UN warns against fighting in tsunami affected areas
UN warns against fighting in tsunami affected areas
Agencies, United Nations/Colombo
Governments and rebels in Sumatra, Sri Lanka and Somalia must keep the peace or risk a cut-off in tsunami aid, the United Nations said on Wednesday (Thursday in Jakarta), as Australia and Germany pledged more than $1.4 billion in disaster assistance.
"We have a message to the parties to the conflicts: Suspend your conflict and work together with us to help your own people," a senior UN official said.
There was now peace in Sumatra's Aceh province, a cease-fire where Tamil Tigers had been active in Sri Lanka, and warlords were not fighting in much of Somalia, UN Emergency Relief Coordinator Jan Egeland told reporters.
But he added: "We need that cease-fire, that peace, to hold because if new conflict breaks out, we cannot help the people."
Meanwhile in Colombo, Proxies of the Tamil Tiger rebels on Thursday demanded the withdrawal of Sri Lankan soldiers from tsunami relief camps in northeastern regions amid increasing tension over the distribution of foreign aid pouring into the battered island.
The demand was made by R. Sampanthan, spokesman of the Tamil National Alliance (TNA) political party, in a letter to President Chandrika Kumaratunga, the TamilNet website reported.
The TNA MPs are widely regarded as proxies of the Tamil Tigers, who on Wednesday accused the government of blocking aid to relief camps in northeastern areas they control.
"The armed forces taking over the management of the welfare camps in the northeast would be counterproductive," Sampanthan wrote.
"It would destabilize all arrangements hitherto made at the district level in the region to address the several consequences of the calamity," he added, calling on the president to cancel the withdraw the soldiers.
The government Wednesday named local military commanders to coordinate relief operations with various governmental agencies after allegations supplies were not getting to the needy.
The rebel Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE) accused the military of "invading" welfare camps and said it was blocking tsunami relief aid to thousands of Tamils in the embattled northern and eastern regions.
"The military is invading all welfare centers and demanding that all relief supplies should be handed over to them and not directly to the people," LTTE's peace secretariat head S. Puleedevan told AFP.
He said there were reports of the military blocking supplies in the districts of Trincomalee, Batticaloa and Ampara, some of the worst hit areas in the Dec. 26 tsunami tragedy that killed 30,513 people across the island.
The president's office denied the claims on Thursday, describing them in a statement as "unfortunate".
For the past two decades the government has been sending food and essential supplies to the Northern and Eastern Provinces to be distributed to people displaced by the military conflict, the statement said.
"Since December 27, regular extra consignments of food, medicine and other essentials have been sent to the people in the North and East affected by the tsunami disaster.
"It is unfortunate that the LTTE and its agents are now carrying on a campaign that LTTE held areas do not receive disaster aid from the government," the statement said.
"The people in the affected areas in Jaffna, Kilinochchi and Mullaitivu have in fact been receiving more government assistance than those affected in the South."
Initially, there were reports of cooperation between government forces and Tamil Tigers in dealing with the immediate aftermath of the disaster, but tensions are resurfacing.
The two sides have observed a truce since February 2002, but Norwegian-backed peace talks have been on hold since April 2003. Despite the deadlock in negotiations, both have pledged to respect the cease-fire.