01-03-2005, 01:06 PM
<span style='font-size:25pt;line-height:100%'>World - Canadian Press
Relief work goes smoothly in areas of Sri Lanka controlled by Tamil rebels
Sun Jan 2, 6:03 PM ET
ARTHUR MAX
KILINOCHCHI, Sri Lanka (AP) - In times of crisis, envy the authoritarians. </span>
Veterans of a long guerrilla war, the Tamil rebels who control northern Sri Lanka moved with military precision to help victims of the Indian Ocean tsunami.
The speed and efficiency of the massive humanitarian operation showed an administrative capability that underscored the rebels' demand for Tamil independence from the Sinhalese-dominated southern part of Sri Lanka.
Within minutes of the disaster, soldiers of the Liberation Tigers for Tamil Eelam, or LTTE, were evacuating survivors and pulling bodies from the still-roiling water, villagers and aid workers said.
In a well-practised drill, squads set up roadblocks to control panic and prevent looting. Others requisitioned civilian vehicles to move the injured to hospitals. Many donated blood.
Teams with digital cameras and laptops moved into disaster zones to photograph the faces of the dead for later identification, then swiftly cremated or buried the corpses.
Sathinathan Senthan, the village mayor of Kallappadu, said boats of the elite Sea Tigers, the LTTE naval arm which had a base at the neighbouring town of Mullaitivu, arrived even as the tsunami floodwaters were receding. Other sailors arrived on bicycles, he said.
"Until now, they are still there," Senthan told a reporter in the refugee camp, where he was trying to hold the grieving survivors together. Half his village of 2,200 people was killed, he said, and not a building remained standing.
By the end of the first day, the first refugee centres were set up. Women in the Tigers' camouflage uniforms began registering the survivors and recording the relief items they received - ensuring no one got more than he should.
"They applied a very efficient military machine. All they had to do was give the command," said Reuben Thurairajah, a British doctor who watched in amazement.
Meanwhile, in the south, the government was struggling to cope while politicians argued over who was in charge. From the field came isolated reports of corruption and hijacking of relief trucks.
Thurairajah, a volunteer public health officer who was in the area several weeks before the tsunami, said the Tigers were scrupulous in ensuring equal distribution of aid.
"If they have 100 bars of soap and 800 people, they'd rather not give it to anyone," he said.
The tsunami brought an equal measure of tragedy to the Tamils of the north and the Sinhalese of the south. Nearly 30,000 people have been killed, a crushing toll for a country of only 19 million.
Yet that is less than half the number of casualties from this island's 20-year ethnic-based civil war.
Tamil nationalists have been fighting for independence for the north and east, where the minority group is concentrated, since 1983.
A shaky ceasefire has held since February 2002, but peace talks broke down more than a year ago over the Tiger's demand to have a recognized self-governing authority while a final settlement is negotiated.
"Both sides are acutely aware that the way the relief efforts are being handled can affect their political status," said Paikiasothy Saravanamuttu, head of the Centre for Policy Alternatives.
The Tigers are likely to showcase their smooth handling of aid as they argue for autonomous authority. Sri Lankan hardliners counter that only a central government with authority over the whole country can administer international donations.
The LTTE began as a ragged guerrilla force of 26 fighters in the early 1970s under Veluppelai Prabhakaran, a civil servant's son from a coastal village near the historic Tamil city of Jaffna.
Prabhakaran demanded absolute loyalty, dedication to the cause of Tamil independence, and strict adherence to a code of conduct.
The LTTE revived suicide as a weapon of war. In 1991, a woman detonated an explosive belt that killed former Indian Prime Minister Rajiv Gandhi. Two years later, Sri Lankan President Ranasinghe Premadasa died in a suicide bomb.
Prabhakaran has never brooked dissent, and has ruthlessly eliminated rivals and rebels. He faced his biggest challenge in recent years last March when a top commander defected, and clashes still continue with the renegade group.
Both the LTTE and the government have signalled the tsunami could bring them closer together - "brothers in misery," as Prime Minister Mahinda Rajapakse put it - and help revive the peace process.
An exchange of conciliatory remarks and pledges to work together brought a sudden reversal in the gloomy political atmosphere.
"Before Dec. 26, we were closer to war than at any time since the ceasefire," said Saravanamuttu, speaking in Colombo. "Afterward, we are much further from war."
The hope is that joint relief efforts will break the cycle of distrust and build a level of confidence that would allow peace efforts to resume, he said.
But the co-operation in relief efforts began slowly and remains patchy, as the LTTE jealously guards its turf.
Relief operations in the rebel-controlled areas are guided by regional and local task forces comprising a government representative, an LTTE political officer, an aid official of the LTTE-financed Tamil Rehabilitation Organization, and a representative of an international charity group or UN body.
The system has worked surprisingly well, but with occasional glitches.
