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Sri Lanka : Sri Lankan government to issue ID cards to IDPs
Thu, May 14, 2009, 02:34 am SL Time,
ColomboPage News Desk, Sri Lanka.May 14, Colombo: Sri Lanka government is planning to issue ID cards to the Internally Displaced Persons (IDPs) in the welfare villages in Vavuniya once the registration process is completed.
The United Nation’s Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA) said it has been informed by the Government of Sri Lanka of the plan to issue ID cards.
The ID cards will allow the IDPs to travel outside camp locations for employment, purchasing provisions and other essential activities.
According to OCHA said over 20,000 IDPs have already registered for the IDs and the process is ongoing.
At the UN press briefing on Wednesday, the Spokesperson for the Secretary-General said that due to the recent massive influx of IDPs to the camps, the military has taken over many of the camp management duties.
However, the UN is urging the Sri Lankan government to use civilians for the management of the camps.
“The United Nations continues to emphasize the need for the camps to be managed by civilians, and reiterates the need for more civilian police, including women police and police from the Tamil community,” the Spokesperson said.
In Menik Farm zone 2, around 30 percent of children under the age of five reportedly suffer from moderate malnutrition, while 20 percent suffer from acute malnutrition, the Spokesperson added.
According to OCHA over 186,000 IDPs are in camps, and some 1,700 wounded and their caregivers in hospitals. Some 50,000 or more people are still trapped in the conflict zone.
Copyright © 2000, 2009 by LankaPage.com (LLC) :
Tamil Refugee Women Still Dream Of Sri Lanka
By Papri Sri Raman, Womens Feature Service
For refugee women, the battles are fought on many fronts. Some fears are known, most unknown. From the fear of having their kids caught and forced to become child soldiers to the day-to-day struggles of livelihood, the shadows looming over them are many.
“The Tamil refugee camps are a fountainhead of stories of single mothers, women-headed families, women growing old with hopes of returning home, of brave young women who have refused to succumb to their dire circumstances,” says Ashok Gladston Xavier of the Department of Social Work at Loyola College, Chennai. Xavier has been assisting Tamil refugees from Sri Lanka for the last 20 years. “Anyone else in their place would have long ago given up,” he adds.
“We had to cross three army check posts. We stopped for a few days at relatives’ houses, pretending we were visiting them. It took us nearly a month to come to Mannar where we finally took the boat,” says Veeram, describing his family’s arduous flight to the safe haven of a small camp hut, about 200 kilometres from Chennai, where he and his family now live.
“There were 22 people in our boat, including 10 children and a pregnant woman. The boat stopped mid-sea, and would not move for 24 hours. Then, early one morning, we were dumped on the sandbars close to the Rameshwaram shore, without even drinking water. We were rescued by Indian fishing boats only in the afternoon,” recalls Yashoda, Veeram’s wife.
Yashoda and her family fled from Nalamkattaisivapuram village in Vavunia in 2006, “for the sake of our four children,” they say. The decision to become refugees was difficult. “But we had to make it” the couple says. “One of the main reasons was our growing daughters. Anita, 15 and Pranita, 13, were stopped every second day to and from school by the military. We were terrified that they would be taken by the soldiers any day,” the mother recalls, the terror of those days returning to her eyes. They, like most fleeing families, “were afraid the girls could be violated or turned into child soldiers”. In India, the family moved across three camps before the adolescent girls could get admission in a high school and hostel in Tamil Nadu.
Ammi fled from her village Illuppaikadavai in 1990, along with five sisters. “Soldiers came into our houses and occupied our homes. Whole villages were bombed. My father was arrested and kept prisoner for 40 days. We decided to leave when he was released,” she recalls. Once in India, Ammi, then 15, could not find a school close enough to the camp and had to discontinue her studies. She first found work at a YMCA dispensary and then at a camp library. Later, she was trained as a nursery school teacher. She married a refugee camp inmate in 1995. However, her husband deserted her within a few months and returned to Sri Lanka.
Ammi’s son was born in the camp and her mother, Amuda, already looking after her own growing daughters, had the additional responsibility of a grandchild as well. “It was tough but, yes, now they are all working,” says Amuda. “Yet, it will never be like living in Sri Lanka,” she remarks wistfully. “There, we had a house and land. Here, we live in rows and rows of two-room huts under constant police surveillance. There we gave the house to our daughter when she got married and built a new house for ourselves. Here we have nothing to give our daughters.”
Ammi works as a tele-marketing executive and lives in a one-room apartment in the city, so that her 13-year-old son can go to an English medium school. “The apartment and school expenses are more than Rs 5,000 (US$1=Rs 50.8) every month. For my son, I will like to stay in Tamil Nadu,” she says.
“The Tamil refugee women are very resilient. They learn to sustain themselves,” says Xavier. He gives the example of Arulmalar, now a resident of a camp near Tirunelveli. She too was deserted by her husband and has brought up three children by tailoring and doing part-time work for relief organisations. She is also a self-taught and amazing records-keeper for all meetings and proceedings that relief agencies like OfERR (Organisation for Eelam Refugees Rehabilitation) undertake.
Xavier has been training refugee women to become career persons and community leaders. They learn tailoring, typing, data operating, accountancy, become health workers, social workers and Self-Help Group (SHG) managers.
The 25-year ethnic war between Tamil militants and Sri Lanka authorities has resulted in the displacement of thousands of young women. There are nearly 15,000 young girls under 17 born to Tamil refugee mothers living in the 117 camps in Tamil Nadu.
Srikumari, a refugee widow with two children, can barely make ends meet. She works at a flourmill near the camp where she lives, which is about 350 kilometres from Chennai. Every 90 kilograms of flour packed in one-kilo packets, fetches her just Rs 15. “Where will I go for new kind of work?” asks Srikumari. Allergy from the flour and the pesticide it contains forces her to stay home most days. Her old mother now takes care of her and her teenaged children.
Genelia and Janice, two sisters from a Tirunelveli camp, have done their graduation in mathematics. The question is where do such bright and hard-working young women go for work? “We don’t know how Vanni (the northern Sri Lanka district from where the family fled) is, we don’t know if we will find work, but yes, it will be good to see our home we have heard so much about,” they say.
At best, young women like Suganthi, 21, who was three when her parents crossed over to India, hope to become school teachers. Living all her life in a camp she has learnt the basics of computers and teaches in a school. “I do not know if I will be allowed to work after I get married,” she says.
There are more than 20,000 women living in the Indian camps, says Thenmozhi, who coordinates women’s affairs for OfERR. Her family fled from Velanai in 1990. She was one of the lucky ones – she had older brothers and sisters already studying in India. “We have learnt to eat ‘idli’ and ‘dosa’ (traditional South Indian rice and lentil based dishes) instead of ‘idiappam’ and ‘puttu’ (rice and lentil based steamed dishes). We have learnt to wear the salwar kameez and saris instead of sarongs and skirts. We have adapted and integrated, so that we become a part of the milieu, but ask any woman in the camp and everyone says she wants to go back home to Sri Lanka,” she says.
This young woman has devoted 15 years of her life to the welfare of refugee women, readjustment counselling, providing them clothing, assisting with their sanitation needs, starting empowerment and skill development programmes, helping set up SHGs in camps, training them to become awareness creators, motivators and leaders. “I am preparing my people for the day we will all return home to Sri Lanka,” she says proudly.
(Some names of individuals and camps have been changed/withheld to protect identity.)
Womens Feature Service covers developmental, political, social and economic issues in India and around the globe. To get these articles for your publication, contact WFS at the www.wfsnews.org website.
Copyright © 2009, NewsBlaze, Daily News
Government to offer more autonomy to the North
Financial Times
The government is to present a constitutional amendment titled ‘13th Amendment Plus’ to grant more provincial autonomy to the North to address the grievances of the Tamils after the end of the war against terror, a Minister and former militant leader, said last week.
