Adjournment Motion

Don't use food as a weapon
- Ranil

Don't use food as a weapon said Leader of the Opposition Ranil Wickramasinghe who moved an adjournment motion in Parliament Thursday (20) evening.

Complaining that reduction of grants to the Government Agents to purchase adequate food supplies, and as a result of which the dry rations distributed to the displaced persons has been reduced by one third. He asked the government to give the House an assurance that steps will be taken to provide adequate food and medical supplies and a commitment that no further reductions would be made.

The adjournment motion said:

"The ongoing conflict in the Vanni has resulted in the people living in the uncleared areas and trapped in the actual theater of conflict being subjected to severe hardships with indiscriminate damage to both life and property.

The situation is aggravated by the total inadequacy of the food supplies with the quantity of dry rations reduced by a third as a result of the reduction in the grant. The slow movement of supplies and a drastic reduction in cultivation has reduced these people to near starvation with even the bare minimum requirements not being met. A situation that has been compounded by the non availability of adequate medical supplies.

Will the Government inform this House why food and medical supplies have been reduced and the present situation with respect to supplies of these items.

Will the Government take steps to ensure that adequate food and medicines are supplied to these areas and also give an undertaking and a commitment that no further reductions will be made."

Ranil Wickramasinghe, Leader of the Opposition said: I am moving this motion in the interest of all opposition members.

Despite assurances given by the government, the situation has not improved.

Reduction of supplies has reduced the people to near starvation. Food supplies have been reduced to one third.

As such people have to live with only one or two meals a day.

There is no cultivation in the areas where Jayasikuru operation is in progress.

The problem is further compounded by the restriction on fuel supply in Vavuniya. The army's view was that fuel issued in the Vavuniya and other cleared areas is going into the hands of the LTTE.

It is said food too is going into the hands of the LTTE. Such a stand will not help resolve the crisis. In the uncleared areas the LTTE has its food supplies. If food is deprived to the ordinary citizens they might join the LTTE because they cannot starve.

You must not use food as a weapon. This cannot be supported. You must not rely on reports alone. You must get the ICRC to verify the reports. If need be we can send an official along with the ICRC and see the situation and make a report.

You accused the Princess Kash crew as having connections with the LTTE. You did not have any clues. You must apologise to India for this erroneous statement.

D. Siddarthan (Wanni district MP) said: The situation in Wanni has prompted us to move this motion. There are 415 thousand persons who are displaced in the Wanni Mullathivu and Kilonochchi areas. The rations given to people earlier was hardly enough for three weeks. Now even this is cut.

This is in the uncleared areas. Farming is the livelihood of the people in Wanni. They can't work in their fields now. They have no livelihood. In uncleared areas civil administration is paralysed. To restart civil administration the GAs must convince people that they will not let them starve. You must stop the cut in rations. The amount of kerosene sent to these people has been cut by half. They hardly have enough kerosene to light lamps. In the black market kerosene is sold at 80 rupees.

The people urgently need roofing material in the face of the oncoming monsoon. The reason for the cut in fuel is to prevent it from getting into the hands of terrorists. What about the security checkpoints? For the terrorists to steal fuel they have to bypass these checkpoints.

The minister must make arrangements for the citizens to obtain passes without going through a cumbersome process. We are convinced that this pass system is not holding back the Tigers.

The blackmarket is thriving in these areas. Even medical supplies are restricted. Not a single tablet for Malaria was given. Even panadol is limited.

I request the minister to take immediate measures to remedy these shortcomings.

Dr. Neelan Thiruchelvam (TULF) said: This adjournment motion assumes critical importance in view of the serious humanitarian and governance crisis which has been posed by the decision to cut back food rations to the war affected areas in the north-east. This decision impacts more seriously on the Mullaitivu and Kilinochchi districts. In the Mullaitivu district, there were 39,000 families which were receiving dry rations and the recent decision to cut ration would in effect mean that only 13,000 families would receive relief. The government officials in the Mullaitivu district unable to choose between recipients and therefore the entire distribution system has come to a standstill. Public protests in the Mullaitivu district has resulted in the paralysis of the public administration and no officials have been able to function since the beginning of this month. Since the food rations were being locally purchased from local farmers in the Mullaitivu district, purchase of paddy have also been suspended. This has further compounded the problems and difficulties faced by paddy farmers as they are unable to transport paddy to any other area. Similar difficulties exist in the Kilinochchi district where dry rations have been cut by about 50%, and the provision of relief has been suspended and the public protest have brought the entire administration in the Kilinochchi district to a standstill. Mannar district, according to information received by us is less affected due to the resettlement of about 5000 families.

The United Nations Committee on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights which reviewed the country report on Sri Lanka on the 13th of May 1998 expressed grave concern with regard to the situation of displaced persons, many of whom have been living under temporary shelters due to the armed conflict and who lack basic sanitation, education and health care, the Committee referred to an independent survey which estimated that the incidence of undernourishment of women and children living in those shelters to be as high as seventy percent. The Committee further expressed concern with regard to reports of the deliberate reduction of food assistance to displaced persons.

