On The Spot

Coping with the IDP tsunami

Text and pictures by Sheran and Roshini Fernando

We had seen the images on the television, we had heard the disturbing stories and we had gone round and round in circles trying to find an inroad to get supplies across to the IDP camps. A chance phone call, a rushed meeting and suddenly we were given clearance to visit an IDP camp in Vavuniya.

We e-mailed our customers and received a  huge response. Tissa Jinasena got back to us immediately pledging the support of the Tissa  Jinasena Foundation towards our initiative. With this financial backing, we set about procuring the basic requirements that were identified by the IDP camps. Our other customers too came forward with huge amounts of food and clothing.

We had a government contact who approached us with the requirements of the IDPs. This contact proved to be an invaluable asset. He identified suppliers for the required products such as milk. He negotiated prices, to levels we would not have believed possible. He got suppliers to deliver their products to the camps FOC. Our contact, namely an old friend, Dishan Gunesekara knew someone everywhere, and with his support we were able to cover a lot of ground very fast amassing multiple lorry loads of stuff.

Our entourage made up of four lorries carrying milk and clothing, and three Discovery 3s, a Discovery 1 and a Defender, all loaded beyond manufacturer approved levels arrived at Anuradhapura at 7 a.m.

Huge camp

The camp was nothing like I expected it to be. Our recent experience of ‘displaced’ come from the tsunami. A tsunami camp with 1,000 people was a huge camp. This camp was around 150 times bigger. Driving by the camp towards its entrance showed us the magnitude of the camp. Its sheer size was daunting. 

Driving towards the entrance to the camp, we passed many semi permanent houses, built with wooden frames and takaran sheets. We also passed a sea of tents. On our right were people outside of the camps, trying to locate their relatives inside the camps.

Driving towards the entrance to the camp, on the right were IDPs who had just got into the camps. We spoke to some of them. Most of them were lining the fence, at a point where they could see the people outside the camp, in the hope that members of their family would try to make contact with them. Inside the camps, men women and children were in groups, all over the place. Some in and around their tents. Some trying to get water. Some with their belongings on the ground, marking that location, hoping some shelter would be provided.

People were everywhere. They were hungry. They wanted to bathe. They needed water. Food, toilets and shelter were available, but not always in the required quantity. Basically, the influx of people was larger than the infrastructure could provide for. The camp had to provide food, clothing and shelter for around 140,000 people. A further 50,000 were expected soon.

Camp administration

The camp was divided into two zones. Zone One had semi permanent housing erected and was inhabited by the first wave of IDPs. As these people had been in the camp for sometime, they were better organised than those in Zone Two. They had adequate food, shelter, water, and toilets.

Not quite so in Zone Two. Camp administrators were on their feet, fire fighting the various issues that kept emerging. Goods sent by an NGO could not be located. Was it detained at the Medawachchiya check point, or was it ‘lost’ within the system? A doctor had not been let through the security check point. Another doctor was complaining that he didn’t have a tent and desk to commence his work. Everything was a problem. The heavy rain clouds rapidly gathering posed a further threat to the authorities.

Initial requirements

Our overall impression was that the camp authorities were doing as much as they could do to look after the inhabitants. This is not to say there were no short comings. These can be identified and overcome. The camp was set up in a manner that can be streamlined. There is enough space to provide reasonable infrastructure for the IDPs to live in habitable conditions in the short run.

For those interested in supporting the numerous organisations collecting funds and supplies for the IDPs,  our assessment of the urgent requirements are as follows;

1.         The provision of water for drinking and sanitation is a serious issue. The requirement for water cannot be satisfied by sending bottled water from Colombo. This is not economically viable. Also, we did see some people using bottled water to wash their faces. In the short term, a system of water tanks that are frequently replenished via bowsers would be a solution. There was talk that the government was implementing this. As a longer term solution, 400 tube wells are supposed to be dug, however the time frame for the completion of this exercise is not known.

2.         The present strategy of transporting cooked food to the camps is also something that cannot be sustained. Airlifting packets of rice is hugely inefficient. Kitchens have to be set up in the camp, so food can be cooked at site.