Minister of Social Services and Social Welfare Douglas Devananda, also leader of the Eelam People’s Democratic Party (EPDP), said that an All Party Representative Committee is finalizing proposals, including necessary constitutional amendments, to address grievances of the Tamils. “We refer to this as ‘13th Amendment Plus’, that is, deeper provincial autonomy than currently in the Constitution. This will include a Second Chamber based on Provinces,” he said.
He was addressing the Business for Peace Forum on the theme ‘Role of the private sector in the post conflict development of the North and East of Sri Lanka’ organized by the Federation of Chambers of Commerce and Industry of Sri Lanka (FCCISL) on April 20 in Colombo. Minister Devananda said that an interim Special Task Force (STF), headed by him, has been appointed to handle development and resettlement related works in Sri Lanka’s war-ravaged Northern Province. “The STF will be in force until a provincial council election is held for the north,” he said.
An ‘Assessment of Needs in the Conflict Affected Areas of Northern and Eastern Provinces’ prepared by the Asian Development Bank, United Nations and World Bank has been estimated at US $ 3085.8 million. Rebuilding the war-torn society and providing sustainable livelihood assistance for the affected population is a colossal task. The government has obtained loans and grants from multilateral and bilateral institutions and the recovery programme is being implemented in the East, but the needs are enormous and assistance from benevolent people and friendly countries is necessary to rebuild war-torn areas, he said.
In the Jaffna District alone due to the conflict and tsunami 12,628 persons have died, 93,225 persons are displaced; 100,577 houses have been damaged or destroyed and more than Rs.30 billion is required for the reconstruction of the damaged or destroyed infrstructure. The GA, Jaffna has identified 75 infrastructure development projects which according to current estimates would cost Rs 150.394 billion. Out of 178,589 families living in Jaffna as of December 2008, 115,550 families are economically affected and live on government relief. Another 20,610 families are in need of relief. Out of the 115,550 families living on government relief, 25,798 families are internally displaced due to the war, he said..
Minister Devananda said that a significant number of Tamil Diaspora members have realized the fallacy of LTTE claims.They appreciate government efforts to protect civilians and to reintegrate the population which was under LTTE control with the rest of the country. “Our efforts to develop the North and East, and to develop infrastructure and promote investment are being appreciated. They have indicated their willingness to participate in the development projects, once normalcy is established in the region,” he said .
Now media freedom condition for IMF loan
Financial Times
Reporters Without Borders (RWB) is raising the ‘lamentable state of press freedom ‘ in Sri Lanka at a time when the International Monetary Fund (IMF) is considering a major loan for President Mahinda Rajapaksa’s government.
In a letter to IMF Managing Director Dominique Strauss-Khan dated May 5, the global media watch dog’s Secretary General Jean-Francois Julliard is urging the IMF to obtain specific undertakings from the government to respect press freedom and the rule of law in return for granting this loan.
Mr. Julliard wrote that the Sri Lankan government’s crushing victory over the LTTE at a cost of thousands of civilian casualties, has been accompanied by a ruthless campaign against the press and critical voices. Of all the countries with a democratically elected government, Sri Lanka is one that shows least respect for media freedom, he wrote.
Mr. Julliard added that Sri Lanka is spending as much as US$1.6 billion on defence in its 2009 budget, a 6.5% increase on the 2007 allocation, while neglecting social needs. Some army units are implicated in alleged ‘war crimes ‘ . Others are suspected of responsibility for many cases of violence against journalists and human rights activists. Sri Lankan and foreign journalists have been kept away from the battlefield.
The authorities also restrict press access to the Jaffna peninsula and detention camps.
Mr. Julliard said there will be no process of reconciliation and reconstruction without press freedom. If Tamils are deprived of the media that represent them freely, even if these media are sometimes guilty of excesses, future generations will take up arms again. He also said it is vital that, as a conciliatory gesture, the Tamil journalists currently held, including J.S. Tissainayagam, are released.
The Economic Key to Sri Lankan Peace
Without growth, the war can’t be won.
By RAZEEN SALLY From today’s Wall Street Journal Asia.
The Sri Lankan government is close to completing an emphatic military victory over the Tamil Tiger rebels. Sri Lanka’s president, Mahinda Rajapakse, must follow up his military victory with a just settlement for the Tamil minority. If not, terrorism will go underground and ethnic conflict will continue to fester. But just as importantly, Sri Lanka’s economy needs radical change. Peace and development go together.
Sri Lanka’s economy has fallen far below its potential. At independence in 1948, the country formerly known as Ceylon was at peace, had a stable parliamentary democracy and was Asia’s second-wealthiest nation. Its prospects were golden. It had a prospering plantation economy, and, by developing-country standards, a well-developed infrastructure, an efficient public administration and judiciary, and significant achievements in health and education.
Yet the Sinhala political elite soon pandered to the worst instincts of the Sinhala ethnic majority, egged on by a xenophobic Buddhist clergy. Successive governments played the populist ethnic card, increasing discrimination against the Tamil minority. This sowed the seeds of the Tiger terrorist movement, culminating in all-out violent conflict in 1983.
Disastrous economic policies exacerbated the civil unrest. Sri Lanka suffered from chronic fiscal and monetary profligacy, and followed the Indian path of rampant government intervention and trade protectionism. By the mid-1970s, the economy was close to ruin. Economic growth had almost come to a halt — it averaged less than three per cent between 1970 and 1976 — real incomes were stagnant and unemployment reached 25% of the labor force. Welfare policies churned out educated youth among the poor, but they had no job prospects in a stagnant economy. Disaffection led many to extremism and violence, not just in the Tamil north but also in the Sinhala south.
The one bright spot was the major liberalization of the economy in the late 1970s, followed by reform bursts in later decades. Sri Lanka’s reforms re-opened the country’s economy to the world and created thriving domestic industries. Thus despite civil war, macroeconomic instability and misgovernance, Sri Lanka has grown at about six percent annually. Average real incomes, at about $1,500, are 50% higher than they are in India. Outside the fighting zones, ordinary people are significantly better off than they were a generation ago.
Key to this success has been industrialization and a more diversified services economy. Employment in the formal manufacturing sector has more than doubled since 1980; and the share of manufacturing in total merchandise trade has increased from five per cent to close to 70% of GDP. The star in the firmament is a strong, labor-intensive garments industry — a direct product of liberalization. This industry, which emerged in the early 1980s, now accounts for about 50% of total export earnings and employs about one million people.
Still, Sri Lanka is a sad tale of what might have been. Reform has proceeded in stop-go fashion. Public spending, budget deficits and inflation have run wild. Of a country of 20 million people and a labor force of under seven million, around one million now work for the bloated public sector. Inflation peaked at close to 30% last year, and official reserves were blown away defending an exchange-rate peg of 108 rupees to the dollar. Yet again, Sri Lanka faces a home-brewed balance-of-payments crisis and is currently negotiating a $1.9 billion loan with the International Monetary Fund. Trade protectionism has increased, with a paraphernalia of additional import taxes. Discretionary powers have also been used more frequently and selectively to restrict imports, for example through customs delays and extra charges. The domestic private sector has been repressed with additional taxes and regulatory burdens. The government has even set up its own — predictably loss-making — low-cost airline.
Now, academics and intellectuals advising the government are advocating a state-directed economy, infant-industry promotion and agricultural self-sufficiency. Policy making is more populist and unpredictable, favoring the politically connected and sidelining technocratic advice. Corruption and institutional rot set in long ago, but recently they have plumbed new depths.
