Washington, DC June 8, 2009�UN watchdog
Inner City Press reported on June 2nd that 13,100
Tamil IDPs appear to have disappeared from Sri Lanka�s
internment camps between May 27th and May 30th
reports by the UN�s Office for Humanitarian Affairs.
OCHA insists that the decrease between the two reports was
due to �double counting�; however, UN sources in Colombo
disclosed that higher-up UN officials of Sinhalese ethnicity
are downplaying the missing IDPs.
�Considering Sri Lanka�s sordid history as having the highest rate of
disappearances in 2006 and 2007 in the world, the 13,100
missing IDPs reflect an alarming trend that Sri Lanka is
again �disappearing� thousands of innocent civilians.
Without access for independent monitors the Government of
Sri Lanka is free to �disappear� civilians with complete
impunity. Thousands more will vanish in these camps, victims
of being Tamil under Sri Lanka�s oppressive regime� said
PEARL representative Arvind Suguness. �Until international
organizations are allowed unfettered access to the camps to
conduct an independent health assessment � including a
census � the government will be able to continue its
egregious human rights abuses.�
Aside from the missing IDPs, the current conditions in the camps are
abysmal with reports of sexual abuse of women and the
abduction of children and males for intense interrogation.
There is an urgent need for aid agencies to access the camps
to deliver urgently-needed food and medicines, with Medecins
Sans Frontieres calling the situation a �full blown storm of
medical and humanitarian needs�.
Over the last week the Government of Sri Lanka has begun expelling foreign
staff of aid organizations because it considers them
sympathetic to the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam. One aid
worker predicted that by September 60 to 70 percent of NGO
heads will have left the country. On Monday, the government
turned back a ship carrying aid originally intended for IDPs
in the conflict zone, despite confirming that only food and
medical supplies were found aboard. �Continued reports of
the Sri Lankan Government�s restriction of adequate aid to
these long suffering civilians are devastating,� said
Suguness. �The international community must immediately use
diplomatic and economic sanctions as leverage against Sri
Lanka to force them to allow full access to refugees.�
