Steady supplies to Wanni civilians

The Government will organise weekly food convoys and maintain supplies to 220,000 civilians in the Wanni.

"The plan is to move at least one convoy per week, we have already made arrangements," commissioner for essential services, S. P. Divaratana, told IPS.

On Thursday, a convoy of 51 vehicles carrying supplies from the World Food Programme (WFP) reached the Wanni, being the first relief after the United Nations and other international agencies working in the area moved out on Sep.16, following a Government directive and deteriorating security.

"We are committed to providing supplies to the displaced in the Wanni, we will try to organise another convoy next week," U.N. spokesman in Sri Lanka, Gordon Weiss, told IPS as the convoy carrying 650 tonnes of supplies travelled across the Wanni to reach deep inside Tiger-held areas.

"It is crucial that a regular flow of humanitarian supplies is provided to conflict victims who are extremely vulnerable and in need of the most basic necessities," Azeb Asrat, WFP acting country director in Sri Lanka, said.

Seven U.N. officials accompanied the convoy to monitor the Internally Displaced Persons (IDPs) at four different locations, according to Nagalingam Vedanayagam, Government Agent for Kilinochchi, who accompanied the convoy.

Nine vehicles that were due to be part of the convoy were detained by Government authorities after banned items, including explosives and 20 Global Positioning Systems, were located hidden among the supplies.

The U.N. said that the detained vehicles were among the 30 organised by Local Government officials.

The Oct. 2 convoy transported only food supplies such as rice, pulses, sugar and flour, Divaratana said. "Food is the priority in the Wanni at the moment, that is why we have given preference to transporting food stocks," he told IPS. He added that non-food relief items were to be transported in the third convoy, probably later this month.

Divaratana said that Government authorities and security officials were also allowing 20 trucks with non-emergency supplies into the Vanni on a daily basis. "These are not the supplies for the displaced; these are what the cooperative societies in the Wanni take in to resell."

Other international humanitarian agencies that moved out of the Wanni said that they were not part of the first supply convoy but were prepared to assist future convoys.

"We submitted details of what we possessed as assets and resources and agreed on an imaginative set of steps to deliver assistance," Jeevan Thiyagaraja, the executive director of the Consortium of Humanitarian Agencies, an umbrella body of international and national NGOs said.

Heavy fighting has been reported near Kilinochchi, at the centre of the Wanni, and the food convoy had to take a circuitous route to avoid being caught in the fighting. It took a road branching out east, about 50 km south of Kilinochchi.

The arrival of Sri Lankan Forces on the outskirts of Kilinochchi is "the beginning of the end of LTTE terrorists," Defence Secretary Gotabhaya Rajapaksa said.

IPS