A widely shared sentiment in Sri Lanka is that military victory will translate into peace and fast development. This is wishful thinking. Without a policy overhaul, Sri Lanka faces either slow material decline or something worse, especially with a bleak global economic outlook. The short-term imperative is to allow the exchange rate to devalue to a market-determined level, cut public subsidies and make fiscal and monetary policy more transparent.
Beyond that, trade tariff hikes should be reversed, with accompanying simplification of trade and foreign-investment measures. There needs to be deep public-sector reform; a move to market pricing for oil and electricity; and, not least, big cuts in the defense budget. Drastic domestic deregulation is also imperative to cut the high cost of doing business. In the longer-term, Sri Lanka needs to revamp its rotten political culture and public institutions.
With peace and East Asian-style policies of macroeconomic prudence, openness to the world economy and better government at home, Sri Lanka would be where Malaysia is today. On that measure, absolute poverty would have been eradicated, average living standards would be four times what they are now, clusters of multinational enterprises would link the economy to global supply chains, tourism would be flourishing, services would be hitched to the Indian outsourcing juggernaut, and ordinary Sri Lankans would be able to realize aspirations they can only dream about today.
Given the government’s record, the odds are against a near-term economic policy turnaround. A weak, divided political opposition does not provide a credible alternative. It is safe to say that without a change of economic direction, Sri Lanka will continue to fail to achieve its golden potential — with or without peace.
Mr. Sally is director of the European Centre for International Political Economy and professor of international political economy at the London School of Economics.
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From: Foreign Policy, http://www.foreignpolicy.com
The List: Five Disease Outbreaks That Are Worse Than Swine Flu
By Joshua Keating
Posted May 2009
Swine flu has infected 1,500 people worldwide and killed around 30, almost all in Mexico. But it is far from the world’s most serious disease outbreak. Here are five you probably won’t see on the evening news.
CHOLERA
What is it? An acute diarrheal infection that can lead to death from dehydration or severe kidney failure. Unlike other diarrheal diseases, it is often deadly in both children and adults.
Where is it? Worried about a pandemic? Cholera has been a global scourge since 1961. The disease is endemic in many parts of Africa, Southern Asia, and Latin America. New infections jumped 96 percent in 2006. The growing severity of the disease is likely due to overpopulation in areas without sufficient sanitation.
Current outbreak: In what the World Health Organization described as the “worst case scenario,” a cholera outbreak that began in August 2008 has infected more than 96,000 people in Zimbabwe, resulting in over 4,200 deaths. The country’s lack of water and sewer infrastructure has exacerbated the problem, not to mention the fact that many Zimbabwean doctors are refusing to work for Zimbabwe’s virtually worthless currency. In recent months, the number of new reported cases has declined, but the WHO warns that a return of the disease is likely in August.
SPINAL MENINGITIS
What is it? An infection of the fluid around the spinal cord and brain. Severe cases of bacterial meningitis can result in brain damage or death if not treated quickly.
Where is it? Outbreaks of meningitis appear frequently in the northern Sahel region of sub-Saharan Africa, known to researchers as the “meningitis belt.” The latest outbreak has been particularly severe in Nigeria, Niger, and Chad.
Current outbreak: Since the beginning of 2009, a meningitis outbreak has killed more than 1,900 people in the three countries — 1,500 in Nigeria alone. More than 56,000 cases have been reported in the worst outbreak of the disease since 1996, when at least 25,000 people died. In Chad, where meningitis drugs are difficult to find, one in 10 people infected with the disease dies. It is thought that an unusually cold climate has made the outbreak worse than normal this year. In response, NGO Médecins Sans Frontieres has launched its largest-ever vaccination campaign for any disease. The group has already vaccinated 5.4 million people and plans to vaccinate another 1.7 million.
AIDS
What is it? A disease affecting the human immune system, making individuals more susceptible to deadly infections. AIDS has killed 25 million people around the world since 1981.
Where is it? 33 million people around the world are currently living with the AIDS virus, 22 million of them in sub-Saharan Africa. New drugs make it possible to dramatically extend the length and quality of life of AIDS patients, but in developing countries, less than a third of those in immediate need of treatment receive the drugs.
Current outbreak: China has attracted international attention for the draconian measures it has taken to prevent a swine flu outbreak, but it has been less quick to react to the AIDS epidemic that killed 7,000 people throughout the country in the first nine months of 2008 alone. AIDS quietly became the deadliest infectious disease in the country last year, beating out tuberculosis. China’s numbers are still relatively smaller relative to world totals, but their rise has been meteoric. Three years ago, fewer than 8,000 people had ever died of AIDS in China. Efforts to get accurate reporting on the epidemic is difficult in the country because of the stigma attached to the disease — nearly half of Chinese say they would never eat with an HIV-positive person — and because local officials intentionally underreport numbers in order to stay out of trouble with Beijing.
EBOLA
What is it? A severe viral disease in humans and primates that causes fever, muscle pain, diarrhea, vomiting, and in some cases internal bleeding and skin rash. Ebola has a very high fatality rate, up to 90 percent in some outbreaks, and has appeared sporadically since 1976. The disease tends to infect healthcare workers or family members who bury the dead.
Where is it? So far, outbreaks of the most deadly form of Ebola, the Zaire strain, have only appeared in central Africa, where unsterile hospital conditions make the transmission of the virus through personal contact or bodily fluids more likely. Congo, Uganda, and Sudan have suffered the worst outbreaks. The non-fatal (unless you’re a monkey) Ebola-Reston strain has appeared in the United States, Italy, and the Philippines.
Current outbreak: The most recent outbreak of the disease in Congo was declared over in mid-February after 32 cases and 15 deaths. 2007’s outbreak was more severe, resulting in 187 deaths, 71 percent of those affected. Uganda, Sudan, and Gabon have also suffered outbreaks in the last decade. The good news? Ebola is unlikely to develop into a pandemic because of the difficulty of transmission, but its terrifyingly high fatality rate has caused countries to close their borders in order to prevent its spread.
DENGUE FEVER
What is it? An infection spread by mosquitoes that causes acute muscle and joint pain. Cases are generally non-lethal but dengue occasionally results in a deadly hemorrhagic fever.
Where is it? Dengue fever outbreaks have been reported in the tropics for centuries, but until 1970, only around 9 countries had been afflicted. Infections have spiked dramatically in dozens of countries in recent years, and there are now an estimated 50 million infections per year. Around two fifths of the world’s population is currently at risk for the disease, according to the WHO. Latin America has been particularly susceptible. Unlike other mosquito borne-diseases, such as malaria, dengue affects both urban and rural areas.
Current outbreak: While the world’s attention has been focused on Mexico’s swine flu, a severe dengue outbreak infected 50,000 people in Bolivia and more than 20,000 in Argentina. (Georgetown’s Michael Shifter wrote for FP this week about how the Argentine government’s slow response to the crisis has become a scandal in Buenos Aires.) Exact figures are difficult to obtain due to underreporting, but the death toll is thought to be in the hundreds. Australia is also struggling to contain a dengue outbreak that has infected nearly 1,000 people.
Joshua Keating is deputy Web editor at FP.
BBC NEWS | What now for Sri Lanka’s displaced?
April 23, 2009
By Samanthi Dissanayake
BBC NewsAs Sri Lanka’s army corners Tamil Tiger rebels in a tiny sliver of land, the next test for the government lies in how it deals with the mass exodus of humanity from the war zone.
The army says more than 80,000 people have fled the area in the past two days – a figure that already exceeds the government’s earlier estimates of the number of civilians trapped.
Estimates of the numbers left inside vary from 30,000 to 120,000 people – but conditions for them have been described as “nothing short of catastrophic” by the ICRC (International Committee of the Red Cross).
The rebels and the army have accused each other of killing civilians in recent confrontations.
Those that escaped have made a harrowing journey, navigating swampy territory, carrying their belongings and wading through a lagoon until they reach military checkpoints on the other side.