On Sunday, the Sri Lankan army accused the LTTE of blocking the disbursement of aid at a government school near the Tamil capital of Jaffna, apparently because they were sidelined in the distribution. The LTTE spokesman could not be reached for comment.
http://story.news.yahoo.com/news?tmpl=stor...=2149&ncid=2149
Relief work goes smoothly in areas of Sri Lanka controlled by Tamil rebels
Sun Jan 2, 6:03 PM ET
ARTHUR MAX
KILINOCHCHI, Sri Lanka (AP) - In times of crisis, envy the authoritarians. </span>
Veterans of a long guerrilla war, the Tamil rebels who control northern Sri Lanka moved with military precision to help victims of the Indian Ocean tsunami.
The speed and efficiency of the massive humanitarian operation showed an administrative capability that underscored the rebels' demand for Tamil independence from the Sinhalese-dominated southern part of Sri Lanka.
Within minutes of the disaster, soldiers of the Liberation Tigers for Tamil Eelam, or LTTE, were evacuating survivors and pulling bodies from the still-roiling water, villagers and aid workers said.
In a well-practised drill, squads set up roadblocks to control panic and prevent looting. Others requisitioned civilian vehicles to move the injured to hospitals. Many donated blood.
Teams with digital cameras and laptops moved into disaster zones to photograph the faces of the dead for later identification, then swiftly cremated or buried the corpses.
Sathinathan Senthan, the village mayor of Kallappadu, said boats of the elite Sea Tigers, the LTTE naval arm which had a base at the neighbouring town of Mullaitivu, arrived even as the tsunami floodwaters were receding. Other sailors arrived on bicycles, he said.
"Until now, they are still there," Senthan told a reporter in the refugee camp, where he was trying to hold the grieving survivors together. Half his village of 2,200 people was killed, he said, and not a building remained standing.
By the end of the first day, the first refugee centres were set up. Women in the Tigers' camouflage uniforms began registering the survivors and recording the relief items they received - ensuring no one got more than he should.
"They applied a very efficient military machine. All they had to do was give the command," said Reuben Thurairajah, a British doctor who watched in amazement.
Meanwhile, in the south, the government was struggling to cope while politicians argued over who was in charge. From the field came isolated reports of corruption and hijacking of relief trucks.
Thurairajah, a volunteer public health officer who was in the area several weeks before the tsunami, said the Tigers were scrupulous in ensuring equal distribution of aid.
"If they have 100 bars of soap and 800 people, they'd rather not give it to anyone," he said.
The tsunami brought an equal measure of tragedy to the Tamils of the north and the Sinhalese of the south. Nearly 30,000 people have been killed, a crushing toll for a country of only 19 million.
Yet that is less than half the number of casualties from this island's 20-year ethnic-based civil war.
Tamil nationalists have been fighting for independence for the north and east, where the minority group is concentrated, since 1983.
A shaky ceasefire has held since February 2002, but peace talks broke down more than a year ago over the Tiger's demand to have a recognized self-governing authority while a final settlement is negotiated.
"Both sides are acutely aware that the way the relief efforts are being handled can affect their political status," said Paikiasothy Saravanamuttu, head of the Centre for Policy Alternatives.
The Tigers are likely to showcase their smooth handling of aid as they argue for autonomous authority. Sri Lankan hardliners counter that only a central government with authority over the whole country can administer international donations.
The LTTE began as a ragged guerrilla force of 26 fighters in the early 1970s under Veluppelai Prabhakaran, a civil servant's son from a coastal village near the historic Tamil city of Jaffna.
Prabhakaran demanded absolute loyalty, dedication to the cause of Tamil independence, and strict adherence to a code of conduct.
The LTTE revived suicide as a weapon of war. In 1991, a woman detonated an explosive belt that killed former Indian Prime Minister Rajiv Gandhi. Two years later, Sri Lankan President Ranasinghe Premadasa died in a suicide bomb.
Prabhakaran has never brooked dissent, and has ruthlessly eliminated rivals and rebels. He faced his biggest challenge in recent years last March when a top commander defected, and clashes still continue with the renegade group.
Both the LTTE and the government have signalled the tsunami could bring them closer together - "brothers in misery," as Prime Minister Mahinda Rajapakse put it - and help revive the peace process.
An exchange of conciliatory remarks and pledges to work together brought a sudden reversal in the gloomy political atmosphere.
"Before Dec. 26, we were closer to war than at any time since the ceasefire," said Saravanamuttu, speaking in Colombo. "Afterward, we are much further from war."
The hope is that joint relief efforts will break the cycle of distrust and build a level of confidence that would allow peace efforts to resume, he said.
But the co-operation in relief efforts began slowly and remains patchy, as the LTTE jealously guards its turf.
Relief operations in the rebel-controlled areas are guided by regional and local task forces comprising a government representative, an LTTE political officer, an aid official of the LTTE-financed Tamil Rehabilitation Organization, and a representative of an international charity group or UN body.
The system has worked surprisingly well, but with occasional glitches.
On Sunday, the Sri Lankan army accused the LTTE of blocking the disbursement of aid at a government school near the Tamil capital of Jaffna, apparently because they were sidelined in the distribution. The LTTE spokesman could not be reached for comment.
http://story.news.yahoo.com/news?tmpl=stor...=2149&ncid=2149