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.