They are processed at these checkpoints, they are taken to reception centres at Omanthai and from there, eventually, to internally displaced people (IDP) camps in the dry, arid district of Vavuniya.
Shelter ‘crisis’
But there are questions about how so many people can be housed adequately in such a short time – and how long they will have to stay there.
“A huge influx of people like this means you are going to have a crisis, especially in an underdeveloped area like Vavuniya,” says Tony Senewiratne, national director for Habitat for Humanity, a shelter organisation.
The government has cleared 900 acres of land for shelters and IDPs are also being housed in schools.
“If you can visualise a very dry area where temperatures rise to about 35C, it’s hot and humid, the ground has little shade. People are confined to small tents, tarpaulin or plastic. During the heat of the day it would be impossible to stay inside and there is no shelter outside,” said Mr Senewiratne.
“It is going to be a difficult issue for anyone to solve quickly,” he said, with part of his task to assess the building of transitional shelters.
‘Two year’ wait
Mr Senewiratne says that although aid agencies would like to see people resettled within months, it could take up to two years before IDPs are relocated.
“Therefore temporary shelters being put down on the ground are not adequate,” he said.
This timescale is endorsed by Roshan Mendis, CEO of the Lanka Evangelical Alliance Development Service (LEADS), who adds that this is an ever bigger challenge than the tsunami.
“It could take anything up to two years. Look at the realities of the situation and how long it took us to put people back even after the tsunami, which didn’t have these political ramifications.”
Mr Mendis says he has “fast-depleting resources to cope with the numbers” in the camp that his organisation manages.
They have 19 community kitchens which are run by the IDPs themselves, the most efficient way, he says, of managing the operation. As they are about to receive 5,000 more IDPs straight from the war zone, they are building more kitchens.
“ It’s hot and humid, the ground has little shade. People are confined to small tents, tarpaulin or plastic ”
Tony SenewiratneHe also says conditions are poor: “When it rains, the ground has not been prepared with draining, so sections get flooded out. So conditions are not the best for the elderly and the children. A tent can have up to three family units and you do get cases of people not knowing each other living essentially in one tent,” he said.
Another major concern for rights groups has been the lack of freedom of movement between camps. Families have been split up and, according to a statement by Medecins Sans Frontieres, [MSF] been unable to find any information about relatives who may be in other camps.
Mutthiahi Linganathan arrived in one of the camps three weeks ago and describes how he ran and crawled through the war zone to escaped the firing.
He told the BBC the toilets were working but there was a shortage of drinking water.
“They don’t allow us to meet our relatives. I have three sons studying in Vavuniya. I want to go and live with them. But here they don’t allow me even to meet them,” he said.
The LTTE have described the units as “internment camps”.
‘Feel safer’
Mr Mendis points out that while conditions might not be the best, “talking to people, they feel much safer here than they did where they were before”.
And the government is confident it can provide for the latest IDPs streaming in from the war zone.
Minister for Rehabilitation and Resettlement Ameer Ali says the government has processed 74,000 people already and is in the process of accommodating 58,000 more.
“We have the capacity to look after them and their shelter. There is no problem at all. Whoever comes, we can accommodate. Altogether 120,000 IDPs have come and we are hoping that there are 20,000 to 30,000 more still inside the safe zone,” he told the BBC News website.
He asserts that the government is eager to resettle people as quickly as possible.
But, he adds: “We can’t say about the time factor. We have to check the area, do mine-checking and clearing. Until such a time we cannot comment on when we will resettle.”
Story from BBC NEWS:
http://news.bbc.co.uk/go/pr/fr/-/2/hi/south_asia/8011862.stmPublished: 2009/04/23 06:05:04 GMT
© BBC MMIX
from groundviews by Laksundara
Imagine what will happen to your life if you have to just drop everything you are doing and run for your life. Possibly leaving behind your livelihood (farmers cannot take their land or livestock with them when escaping) and all other possessions, and being on the move with only the clothes on your back.
In Sri Lanka, there are events in motion that have created just the perfect environment for “event-horizons”. An “event-horizon” in the movies is usually a black-hole where any hapless space faring vessel when caught, has to go through a slowing down in time. Hapless people caught in its fringes are unable to escape due to the pull of the black-hole. While it is possible to escape from these “event-horizons”, it usually is about someone else coming and rescuing. But mostly those caught in these “zones” are soon forgotten. Though time has not literally stopped, it nevertheless does run at a pace totally different from what is real. I am referring to the events none other than the conflict which is in full swing, and the hapless victims unable to break out of its pull.
Sri Lanka, specifically the North has been in the grasp of a black-hole for the past several years. Most of the time almost no information gets out, just like light is sucked into a black-hole. And now there are IDPs stuck in the event horizon. Their brave attempts to escape the black-hole ended up with them being stuck in “event-horizon” camps.
Imagine what will happen to your life if you have to just drop everything you are doing and run for your life. Possibly leaving behind your livelihood (farmers cannot take their land or livestock with them when escaping) and all other possessions, and being on the move with only the clothes on your back. Their lives have stopped, sucked down into a black hole. And when they attempt to escape the event itself, which a few of the lucky ones have at great cost, they find themselves trapped in this “event-horizon”. Now how has life slowed down or stopped for them here in the camps, where we in Colombo expect everything to be ok? I am sure they will be forgotten soon like the tsunami victims still stuck in camps.
Life is now at crawl pace for them. The “lucky-ones” are sent to government run, transit camps. The conditions: tarpaulin tents one per family, temperature during day time: 35C, trees to shelter under: none, tents with the height of 6 feet in the center for a person to stand up only in the middle. So they do not need to stay in those tents all day? But rather they must, for they have nothing else to do or nowhere else to go. Imagine us in those tents; we would not have tolerated even a few days.
Termed as temporary/transit camp sites, they are run with the help of the aid agencies. As they are international agencies, they state that they are responding to the situation in accordance with internationally recognized standards for temporary initiatives. While these standards would have been fine in another context, they are totally inadequate for the temporary long-term requirement (note the contrast between temporary and long-term). With the forecast being 1-3 years for many, the responses and interventions are ill-conceived and culturally inappropriate. This is seen by the response with regard to both food and shelter provided to the IDPs.
Shelter
The construction of these camps take place by bull-dozing trees and all vegetation and then setting up the tarpaulin shelter that is provided to the displaced people arriving in Vavuniya. The shelters built in fact do not adhere to the minimum international standards in shelter, as described in the SPHERE Humanitarian Charter to which agencies committed themselves to adhere to.Taking into account these standards, the majority of the shelters have too little space, too little ventilation, ceilings are too low and roofs are not made by the ascribed locally produced and culturally accepted materials (use of cadjun roofs would have been a better and cheaper option). No one stays in the tent during the day, although that is the time people want to shelter from the hot sun. At the moment some of these camps have buildings and trees at the transit sites (these are schools which are converted into camps). But the purposely built sites like Menik farm hardly have any trees (as said before the land was cleared by bulldozers to accommodate the IDPs, allowing just a few trees here and there to remain).
The IDPs cannot leave the area and find a shade to spend the day as they are confined by barb wire. In the absence of trees and shelter with tarpaulin roofs, the IDPs are left without proper protection against the sun and heat. It is equally inappropriate during the rainy season as it was seen in the past few weeks, since the water seeps through the tarpaulin sheet that is put to the ground and water also leaks through the roofing tarpaulin into the tent when the rain is heavy.
