Taking care of IDPs

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Disaster Management and Human Rights Minister Mahinda Samarasinghe was interviewed by Stephen Sackur for “BBC HARDtalk” on March 2, 2009. Following are excerpts of the interview

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SS: Nobody will dispute that the civilians in this remaining sliver of territory that is under Tamil Tiger control, are suffering terribly and clearly, many of them want to get out. Many people involved in this have said that the Tigers are trying to prevent them from getting out but, nonetheless, substantial numbers of people are getting out.

Why is it that, when they get out, you will not allow international observers to see what happens when they are screened, first received, by the military.

MS: Well, that is not correct. In fact, when they come from the Forward Defence Lines, they are received by the Army. They are received not with guns but with bottles of water and food.

Then they are transported immediately to the Omanthai entry/exit point which is very close to the Forward Defence Lines. There we have allowed the UNHCR and the ICRC to be present, so that the registration process is observed and within 24 hours, the civilians are handed over to the Government Agent who then houses them.

SS: We have spoken directly to people involved in this on the NGO side who say that this is simply not true. They don’t want to be named because their positions are very sensitive. They say the registration process by and large is being conducted away from the eyes of all UN, Red Cross and other international monitors.

MS: That is absolutely wrong, In fact when these IDPs are housed they are serviced by not only the Government Agent and her officials, but also UN officials and INGOs and NGOs.

SS: I am not talking about the camps. There is no doubt the UN does have access. I’m talking about what happens before people get to the camps. It is important because Human Rights Watch has just issued a report saying that significant numbers of people - mostly Tamil youth have “disappeared” before getting to those camps.

MS: No, that is not correct. As I said before, UNHCR, ICRC have been invited to observe the registration process.

We cannot send them to the Forward Defence Lines as there is a question of safety but, as I said earlier, they are received, looked after, medical care is given immediately and they are transported immediately to the Omanthai entry/exit point.

Anyone who knows the geography of Sri Lanka would know that that is where the registration process starts. So we have not closed the doors to the international community. The ICRC as well as UNHCR have been invited to observe and, in addition, in the camps there is a registration process and the issue of identity cards and there the INGOs and NGOs are allowed.

SS: Sorry, but you make it sound as if it is all working very smoothly and successfully.

I again return to the words of Sir John Holmes who, after what has to be described as a pretty, well-controlled and orchestrated visit on the part of your Government nonetheless when he went back to New York and the Security Council he said first of all he saw serious over-crowding in the IDP camps and, second and more serious, movement in and out of these sites is currently highly and unacceptably restricted. His words, not mine.

MS: Sir John Holmes was taken to Vavuniya. He was facilitated to look at some of these camps. He was allowed to go into the Vavuniya Hospital to look at the conditions there and I must say that Sir John did make some valuable points.

There were certain recommendations that he made and we are looking at those recommendations. Of course, we are not talking about an ordinary situation or a normal situation in those areas which is in the midst of a theatre of conflict. We also know that the LTTE has been infiltrating....

SS: You would acknowledge that these Tamils, tens of thousands of Tamils, are currently, in essence, being kept in these camps, whether they like it or not, they have no freedom of movement whatsoever?

MS: These IDPs have not come because the LTTE has asked them to go. They have escaped the LTTE and come to obtain the protection of the Government. As I said earlier, this is not a concentration camp, this is not a detention centre, as some have tried to paint it out to be.

The international community is working side by side with the Government Agent and her officials. Children are attending school. We have taken a decision that anyone over 60 can leave these camps if they so wish to and live with their relatives if they so wish to.

SS: It seems very bizarre that you can only allow people to leave when they are over 60. Why is that?

MS: You have to understand that the LTTE has consciously, deliberately, infiltrated the IDPs with their cadre. We saw it happening two weeks ago when a suicide bomber...

SS: Are you suggesting that every person under 60 in these IDP camps is a suspected member of the Tigers?

MS: Well, there has to be a screening process. We cannot forget that the LTTE has been recruiting children. We cannot forget that anyone who can carry a gun has been forcibly recruited to the LTTE, given training and deployed as part of their cadre. It is not as if we are suspecting every person who has come as being a terrorist or an LTTE cadre. That is not our policy. But, we have to take certain steps to ensure that the screening process is properly done.

SS: It just strikes me that it is a very frightening prospect for these people in these camps, who you say under 60 have to be regarded with suspicion. But now you want to keep them there for up to three years. You are talking about turning the camps, or creating side-by-side with them, welfare villages, which up to three years will contain these displaced Tamil people.

MS: That is absolutely incorrect. In fact, we clarified this situation of a three-year internment of these people as some newspapers made it out to be, some even called it....

SS: But that was the plan, wasn’t it?

MS: No it wasn’t the plan. The plan has always been to resettle them in the shortest possible time but we cannot afford to take short-cuts. We cannot compromise on the security and their well-being because we know that their villages have been heavily mined.

We know that the LTTE does not keep records of the mines that they lay. The demining has to take place. The basic infrastructure has to be put in place, services have to be provided and “go and see” visits have to take place. We cannot force anyone to go back to their villages.

It has to be an informed choice that the people themselves make. So our job is to ensure that basic facilities are provided and then, as a result of the go and see visits that we organize, the people then decide whether they want to go back to their villages or not. We do not want to keep these people a day later than we can help to avoid.