IDPs grateful to SL Army - British MP

Walter JAYAWARDHANA

Speaking among very hostile to Sri Lanka pro-Tamil members in the House of Commons, the Liberal Democratic MP Malcolm Bruce, who visited Sri Lanka IDP camps last week, said the Internally Displaced people in the camps are very grateful to the Sri Lanka Army for giving them the opportunity to escape.

Malcom Bruce MP said, “I can and should report what people said. They were grateful to the Sri Lankan Army for giving them the opportunity to escape and were glad to be out of the conflict zone. In response to direct questions, they said they had not left earlier because the LTTE had basically said, If you try to leave, you will be shot. They had evidence of people who had tried and who had been shot at.

That is an objective fact. The Member of Parliament further added that many of those people had escaped from the conflict zone at the point at which the Sri Lankan Army had breached the bund that had been built around it.

Something like 165,000 people had walked out and been taken into the camps, the parliamentarian said repudiating some of the propaganda spread in London about the Internally Displaced People.

Replying to an interruption of the usually pro-LTTE Simon Hughes, Malcom Bruce said”, Of course, that is exactly the question we asked. Some of the supplies had been getting in.

Fundamental problem

The fundamental problem, and the Under-Secretary may be able to confirm this, was that the agencies “the UN and others “experienced bureaucratic delays affecting, for example, what trucks they could take in and the visa processes. As a result, a variety of equipment and expertise was poised to go in, but not getting there. It is not true to say that nothing was there, but it was not arriving fast enough and not on the scale that was needed.

“Answering a question about the LTTE cadres who have been taken to another building for rehabilitation, Bruce said”, I am grateful for that intervention because we asked that question.

The local authorities conceded that several thousand people had been taken out of the camps to a nearby technical college where they were being screened and put through rehabilitation.

Apart from whatever that implies, the problem is that people were not given access or information about what was happening, which was causing more distress. To be honest, some people understood the motivations, but were not satisfied because they could not get in touch with others. One woman was in tears: she had a phone number but no access.

Pressure

The Member for Glasgow, Central tried to facilitate that communication. “Speaking about some of the problems at the camps the Member of Parliament said”, there were problems because the food was not arriving at an even speed. There was pressure on water and sanitation. There were not enough medical supplies. As members have said, people were concerned about being separated from their families, not having access to them and not having information about them; they were fearful of what was happening to them. Clearly, we impressed on the Sri Lankan authorities the need to address those issues, again in good faith, if they were honestly claiming to deliver a safe environment before allowing people to return to their own areas.