Food
At the moment WFP is providing 1880 calories consisting of rice, wheat flour, dhal, 20ml oil and 20g of sugar, which is again below the SPHERE standard and the WFP/UNHCR/WHO/UNICEF minimal food requirement for emergencies and not adequate for IDPs who have been underfed and living under extremely stressful conditions for the past several months. Besides, in the Guiding Principles for Humanitarian and Development Assistance in Sri Lanka, all agencies have committed themselves to ‘work in response to the expressed wishes of local communities’ and to ‘respect the dignity of people, their culture, religion and customs’. It is not possible to make a culturally accepted Sri Lankan meal with the above mentioned food items.However WFP does provide supplementary food (corn, soya blend) as part of their normal food parcel to families with pregnant women, lactating mothers and children under 5, but the total amount of Calories in the parcel will not exceed 2100Kcal (Standard nutritional need for SL according to the Government is 1900Kcal/per/day). Complementary food baskets have been given by some agencies, but the challenge they face is to sustain this highly expensive component for such a large number of people over a long period.
Possibly such low standards are forced upon these people because, in a frozen time frame, they would not need the minimum requirement?
Other Conditions
These are the direct problems in these welfare villages, but things like Chickenpox, Diarrhea, skin/eye infection, respiration problems which could have been controlled and stopped are now common and part of the simple package at these welfare centers. Poor water and hygiene conditions with cramped living conditions have contributed to this.Privacy is a luxury that is ill-affordable (non-existent). People have to bathe in open spaces (that is if they are lucky to get enough water). Imagine you and I were asked to bathe in an open area where everyone can see, especially for women.
The Menik Farm type camps will not be different from the present school camps, which are not different from Kalimoddai and Sirukandal camps (no freedom of movement for IDPs and no unrestricted access to humanitarian agencies). Kalimoddai and Sirukandal camps in Mannar, have been operational for nearly a year and despite vigorous advocacy, the freedom of movement for civilians remains unresolved, unrestricted access to humanitarian agencies has not been granted. Finally after living and suffering long-term in these temporary conditions, the people of Kalimoddai begged an agency to provide them rigid/ semi-permanent shelters. Is Kalimoddai, a camp where time stood still, a model for all camps to follow?
So despite the rhetoric, everything looks geared for these IDPs to be held longer than the claimed 3 months. Many IDPs will remain in the Vavuniya/ Mannar area for a period of 1 to 3 years, until the screening process and de-mining is completed. Some senior government officials say that IDPs will have to stay in these camps for at least 6 months to 1 year, in order for the Vanni to be cleared of infiltration and mines. They say a full clearance must be done and once the Vanni is cleared, the regime will allow these people to resettle wherever they like. (Let us assume that where they want to settle in have not been turned into camps for other IDPs or the forces). So the way forward is clear, and that is forward to nowhere.
There are ‘sympathetic’ Government Ministers, Officials, Diplomats, Ambassadors, INGOs rushing around in their luxury jeeps and cruisers (Indicators of some crisis? But when the existence of a humanitarian crisis is downplayed by the Government, one wonders what they are doing). But the question is how much have they achieved in improving conditions (other than their own)? All the hotels are full of these people just a few kilometers away from the ‘welfare centers’. These diplomats and donors are enjoying luxurious meals in nice hotels and talking about the IDPs’ welfare while the people whom they talk about do not have proper shelter or food or water.
It makes everyone to wonder whether the humanitarian agencies are exploiting the IDPs’ situation for their own benefit. It could be justified as that it is part of the humanitarian business. However, it should be noted that the government does not have the money or resources without the help of these agencies. The government can say or show it in paper that they are providing everything for the so called welfare centers, but the reality and ground situation is that it is just a NATO (No Action Talk Only) scene. Whatever provided so far are mostly by the international donors, UN agencies and international agencies.
It needs to be mentioned that those few humanitarian agency officials who may want to actually help these people face a dilemma in terms of assisting these people vs supporting camps where unlawful detention is practiced. In addition, the regime has been manipulating agencies (using visas, security clearances and even fabricated negative media campaigns as tools) to achieve their political purposes and making the working environment of aid agencies extremely difficult (although the regime states the opposite in pubic).
Recently some Diplomats were heard saying “IDPs are well fed, well educated and well looked after. The children are receiving a good education and they lead a life free of danger in these camps until they are resettled in their villages”. One may wonder which IDPs they are referring to. We all know that these so called responsible ‘ambassadors’ of good-will are paid to be mouth pieces of their respective countries that they represent and these statements are reflections of political/economic agendas of these countries.
Who is responsible for this black hole of displacement, destruction of property and livelihoods, haplessness and the poor conditions faced by these people? The current regime and the hypocrites who are applauding the war and looking at blood shed and IDPs as an inevitable consequence of overcoming terrorism should look in the mirror and see. They are all living comfortable and selfish lives in the south, serving their own interest. They who can help do not lift a finger to help those in need, in what they proclaim is their motherland. They are quick to believe the propaganda of state media which is nothing more than a lie covered in a thin veil of patriotism. They point fingers at humanitarian agencies who even with all their imperfections are still keeping these IDPs alive.
Government contradictorily states they have no funds to help these camps and requests agencies to do everything for these people (except for some land clearance and community infrastructure done, where it is a known fact that certain ministers and their relatives made huge earnings); although in state media and with international diplomats they claim to fully take care of all the needs of IDPs. But one wonders how such a Government has sufficient funds to look after all the exorbitant needs and demands of their many ministers, spend on election campaigns and exhibitions such as “Dayata kirula”. Is the propagation of rhetoric where millions are spent, to meet their political and personal needs more important than the IDPs?
With the current situation for the camps and the up-coming un-official economic melt-down, the Government and the aid agencies are not capable to receive another 100-150,000 IDPs in the near future. Even for those who are already in the camps, they too will soon be victims of the ever growing black hole. The light of war victories and resulting celebrations and propaganda, will do nothing to these people. One wonders whether there is a single party that actually cares for these people who have been subjected to displacement due to war. Neither those who claim to be their liberators or those who claim to be humanitarian actors, nor those who claim to be their fellow citizens all who are sitting pretty in the Colombo and other un-affected areas of the country seem to honestly care.
15/04/2009
Where are the children in these elections?
Thomas Chandy
All political parties must make investing in children a national priority.
Around 13 million children under the age of 14 work as child labour
Compulsory elementary education still remains a distant dream
Paromita comes from a poor family in West Bengal; her father spends his earnings as a daily wage labourer on drinking alcohol and gambling. Paromita was brought to Kolkata by an older woman from her village at the age of 11 to work as a domestic worker. The woman found the girl work in a south Kolkata household. Paromita was given Rs.100 a month and made to work more than 14 hours every day. She was also beaten regularly by her employer. Paromita and her sisters have never been to school.
For Paromita and millions of other socially and economically underprivileged children in India, what do these elections mean? Yet again the world’s largest democratic exercise sees the concerns of children remaining on the fringes of policy debate as an analysis of the manifestos of the two big parties — Congress and BJP — shows.
At its Karachi Convention, the All-India Congress Committee took a resolution on fundamental rights. The party made a declaration then that any Constitution which may be agreed to on its behalf should provide, or enable the Swaraj Government to provide for, among other things: Free primary education, and prohibition against employment of school-going children in schools. That was in 1931. It is 2009 now and the 15th round of elections since Independence are in. The Congress has been in power for the most number of years than any other party since Independence. In fact, till 1975, the Congress was the only party to win a majority in the parliamentary elections. So how much has the party delivered on the resolutions it made at that historic convention in Karachi?
Compulsory elementary education still remains a distant dream. Fifty per cent of children drop out of elementary school in the country. Official figures report that approximately seven million children are out of school. Around two million children under the age of five die every year. Almost half of all children under the age of five are malnourished. The country has the shocking distinction of having the world’s largest number of sexually abused children. India also arguably has the highest number of children facing exploitation and neglect.
