Six months after tSunami, Tamils may finally get aid

NEARLY 31,000 people died and half-a-million were made homeless in Sri Lanka when the tSunami hit last Christmas. Yet, six months after the disaster, some tens of thousands of people in the country have not yet received any kind of aid and it is a mystery to everyone how they have managed to survive.

They have been deprived of fresh uncontaminated water, medicines and medical attention because their homes and/or sympathies lay on the side of the enemies of the Sri Lankan government, the Tamil Tigers (LTTE). However, their wait may be coming to an end as the Sri Lankan Government and Tamil Tigers have signed an aid-sharing deal, the Tsunami Joint Mechanism, to ensure an equal distribution of aid to all parts of the country hit by December's tSunami, including rebel-held areas.

The agreement comes despite weeks of protests by the powerful Sinhalese Nationalist People's Liberation Front (JVP), Muslims and the influential Buddhist clergy, who say this deal threatens Sri Lanka's sovereignty. Violent protest even forced a parliamentary debate to be abandoned.

However, this is a done deal, as the leader of the parliament, Maithripala Sirisena, explained. The government signed the memorandum of understanding and Norwegian peace brokers took the document to the northern rebel-held town of Kilinochchi, where the Tamil Tigers signed it, bringing the agreement into force on Friday 24 June.

The deal includes a three-member panel, with representatives from the government, the Tamil and the Muslim communities, paving the way for the government and the Tamil rebels to share nearly $3 billion in foreign aid, and Ministers say it could boost stalled peace efforts. For two decades, the Tamils — one of the ethnic groups in Sri Lanka — have fought for independence against the Sinhalese Government that have treated them as second class citizens and denied their rights.

The deal was brokered and supported by several NGOs that have seen their efforts to look after the needs of those affected by the tSunami hampered by the armed conflict in the region. Donors had also pressed for the joint mechanism so that they could avoid channelling funds directly to the Tigers, as many countries list the rebel group as a terrorist organisation.

Initially, wrangling between the Sri Lankan Government and the Tamil Tigers served to underline the legacy of mistrust from 20 years of civil war. However, the Tigers and President Chandrika Kumaratunga strongly backed the aid deal. Both see it as an opportunity, not only to help the people, but to jump-start peace talks, which stalled two years ago.

However, not everyone is happy with the deal. Ahead of the parliamentary debate, police fired tear gas to prevent hundreds of supporters of the People's Liberation Front (JVP) from marching on parliament with banners that read "Down with the Tiger mechanism. Tear up the Joint Mechanism".

MPs from the same group were responsible for disturbances that prevented a debate on the document. In protest the JVP pulled out of Sri Lanka's ruling coalition during the week. The JVP is arguing that allowing the rebels to participate in the distribution of aid would help them to establish a Tamil state. The party's withdrawal means Kumaratunga now leads a minority government.

The Muslims also opposed the deal, because despite Muslim representation in the mechanism panel, this community is not a full signatory.

The two major Muslim parties, the Sri Lanka Muslim Congress (SLMC) and the National Unity Alliance (NUA) are in opposite camps — the SLMC is in the opposition and the NUA is in the ruling coalition. SLMC leader Rauff Hakeem said in Colombo that the agreement "doesn't include Muslims as equal partners. They are looking at us as bystanders and this is not acceptable. We cannot participate in it."

On the other hand, the signing of the aid deal comes as a huge relief for the international community, as it now provides a way of allocating long term coordinated relief to victims of the tsunami in the rebel-held areas. The deal is also seen as a way of creating stability on the island, because the east has been increasingly volatile since the defection of a top Tamil Tiger commander last year.

It was also felt that failure to provide substantial assistance to tsunami victims in that area could lead to further unrest and that the three-year old ceasefire could be stretched to its limit. So, many of Sri Lanka's future hopes rest on this deal.

Sri Lanka has suffered the most human fatalities and infrastructural and other property damage, after Indonesia, as a result of the disaster. According to reliable reports from independent sources, the Sri Lankan Tamil community in the Northern and Eastern Provinces has suffered most, registering more than a half of the fatalities in the entire country.

"The LTTE was the first to react after the disaster hit the area and lost no time in organising relief, disposing of the dead bodies and initiating measures for the restoration of at least a semblance of normalcy in the areas under its control," writes B Raman, the Director of the Institute for Topical Studies, Chennai, India.

Raman notes that the Sri lankan governmental agencies and its army were much slower to react in the Tamil areas, "preoccupied as they were in the Sinhalese-majority areas".

Pro-LTTE sources have alleged that President Chandrika Kumaratunge's Government, including the Army, turned a deaf ear to the LTTE's urgent request for heavy earth-moving and other equipment so that it could repair and restore damaged roads.

Initially, Kumaratunge made the Army responsible for running the relief and rehabilitation camps set up by pro-LTTE non-governmental organisations in the Tamil areas controlled by the government. This decision held back aid efforts, as the army tried to take control of the aid camps. Now it is hoped that the NGOs will be allowed to do their work without army interference.