Steps for the implementation of this are underway, and the kitchens should be set up by the end of the week. Once this is done, a steady flow of dry rations will be needed. The IDPs themselves can be enlisted for the task of cooking, thus giving them something to do, and also sharing the responsibility of their upkeep.

3.         The children in the camp require a regular source of milk. We are awaiting the number of children in the camps, with some age analysis to estimate the daily requirement, but given the size of the camp, it is hard to envisage a situation where they have excess milk!

4.         The IDPs urgently require a resident medical team, and clinics dispensing basic health care. Given the number of people in the camp, and the close proximity to one another, the spread of disease and epidemics could be very rapid and so must be guarded against. A Rotary Club is taking a team of doctors to the camp this week, for a few days. This function needs to be present on an ongoing basis.

Registration

Presently, IDPs are registered and filtered at Omanthai. They are also registered when they enter the Manik Farm Camp. However, there is no record of where each IDP is within the camp. Hence, if a particular person has to be contacted, or reunited with a family member, there is no mechanism to do so.

We experienced such a situation when we met a little girl who had been separated from her mother while searching for drinking water. This girl was crying her eyes out, and had no idea where she had lost her mother, or where her mother was heading (within the camp). The chances of finding her mother was bleak.

Micheal Nugawala, a member of our team took this task upon himself, and drove around the camp with a very cooperative police officer and the child, asking every NGO and camp official if they had seen a woman looking for a child. After hours of searching, Micheal saw no point in continuing, and was looking for someone he could entrust the child to, so she would be looked after for the night. At this point, the child’s mother emerged, and they were reunited.

The military

By and large the military presence inside the camp were all working with the people of the camp. They seemed to be genuinely concerned about the IDPs and seemed to understand the socio political importance for Sri Lanka to look after these people and integrate them into society.

The military operation at the Omanthai entry point, underlined the professionalism of the military. The IDPs were arriving at this point on the brink of physical exhaustion.

They had come escaping the LTTE. A woman we spoke to had witnessed her husband being shot dead whilst trying to escape the previous day. She and her three children had managed to make it across to the no fire zone, and from there to Omanthai.

The military officers we spoke to at Omanthai spoke fluent Tamil. They were all being sensitive to the trauma the IDPs had undergone before getting to Omanthai. Even those suspected of having links to the LTTE were detained with their families while undergoing questioning. The process seemed transparent. The army did seem to be doing all they could to make the transition of the IDPs into the Sri Lankan government control as smooth as possible.

Internally displaced people

The faces, the body language of the IDPs at Omanthai and also at the Menik Farm Camp were of extreme physical exhaustion.  Their faces in most cases looked ‘emotionless.’ They looked shell-shocked. They looked as if they had been walking for days. We saw children with newspapers tied to their feet — protection for their feet which was burnt by the hot sand they had to combat. They looked like Nomads who had walked through a desert. They didn’t look like they distrusted the military. They were all communicating with the military, relating their stories.

One of our party, said there was fear written on the faces of some people at Omanthai when a military tank drove through the barriers towards Vavuniya.

A woman talking to us said that she didn’t want to go back to her village. She looked forward to a fresh start, a release from suffering. Life under the LTTE had been difficult for them. The taxes imposed by the LTTE on food items was very high. A kilo of chilies cost Rs. 8,000, a kilo of rice Rs. 1,000, a kilo of dhal Rs. 1,500.

The IDPs in the Menik Farm Camp did complain of a shortage of food and water when the supply trucks come in long queues immediately from behind them. The men are stronger and when food is given  they push their way through and grab the lion’s share. However, as one man explained, “I have 10 people in my tent to feed. How do I feed them all with just two rice packets a day?”

Most of the people we gave milk to did not drink it immediately. Apparently they keep supplies that are non perishable for a ‘rainy day.’ It was apparent that no one was dying of starvation. There was however insecurity — of what the future had in store — and they were stocking up in case food supplies dried up.

In the long term the only lasting solution to the ethnic conflict can come from integrating these IDPs into society. Taking them through the trauma they have undergone, from an IDP camp to a normal life, where they can enjoy security, look forward to building a career or vocation, look forward to educating their children and enjoy being a part of Sri Lanka.

It is heartening to see the unsolicited and open ended support that is being extended to our country and our people.