Around 13 million children under the age of 14 work as child labour. The Government of India is committed to the United Nations Convention on Rights of Children. Article 32 of the UNCRC, for example, states that ‘State parties recognize the right of the child to be protected from economic exploitation and from performing any work that is likely to be hazardous or to interfere with the child’s education.” This is rarely followed in spirit. Further, the distinction between hazardous and non-hazardous labour is arbitrary. There is little coherence between elements of the government’s policy towards child labour and the articles outlined in international conventions.
The government claims to have introduced new laws during its time in power to eliminate child labour. The reality is that it merely brought in a notification including child domestic work and employment of children in hotels, restaurants and dhabas as hazardous labour under the Child Labour Prohibition and Regulation Act (CLPRA). Millions of children, especially under the age of 14, are employed in the agriculture sector and other unorganised sectors but the manifesto is silent on this.
In its manifesto, the Congress has promised to set up one model school in every block of the country. Over the next five years, the party promises to add one more model school in every block. This will mean a substantial increase in expenditure on education. The Congress has not spelt out clearly how much of an increase in budgetary allocation it envisages for education. In 2008, the State spent less than five per cent of its budget on children, mainly for education and healthcare.
The Congress also promises to focus on the outcomes and achievement levels in education and not just on enrolment in school. However, it offers nothing new except for a teacher training programme and improvement of physical infrastructure of schools, which are already being addressed by the Sarva Siksha Abhiyan. Also, the party is silent on the promise it made on the Fundamental Right to Education Bill.
The BJP does not fare better either. The party has made some promises on child related issues but significantly there are glaring ambiguities too. Its manifesto offers to raise the budgetary allocation for education from six per cent to nine per cent. However, it is not clear what proportion of this will go for school education and how much for higher education. Again, interestingly, instead of a solid commitment to prohibiting all forms of child labour up to the age of 14 and a comprehensive rehabilitation programme for children rescued from child labour and their families, the party promises to set up a national child labour commission. This is hardly an innovative solution to tackling modern-day slavery of children and will only create further confusion. Moreover, it is not clear how different this body will be from the existing National Commission for Protection of Child Rights (NCPCR) which is mandated with the promotion and protection of child rights. Setting up another commission will further fragment policy approach to children’s issues.
For example, will cases of corporal punishment and sexual exploitation (or any other violence against children) be taken up by the NCPCR while the new commission handles child labour issues? Now what happens if a child worker is sexually exploited by the employer? Will both the commissions serve notice on the employer or will both say “it doesn’t fall in the ambit of our mandate and it’s for the other commission to take action?”
Nineteen per cent of the children in the world live in India. India is a youthful nation; the 440 million people in the country aged below 18 years are its future. India can only rightfully take its place on the world stage if it takes steps to ensure that the future of its children, and therefore the country, is secure. All political parties must make investing in children a national priority and indeed this is critical to ensuring sustainable progress in social and economic productivity.
(The writer is CEO, Save the Children. To know more about the organisation’s work, log on: www.savethechildren.in )
© Copyright 2000 – 2008 The Hindu
LABOUR-SRI LANKA:
Gloomy Prospects in 2009Feizal Samath
COLOMBO, Jan 2 (IPS) – If the global financial crisis slams the brakes on worker remittances from the Middle East, Sri Lanka’s top foreign exchange earner, it could severely exacerbate this country’s economic woes, analysts say.
Shrinking oil incomes in the Middle East have already affected the construction industry and the real estate business in which tens of thousands of Sri Lankans are employed.‘’There are at least 25,000 to 30,000 Sri Lankans in construction work in Dubai alone. They could lose their jobs, their salaries could get delayed or not be paid at all,’’ said Suraj Dandeniya, former president of the Association of Licensed Foreign Employment Agencies (ALFEA) of Sri Lanka.
Dandeniya told IPS that there has already been a 15-20 percent drop in demand for female domestic workers. Chamali Wickremasinghe, who runs an employment agency servicing the Middle East, says she is facing hard times.
‘’We are very worried. Job orders are shrinking and we see a drop of at least 50 percent in the coming months. I have four employees and its tough surviving,” she said. Another former president of the ALFEA, Anver Ulumudeen, believes that while the bigger agencies may survive, the smaller ones are sure to wind down.
More than a million Sri Lankans work in the Middle East 60 percent of whom are poor, rural women who repatriate all their earnings to support their families back home.
Remittances this year are expected to reach three billion US dollars — up from 2.5 billion dollars in 2007– taking care of 70 percent of the country’s trade deficit.
Any fall in remittances are sure to have a ripple effect on the economy since almost a quarter of Sri Lanka’s 20 million people depend directly or indirectly on this income, economists say.
Although Sri Lanka’s garments export industry also brings in three million dollars annually, nearly half of the earnings are reinvested in the import of fabrics and accessories. With prices for Sri Lankan commodities such as rubber and tea crashing, remittances remain the mainstay.
When he raised the issue in parliament, in November, opposition legislator Anura Kumara Disanayaka called for the state to be prepared to intervene if the rate at which Sri Lankans are losing jobs in the Middle East worsens.
The problem is one faced not by Sri Lanka alone. According to the World Bank, anything between 350 to 650 billion dollars are sent back home by some 150 million international migrants and predicts that these remittances could drop by one percent in 2009.
Kingsley Ranawaka, chairman of the Sri Lanka Bureau of Foreign Employment (SLBFE), was quoted by the ‘Nation’ newspaper earlier this month as saying that architects and quantity surveyors in the Middle East have lost their jobs due to the prevailing global financial crisis where many companies are expected to prune staff.
However SLBFE additional general manager S. Ruhunuge told IPS that the issue is still not very clear as to whether there is a crisis or not. “We have asked Sri Lankan embassies and missions for a report on the job situation in the Middle East and by end January a clearer picture will emerge for follow up action,” he said.
In a weekly column in the local ‘Sunday Times’ newspaper, its unnamed economist laughed off claims by the Central Bank that inflation is falling and the country’s economy is doing better this year despite the global crisis.
“In a world where country after country is feeling the global meltdown in their backyard, it appears that the Sri Lankan economy is unscathed in spite of the turmoil in global financial markets,” he said. “Can Sri Lanka be an island of economic growth in a sea of global recession and financial crises?’’
‘’Public debt has reached huge proportions, the trade deficit is likely be massive, the fiscal deficit likely to exceed the estimated figure and Sri Lanka’s economy is expected to record an economic growth of six percent according to the Central Bank,’’ the columnist wrote.
According to Richard Vokes, director of the Asian Development Bank, the world economic crisis could last between 12 to 18 months and the Bank is making an assessment of the impact on member countries.
“A number of countries have approached us for support and all this is under consideration,” he said, indicating a possible drop in migrant remittances for countries like Sri Lanka, the Philippines and Nepal. “We expect stresses and strains in Asian economies due to the crisis.”
International Labour Organisation officials in Colombo said the crisis will result in the informal sector growing because during times of recession employers prefer loose working arrangements rather than formal contracts. This means workers have less bargaining power and less social security, one official said.
Apart from the uncertain labour markets, Sri Lanka is facing a dilemma in commodities. Main export crops like tea and rubber are facing a sharp fall in world prices, eating into earnings and raising concerns among the workforce.
In alleviation, the government is ofering incentive payments worth five percent of revenues to export companies that do not fire workers. It has also provided tax breaks for rubber exports and plans to buy the commodity to support prices.
Exporters are now putting pressure on the government to depreciate the local currency — artificially held high traditionally to cushion the cost of imports — to make Sri Lankan products competitive since China and India have also depreciated their currencies to make their exports cheaper.
Garment exporters won a brief respite after the European Union said a probe on whether Sri Lanka has conformed to U.N. human and labour rights covenants to qualify for special tariffs (GSP+) for the three-year period to 2011 would take at least nine months. During this time, the exporters will continue to enjoy these concessions.
