Clarifying the humanitarian situation in Sri Lanka

Prof. Rajiva Wijesinha, Secretary General of the Peace Secretariat and Secretary to the Ministry of Disaster Management and Human Rights, was invited to speak at a briefing by Sir John Holmes, UN Under Secretary-General for Humanitarian Affairs and Emergency Relief Coordinator in Geneva on Tuesday. His presentation, including responses to questions, is carried in full below.

Thank you, Sir John, for your account of the current situation in Sri Lanka, and your efforts to collect funding to help resolve the problems faced by the displaced. I should note that we would have appreciated greater notice of this briefing, since it is important to make it clear that we are working in partnership. I am happy that OCHA in Sri Lanka, after some years of forgetting this, now recognises the importance of coordination with government, and working according to government plans and policies, and that from this year there is much greater attention to transparency and accountability.

You were correct to divide the problems into three sections, which need to be dealt with in different ways. Before I look at the most serious of these, the problems faced by the civilians still held by the LTTE, let me concur with the view that the problems of those who managed to flee to refuge with the government have been alleviated to a substantial degree. Though there were difficulties, especially when over 100,000 got away together, these are now much less. In particular we are grateful to UNHCR which put up tents on sites that the forces cleared by working day and night, so that everyone now has shelter, along with adequate food. Read more ...