ADB vows to ensure aid reaches LTTE areas - paper

[TamilNet, Monday, 30 May 2005, 02:56 GMT]
As international donors continue to urge Sri Lanka to sign a joint mechanism with the Liberation Tigers, to ensure tsunami-related aid is distributed equitably to where it is needed, the Asian Development Bank’s (ADB) top official said his organisation would ensure humanitarian assistance would reach LTTE-controlled areas in any case.

ADB’s Sri Lanka Representative, Alessandro Pio, was quoted by The Sunday Leader as saying that “humanitarian assistance to the LTTE controlled areas would flow whether or not the government signed the joint mechanism agreement.”

Mr. Pio told The Sunday Leader that the donor community would closely monitor the aid distribution by the government pledged at the Kandy donor conference for post tsunami reconstruction two weeks ago, to ensure it reaches LTTE-held territory with or without a joint mechanism in place.

“The ADB Chief, a major player in the Sri Lanka's post tsunami reconstruction process, says the donors will ensure the funds reach all the affected areas, in the north east and the south, without any partiality,” the paper said.

Meanwhile a spokesman for the Norwegian Embassy in Colombo told The Sunday Leader that both the government and the LTTE are still discussing the contents of the joint mechanism with Norwegian facilitation and that the talks are expected to produce positive results shortly.