“This has come as a breather for exporters,” said Ajith Dias, head of the Joint Apparel Association Forum.
There are other worries for the government of President Mahinda Rajapakse.
On Dec. 17, the Supreme Court, responding to a fundamental rights case seeking a revision of oil prices following a drop in global fuel prices, ordered a reduction in local petrol prices with immediate effect. But the government refused to implement the decision, with the cabinet saying the written court order had not been received.
Even after the written order was physically received, the cabinet decided to seek legal opinion on the implementation of the new pricing formula and put off a decision till Jan. 7. The crisis triggered a run on supplies at fuel stations and public anger, vent through the media, demanded that the government enforce the order.
In recent times, Rajapakse has expressed frustration over a series of Supreme Court decisions ranging from cancellation of controversial oil hedging contracts to the resignation of the treasury secretary over the disputed sale of a government company.
About the only relief on the horizon, for the government, is the possibility that the fall in oil prices could reduce the cost of prosecuting the civil war against Tamil rebels seeking to carve out a separate state in the north and east of the island.
from: Poverty Facts and Stats — Global Issues
Number of children in the world
2.2 billion
Number in poverty
1 billion (every second child)
Shelter, safe water and health
For the 1.9 billion children from the developing world, there are:
* 640 million without adequate shelter (1 in 3)
* 400 million with no access to safe water (1 in 5)
* 270 million with no access to health services (1 in 7)Children out of education worldwide
121 million
Survival for children Worldwide,
* 10.6 million died in 2003 before they reached the age of 5 (same as children population in France, Germany, Greece and Italy)
* 1.4 million die each year from lack of access to safe drinking water and adequate sanitationHealth of children Worldwide,
* 2.2 million children die each year because they are not immunized
* 15 million children orphaned due to HIV/AIDS (similar to the total children population in Germany or United Kingdom)
4 years later, tsunami victim rebuilds his life
The Associated Press
By RAVI NESSMANPETTIYADICHCHENI, Sri Lanka (AP) — Every morning and evening, Velmurugu Kangasuriyam gathers his 2 1/2 year-old daughter and his wife and confronts the wreckage of his former life.
His wife, Thaya, lights an oil lamp on the mantle of a dark, bare concrete room. Kangasuriyam presses his hands together and closes his eyes. Little Theresa follows in imitation. For a long minute his new family stands in silent prayer.
Thaya places orange flowers in front of pictures of Hindu gods. She lays several more before a picture of Kangasuriyam’s parents.
The last flowers sit in front of a photo of a woman in a striking red bridal sari: Devi, who was Kangasuriyam’s wife for just 10 months before she died, along with his parents, three of his sisters and a brother, four years ago Friday.
The tsunami that crashed over south Asia on Dec. 26, 2004 and killed 230,000 people washed away nearly everything Kangasuriyam held dear. Sixteen close relatives were killed. His seaside village was razed, his house demolished, his business destroyed.
Four years later, with international aid and prodding from his remaining family, the 30-year-old has Read the rest of this entry »
The Independent on Sunday
©independent.co.uk
At an early childhood centre children play, learn and, most importantly, eat. But for many, this will be their only meal
By a special correspondent in Matabeleland north, Zimbabwe
Sunday, 21 December 2008Rachel Dwyer
Independent.co.uk WebThe 36 children attending an early childhood centre in north-west Zimbabwe were lucky, and they knew it. They were wearing their best clothes – even if, as in the case of three-year-old Milesh, this meant a shirt that, while clean, was shredded at the back.
Hundreds of thousands of Zimbabwean children the same age are on the brink of starvation, and millions are losing their education as the collapse in government services closes school after school. All are at risk from the cholera epidemic. But Milesh and friends were looking forward not only to playing and learning together, but to getting what for many of them would be their only meal of the day – a plate of porridge.
The children waited patiently under a tree, clapping and singing while the food was prepared. They could not have been more orderly as they came forward, were given a plate and carried it carefully back into the shade. As soon as they were sitting down, the porridge – a special formula called corn-soya blend, or CSB, fortified with minerals and sweetened with sugar – disappeared in seconds.
Save the Children is helping more than 1,000 pre-school children in Zimbabwe in this way, but such is the chaos in the country that it is having to feed the centre’s helpers, too. “It would be very difficult for me to travel here on an empty stomach,” said one. She was scanning the pupils to see who was missing, and was not surprised that Godgave, four, was absent.
“Godgave is an orphan, and lives with his widowed grandmother,” said the helper. “They are very poor. He is often too weak from hunger – he comes for one or two days, then he is away sick. We go and check on him, but we have no food to carry to him.” In such a state any childhood disease, let alone cholera, could take his life.
Some of the children at the centre showed signs of malnutrition. While most rushed around once they had eaten, playing on the slide and the climbing frame, Milesh’s six-year-old sister Zineth hovered near those with food, until an adult gave her a half-eaten portion of CSB. She made instant work of it. When workers later checked the children’s weight-to-height ratio, Zineth was one of seven who fell into the red zone on the chart, showing she was malnourished. Milesh and 12 others were in the green zone, indicating normal development. Another 16 came up yellow, which meant that of the 36 children at the centre that day, 23 were either suffering from malnutrition or were close to it.
It is not uncommon in Africa for boys in a family to be favoured over girls at times of hardship, but when we accompanied Zineth and Milesh home, their grandfather Mathias denied it was intentional. “We want to treat the children the same,” he said. “But when we have very little food, we give it to the youngest. It’s not because he is a boy.”
Mathias and his wife Mary have brought up their daughter’s three children since she died five years ago and her husband deserted them soon afterwards. “We haven’t had sadza [a mash, made from maize meal, that is Zimbabwe's staple food] for three days,” he said. “We’ve been eating wild fruits and begging a little maize meal from our neighbours. We got a few cupfuls, which we gave to the children to eat. We had nothing for ourselves.”
The United Nations estimates that more than five million Zimbabweans, roughly half of them children, urgently need food aid. Save the Children is preparing to set up emergency feeding centres for children under five, where even the severely malnourished can be rescued with a special food called Plumpynut. Neither of these programmes will benefit Mathias and his family, however, because they have livestock, and others are worse off.
“We have three donkeys, which we use to plough our field,” he said. “We didn’t get any seeds when they were given out, but we managed to barter some with a neighbour, in exchange for ploughing his field. We’re living each day as it comes. It’s hard for the children – they see others getting food and toys at Christmas, but we have nothing.” His wife added: “When they ask us about the situation, we have no answers. We feel very helpless.”
This story is being repeated across Zimbabwe. Millions are suffering, through no fault of their own, as the nation falls into chaos. Unless we help them, they have no cause for hope.
Some names have been changed.
Time Magazine: As Zimbabweans Starve, Mugabe Holds a Feast
Thursday, Dec. 18, 2008
By Alex Perry
Zimbabwe’s farms are ruined, its economy has evaporated, and its people have begun to starve and die of cholera. What better time to call a feast? According to reports in Zimbabwe’s domestic press on Thursday, President Robert Mugabe and delegates to the annual conference of his ruling Zanu-PF Party will chomp their way through 124 cattle, 81 goats and 18 pigs over the course of their deliberations in the central town of Bindura. “Even if no more beasts are donated,” said Geoffrey Nyarota, managing editor of thezimbabwetimes.com, referring to the practice of delegates donating animals to the leadership, “124 head of cattle is an inordinately large quantity of beef.” With 5,000 delegates expected to attend, he added, it worked out to “40 delegates per bovine over four days — that is not to mention the pork, the goat, the maize-meal, the rice, among other basic foodstuffs currently in acute shortage throughout Zimbabwe.” Noting he had attended weddings at which two bulls had fed 400 guests, Nyarota added, “This truly is incredible, especially in a country where millions of impoverished souls are starving.”
