ICRC assistance for displaced people in Batticaloa district

The ICRC has stepped up its relief operation in Batticaloa district in order to assist several thousand civilians who have been displaced since 7 March by renewed fighting between the Sri Lankan security forces and the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE).

These people fled their homes in the southern and western parts of Batticaloa and headed for the eastern coastal area and Ampara district. The authorities estimate that the new influx has brought the total number of IDPs in Batticaloa district up to 157,000. These civilians are now sheltering in local schools, at other public sites and in the camps already set up over the past few months by humanitarian organizations working in cooperation with the local authorities. Some of these sites are severely overcrowded and many of them do not yet have proper water and sanitation facilities.

Together with the Sri Lanka Red Cross Society (SLRCS), the ICRC has already provided about 7,000 of these new IDPs with tents, shelters, mats, hygiene kits and tarpaulins. The ICRC is also installing sanitation facilities and water-distribution systems at Kaluwankerni camp, where the newly displaced persons arrived, and in four other camps located in Alankulam, Kiran and Mavadivembu. The organization is continuing to distribute drinking water daily and to build latrines and showers.

Meanwhile, several thousands of displaced civilians have already left Batticaloa for their places of origin in Vaharai and Trincomalee district. The ICRC will carry out assessment missions in the coming weeks to identify the needs of the returnees.

Health

The ICRC has continued to assist the health authorities in northern and eastern Sri Lanka. In the past month, 44 patients requiring specialist care, accompanied by 35 caretakers and 17 doctors, have been flown from Jaffna on ICRC-chartered planes for treatment and further medical examination at referral hospitals in Colombo. Specimens for laboratory tests were also transported from Jaffna to Colombo, while medicines and medical items supplied by the Ministry of Health have been brought from Colombo to the teaching hospital and other health services in Jaffna. A donation of 440 infusions was also delivered to the surgical unit of the hospital.

In Batticaloa, the ICRC facilitated the transfer of nine amputees and one disabled child from the IDP camps to the Handicap International health centre in the town. The SLRCS provided care for 21 injured civilians at Batticaloa Teaching Hospitals. In Vavuniya, the ICRC transported four people injured by a Claymore mine in Mannar to Adampan hospital.

SLRCS volunteers continued to conduct health promotion activities in the IDP camps in Trincomalee and Batticaloa districts. In addition, SLRCS night ambulances have continued to provide valuable services in Jaffna and Batticaloa.


Economic security

Over the past month, the ICRC has assisted approximately 16,000 displaced people in Batticaloa, Kilinochchi and Trincomalee districts by providing about 3,000 packages of non-food items (buckets, tarpaulins, jerrycans, sheets, mats, towels, kitchen sets and mosquito nets), plus about 1,000 tents and 600 hygiene kits (soap, washing powder, razors, towels and shampoo).

Through its livelihood programme for the population affected by the conflict, the ICRC has supplied about 5,000 people in Mullaitivu and Kilinochchi districts with construction tools, 17 t of fertilizer and 200 kg of 10 varieties of vegetable seed.


Water and habitat

During the period covered by this bulletin, the ICRC has continued to build water and sanitation facilities, latrines and temporary shelters. These are being used by over 6,000 people who fled the fighting in Batticaloa district. The ICRC has supplied 650 shelters to the IDP camps at Movadivembu, Alankulam, Kiran and Kalawankerny.

The ICRC has set up two permanent water distribution systems in Movadivembu and Kiran IDP camps, along with 33 taps, pipelines and distribution units. The roofs for the bladder tanks are under construction, as are 23 bath-wells with aprons. Work on a new water distribution system has started in Kaluwankerni camp.


Restoring family links

The ICRC has been cooperating closely with the Sri Lanka Red Cross Society to help members of families separated by the conflict to restore and maintain contact with one another. Over the past month, the ICRC has collected 122 family messages and distributed 155.

Visiting detainees

The ICRC has continued to visit people arrested for security reasons. ICRC delegates carried out 34 detention visits to 33 places of detention in which they registered or held private interviews with 449 detainees.


Civilian population

Families continued to report abductions of relatives throughout the country. Forty-nine such cases were documented during the past month. Sixty-one arrests were also documented. At the request of the parties to the conflict, the ICRC transported the bodies of nine fallen combatants.


ICRC presence at crossing points

By acting as a neutral intermediary, the ICRC has enabled nearly 21,500 civilians to cross at Omanthai and Uyilankulam lines over the last four weeks.


Cooperation within the International Red Cross and Red Crescent Movement

The ICRC is continuing its logistics support to the SLRCS Jaffna branch by transporting medical contingency stocks and other medicine required to run their Mobile Health Clinic, which is being funded by the Austrian and Swiss Red Cross Societies.

ICRC financial and practical support is continuing for the night ambulance services run by the SLRCS Batticaloa, Jaffna and Vavuniya branches, and the ICRC is supporting a branch assistance project for war-wounded in Batticaloa hospital.

The ICRC provides regular briefings for all its Movement partners regarding the evolving security situation and the wider humanitarian environment. This helps them to plan their project activities with the SLRCS in this difficult context.