Oceania. The global representative of Caritas today, is the current
cardinal Oscar Rodriguez Maradiaga. In North America, Caritas’ members are: Catholic
Charities USA (CCUSA), Catholic Campaign for Human Development (CCHD), Catholic Relief
 THE COMPLEX EMERGENCY IN SRI LANKA 20

Services (CRS) and Canadian Catholic Organization for Development and Peace (CCODP). All
of them share the same goal of empowering and engaging Catholics in justice issues (Caritas Sri
Lanka-SEDEC, 2006).

Caritas Internationalis (Caritas Internationalis) is composed by 162 members and seek

fight poverty and injustice. National members are under the umbrella of Caritas Internationalis
which has its headquarters in the Vatican City and representatives at the United Nations in New
York and Geneva, Roma, and Paris. Caritas Internationalis provides food, shelter, water or
medicine through a rapid response to the crises and also support communities to become
protagonist of their own development through empowering. Caritas offers support for the elderly
and school for the former child soldier as well as HIV care provider. The main three areas of
work are:

 Emergencies: During a disaster, Caritas offers a safe place, is the neighbor who organizes
food and blankets and seeks global support to, in the same manner, support the victims.

 Sustainable development: Caritas work with the victims to help them recovering and
work on their own solutions. Caritas offers social services and long term environmentally
sustainable development.

 Peace building: Caritas support peace and reconciliation especially through inter-
religious dialogue.

The work of Caritas in Sri Lanka

Caritas Sri Lanka and its Social and Economic Development Centre (SEDEC), was
founded in 1968 by the priest, Father Joe Fernando (Caritas Internationalis/ Sri Lanka) . This centre
was established to provide a base for disseminating the Church principles but after seeing the
suffering and need of Sri Lankans, Father Joe Fernando founded CEDEC, which was his manner
to help and alleviate human misery, “Freedom from misery, greater assurance of economic
sustenance, proper health care and fixed employment, an increased share of responsibility, better
education and assurance of a fuller human enhancement to claim their rightful place in society”
Reverend Father Joe Fernando.
 THE COMPLEX EMERGENCY IN SRI LANKA 21

Located in the Archdiocese of Colombo, Sri Lanka’s capital city, Caritas radiates through
the country through twelve Diocesan Centers. The most recent workshops were on prevention of
torture, focused to police officers from the Criminal Investigation Division (CID) and the
Terrorist Investigation Division (TID) of the Sri Lanka Police. Caritas is also developing
conferences to help grassroots level farmers in the process of learning new sustainable
agriculture techniques which are useful to strength farmers’ networks at economic and social
levels.

Caritas Sir Lanka focuses in different areas such as: Justice and Peace, Animation Unit,
Women’s Development, National Peace Programme (NPP), Legal Aid and Human Rights
Research, Development of Projects, Relief & Rehabilitation (R&R) and training. These programs
are developed with the assistance of Caritas Diocesan Centers in Sethsara (Colombo), HUDEC
(Jaffna), SED-Galle (Galle) and SETIK (Candy). Through the Relief and Rehabilitation Unit, for
example, Caritas seeks to respond and bring solutions to humanitarian needs during and after any
man-made or natural disasters. The first step during a humanitarian response consists in the
identification of the basic needs, especially food and non-food items, shelter, water-sanitation
and medical care. After this, strategies are planned to help mitigate and prevent applying relief
programmes. Support includes vocational training, education and counseling. The last phase of
the response is in general, to ensure that victims are involved in the rehabilitation process such as
empowering communities and rebuilding a stronger base (Caritas Sri Lanka-SEDEC, 2006).

Annex # 1.
 THE COMPLEX EMERGENCY IN SRI LANKA 22

SRI LANKA MAP (Wikimedia Commons, 2007)

Annex #2
 THE COMPLEX EMERGENCY IN SRI LANKA 23

Table 1.

Displacement figures as of 30 September 2008. By UN, Common Humanitarian Action

Plan (CHAP) (United Nations CHAP 2009 pg. 14).

District located in the Population5 No. of IDPs6 % of population

north. displaced

Jaffna (N) 560,000 27,647 4.93%

Mannar (N) 75,702 8,702 11.49%

Vavuniya (N) 173,056 12,250 7.07%

Mullaitivu 240,323 83,800 34.86%

Kilinochchi 194,027 124,369 64.09%

Sub-total North 1,243,108 256,768 20.65%

Districts located in
the south

Batticaloa 515,857 12,551 2.43%

Ampara 610,179 4,223 0.69%

Trincomalee 334,363 4,775 1.42%

Sub-total East 1,460,399 21,549 1.47%

Grand total 2,703,507 278,317 10.29%

The remaining 3,381 persons were displaced to districts not directly affected by the conflict. Information provided by UN, Common
Humanitarian Action Plan (CHAP). Sri Lanka 2009.

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