The Committee urged the Government to facilitate the free flow of humanitarian assistance and to improve the nutritional standards of food, particularly to children, expectant and nursing mothers. Members of this House have repeatedly drawn attention to the dismal conditions of the displaced persons in the Wanni and the Mullaitivu with regard to access to food rations, medicine and other basic necessities.

It is a matter of urgent and public importance that this decision be reversed and that immediate measures are taken to implement the recommendations of the UN Committee so as to ensure full and adequate relief and assistance to the above displaced persons.

V. Balachandran (DPLF Wanni District) said: The people of Wanni are facing starvation. There has been a two-thirds reduction in the assistance given. In Mullaitivu people are engaged in satyagraha. This is the situation in most of those areas. The depths of misery is reflected in their faces. They don't want to fight either party. Thousands are unable to engage in their livelihood, they don't want to be hungry.

Please withdraw your decision to reduce rations. The situation outside army control is also bad. There is the threat of the spread of infectious diseases.

The pass system is not effective in constricting Tiger movements. You cannot check the infiltration of Tigers with this system. The Tigers forge these passes, it is the innocent who suffer. Please adopt a more compatible method.

Situation in North not created by govt.

Government has never taken a policy decision to reduce in any way the food rations provided to the people living in the uncleared areas in the North, said Gen. Anuruddha Ratwatte, Minister of Irrigation and Power and Deputy Minister of Defence replying to issues raised by the opposition during Thursday's (20) adjournment debate, in Parliament.

He said that food supplies are made based on the figures of displaced persons provided by officers in uncleared areas.

He conceded that usually these figures are figures dictated to the officials by the LTTE. Officials cannot go against the LTTE in the uncleared areas. "They have to survive," he added.

He said he would not deal with the arithmatics, churned out by Opposition Members who spoke on the motion but recognised the fact there is a human problem in the conflict areas.

He said there is no way to independently verify the figures supplied by Government authorities in the uncleared areas. No NGO's are prepared to undertake that job.

He said the situation in the North was not one created by the Government. Many of our own youths laid down their lives in the efforts to liberate Tamil brethren from the clutches of terrorism, he added.

He said: I am thankful to the Leader of the Opposition for giving us an opportunity to explain our stand.

We are not waging a war against our Tamil brethren. We are waging a war to liberate the Tamil brethren from terrorism.

We know there is a real human problem in the North. I have seen them when I flew over the territory last December. We do not want to shirk our responsibility.

This problem has not been caused by us. We have been supplying food to the members of displaced whatever the numbers were.

We have advised AGAs and Grama Sevakas to send their lorries to Vavuniya to collect supplies. We transport food and other supplies by our lorries and reload them to the lorries of the areas.

Daily, about fifty lorry loads of goods are taken North from Vavuniya. The LTTE is, seemingly wanting the lorries for themselves for something. For one and a half months lorries did not come to collect food supplies.

No food ration has been cut. Absolutely not.

According to figures we have received, 8,500 acres have been cultivated in Mullathivu and 10,000 acres in Kilinochchi.

LTTE is not sending any lorries to Madhu and Vavuniya to collect food.

I admit that we have controlled full supplies after discovering in July that the LTTE is getting all the fuel they need from our supplies.

Permits are given to genuine persons for petrol. A car owner can have a full tank but no fuel is given in barrels .

He said " our youths are prepared to make more sacrifices for the cause."

He assured the MP representing the Tamil community of the North and East that, "our brave soldiers would end the war as soon as possible and when that happens there will be no complaints of this nature anymore.

Nimal Sripala de Silva (Minister of Health and Indigenous Medicine), Our Government is working for a long term solution. We have sacrificed in whatever way to alleviate the sufferings of the Tamil people. We have helped the people of Kilinochchi more than the people of the South. I am giving you comparative figures to show that there has been no discrimination. We have sent more drugs to the Wanni district than to any other districts.

Sampanthan — That goes to show that the people in the Wanni district is unhealthy. They are malnourished.

Chair — What I am trying to show is that we have not discriminated these people. The total value of pharmaceuticals given to Kilinochchi has increased. From Vavunia these goods are taken by the UNHCR and then distributed to the periphery. In the LTTE controlled areas there is no way to check on the distribution of medicine. The civil administration is under LTTE control. How can we guarantee that these material is not used by the Tigers.

Members of the opposition must bear with us. We are not giving gifts to the LTTE like the UNP did.

The shortage of drugs for malaria during the first half of the year was due to reasons beyond our control. Necessary drugs were not available throughout the country. The matter is resolved now.

The reality has to be considered. The students passing out of the Jaffna Medical Faculty is not prepared to work in the North East areas. They prefer to come to Colombo, while students from faculties in the Southern parts of the country go and work in conflict ridden areas. I have got special Cabinet approval to give a Cancer Unit to Jaffna. We are not discriminating anybody.