MP slams aerial bombardment on water refinery

[TamilNet, Saturday, 30 December 2006, 10:37 GMT]
The Sri Lanka Air Force (SLAF), in its latest bombing raids in Vaharai on Thursday, completely destroyed a water refinery constructed by the UN agencies to remedy the drinking water shortage in the area near Verugal Murugan temple, charged S. Jeyanandamoorthy, the Tamil National Alliance (TNA) Parliamentarian from Batticaloa. In a press communiqué issued on Friday, the MP said: "the bombardment on the water refinery is not only a Ceasefire violation but is a human rights violation and a war crime too."

Mr. Jeyanandamoorthy also slammed the Sri Lankan Government for "vicious plan of occupying Tamils land by planning to set up a coal power plant in Muthur East region."

"The Government of Sri Lanka (GoSL) has not only chased away the Tamils from their homes in Sampoor but also is trying to acquire their land covertly by building chemical factories."

The TNA consisting 22 out of the 23 Tamil members elected to Sri Lankan Parliament from the North Eastern Province, have repeatedly charged that the Sri Lankan armed forces were using humanitarian crisis as a tool of war.

Already in May 2005, Sri Lankan soldiers manning the entry points in Batticaloa began blocking civilians from transporting cement, building and construction materials, fuel and other essential materials to the villages in Vaharai region, hampering the post-tsunami reconstruction.

A year later, in May 2006, the ban was made official in contravention of the provisions in the February 2002 Ceasefire Agreement.

As the military confrontations intensified, International NGOs were prevented by the GoSL, first by official bureaucratic obstructions denying them the freedom of movement in the North-East and later by not allowing the relief workers to precede beyond the entry points citing "security reasons." The relief workers and vehicles of International relief organisations also came under attack by the Sri Lanka Army (SLA) and the SLA run paramilitaries.

A ban on fishing was imposed, causing a humanitarian crisis to the tsunami affected people along the SLA controlled coastal areas.

All the access routes to Vaharai region and the only land route to Jaffna remain completely closed by the SLA.

The call for safe-haven in Vaharai has also been rejected by the Government of Sri Lanka as it's military agenda was to drive out the civilian population from the LTTE controlled region.

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