The catering arrangements for the ruling party’s annual shindig only reinforces the sense of grand delusion pervading the top ranks of Zimbabwe’s regime amid the catastrophe they have brought upon their country. The U.N. has raised its estimate of the death toll from the cholera epidemic to 1,111, with 20,580 people infected. Concern is also growing over the fate of more than 20 opposition and civil-society leaders and activists who have not been seen since their abduction this past month. Mystery also surrounds an attempted assassination attempt against Zimbabwe’s air-force chief Perrance Shiri, who was shot in the arm by unknown gunmen who stopped his car on Tuesday. Shiri is a key member of Mugabe’s inner circle who commanded the notorious North Korean–trained 5th Brigade that massacred tens of thousands of supporters of a rival political movement during the 1980s. (See pictures of the reign of Robert Mugabe.)
The government response to the expanding crisis is increasingly bizarre. Mugabe has denied that the cholera epidemic exists. (A spokesman later claimed he was being sarcastic.) And some of his ministers and spokesmen have blamed a Western conspiracy — which they claim is running militia training camps in neighboring Botswana with the eventual aim of recolonizing Zimbabwe — for the assassination attempt on Shiri. Even the cholera outbreak forms part of this dark conspiracy: Information Minister Sikhanyiso Ndlovu described the disease as part of a “serious biological chemical war … a genocidal onslaught on the people of Zimbabwe by … the unrepentant former colonial power [Britain], which has enlisted support from its American and Western allies so that they invade the country.” A senior Zanu-PF official, speaking on condition of anonymity, told TIME that the opposition Read the rest of this entry »
Saturday, December 20, 2008 00:42 GMTHEALTH-ZIMBABWE:
Cholera Now a National EmergencyStanley Kwenda
HARARE, Dec 4 (IPS) – “Funerals of people dying of cholera are a common feature of our daily lives,” said Tapiwa Hove, a resident Budiriro, a high-density suburb of Harare. “But it seems no one cares. Sewage is flowing all over. It’s like living in hell.”
With the official death toll standing at 565, Zimbabwe’s government has declared a growing cholera epidemic a national emergency and appealed for international assistance.
Even before the government’s appeal, Budiriro was teeming with aid workers frantically trying to distribute water from big water bowsers to desperate residents. There is commotion and the exchange of harsh words, as children, men and women with toddlers strapped to their backs try to secure at least a bucketful of clean drinking water.
“We are thirsty in this land of plenty. Dry taps have become a way of life,” says Hove.
All across Harare, people tell of how healthy-looking people are dying within hours of consuming the dirty water that many residents have resorted to in the absence of clean drinking water. “People are dying at an alarming rate. There are funeral wakes in many households. The government might try to deny this, but the reality is there for all to see,” said Hove.
Local rights groups such as the Zimbabwe Doctors for Human Rights estimate the death toll is already over 1000, much higher than the government admits. To make matters worse, there are very few Read the rest of this entry »
Inter Press Service News Agency
Saturday, December 20, 2008 00:24 GMT40 Million More Go Hungry
Sabina ZaccaroROME, Dec 9 (IPS) – Rising prices have plunged an additional 40 million people below the hunger threshold this year, a new FAO report says.
The number of undernourished people worldwide has raised to 963 million, compared to 923 million in 2007, says the annual report on world food insecurity released Tuesday by the United Nations Food and Agriculture Organisation (FAO).The number of undernourished people represents an increase of more than 80 million since the 1990-92 base period. And yet more are likely to be tipped into hunger and poverty as a consequence of the financial crisis, the report says.
A sharp increase in food prices is responsible for reversing the previously positive trend towards Read the rest of this entry »
Inter Press Service News Agency
Saturday, December 20, 2008 00:13 GMTDEVELOPMENT-AFRICA:
Sanitation: ‘This Is the Way We Live’
Joyce MulamaNAIROBI, Dec 19 (IPS) – In 1925, Mahatma Gandhi remarked that “Sanitation is more important than political independence.” More than 80 years later, access to basic sanitation remains out of reach for 546 million people in sub-Saharan Africa.
In East Africa, not one country is on track to meet Millennium Development Goal Seven, which aims to reduce by half the number of people without access to clean drinking water and decent sanitation by 2015.Despite governments in the region being signatories to several declarations on improving sanitation, many East African households still lack access to flush toilets or pit latrines. Open defecation is widespread, and ‘flying toilets’, where people defecate in plastic bags and throw them away at night are the rule rather than the exception in many informal settlements.
“This is the way we live. We do not have toilets, and no place to safely dispose of our waste,” said Nicholas Ambeyo. “Because of this, and the lack of sufficient water, and the open sewers that run through our houses Read the rest of this entry »
By Saroj Pathirana
BBC Sinhala service“My husband was a fisherman. About three years ago, when he returned from a fishing trip, somebody checked his identity card and shot him dead,” says Jeyarulai Puwanendran, weeping.
The single mother, 23, is a resident of Kiran, Batticaloa, in Sri Lanka’s eastern region.
“I have a four-year-old daughter. I don’t get help from the government or anybody else. My parents are the ones who look after me and my daughter. My father is a labourer. They have six other children apart from me,” she says.
Ms Puwanendran is among an estimated 33,000 women who have been widowed in Eastern Province during nearly three decades of war between the government forces and Tamil Tiger rebels. Read the rest of this entry »
Sri Lanka: Tamil Tigers Abuse Civilians in Stronghold | Human Rights Watch
http://www.hrw.org
Human Rights WatchThe LTTE claims to be fighting for the Tamil people, but it is responsible for much of the suffering of civilians in the Vanni. As the LTTE loses ground to advancing government forces, their treatment of the very people they say they are fighting for is getting worse
Brad Adams, Asia directorForced Recruitment, Restrictions on Movement Put Lives at Risk
December 15, 2008(New York) Sri Lanka’s separatist Tamil Tigers are subjecting ethnic Tamils in their northern stronghold, the Vanni, to forced recruitment, abusive forced labor, and restrictions on movement that place their lives at risk, Human Rights Watch said in a report released today.
The 17-page report, “Trapped and Mistreated: LTTE Abuses against Civilians in the Vanni,” details how the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE), which have been fighting for an independent Tamil state for 25 years, are brutally abusing the Tamil population in areas under their control.
“The LTTE claims to be fighting for the Tamil people, but it is responsible for much of the suffering of civilians in the Vanni,” said Brad Adams, Asia director for Human Rights Watch. “As the LTTE loses ground to advancing government forces, their treatment of the very people they say they are fighting for is getting worse.”
War, poverty cause high rates of mental illness in Sri Lanka
By Sampath Perera
9 December 2008A recent World Health Organisation (WHO) report and a survey conducted by the country’s health ministry reveal a high incidence of mental illness in Sri Lanka. Both reports identify the main causes as the island’s protracted civil war combined with poor socio-economic conditions—that is, poverty, unemployment, poor nutrition and a lack of basic services.
The mental health update for the WHO country office in Colombo commented: “More than three decades of conflict and the effects of the tsunami [in December 2004] are having a strong impact on the mental well-being of the Sri Lankan population, very especially, on its most deprived sectors. Mental health data from Sri Lanka shows an increase in severe and common mental disorders, in times of armed conflict. This country has one of the highest suicide rates in the world.”
The report continued: “It is estimated that 3 percent of the Sri Lankan population suffer from some kind of mental disease.” This figure is low compared to other data, mainly because it is limited to those receiving some form of treatment.
The Health Ministry survey, which was conducted in 2007, is yet to be released publicly. However, Dr. Hiranthi de Silva, director of the mental health service department, gave a speech to a seminar in October that provided some of the results. Overall, 12.3 percent of the population suffered some form Read the rest of this entry »
Sharing a smoke with new found friends by the Li River, Guilin, China
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