8000 Dead and 500,000 Displaced in NorthEast of the Island of Sri Lanka
[TRO appeal posted on TamilNet]
The Tamils Rehabilitation Organisation is engaged in rendering urgent humanitarian assistance to all those in the coastal areas of the northeast of Sri Lanka who have borne the brunt of the ‘tidal’ waves (tsunamis) caused by the strongest earthquake in 40 years, with its epicentre in Indonesia.
Beaches are strewn with debris and waste. Whole villages have been turned into cemeteries. Over 8000 have lost their lives in the northeast. More than 500,000 have been displaced from their homes and left without shelter.
The Tamils Rehabilitation Organisation is engaged in the task of providing food, medical help, transport, temporary shelters and other urgent humanitarian assistance for the hundreds of thousands of the displaced. However, the magnitude of the humanitarian crisis that we are faced with is such that we need the urgent support of the international community and the generous and immediate support of our Tamil brothers and sisters living in many lands.
The present resources available to TRO are nowhere near sufficient to meet the huge crisis that has arisen and we are faced with the prospect of an ever increasing toll of the dead, outbreak of epidemics as the dead lie in open fields and waterways, shortage of food and a continued denial of basic living needs for a half a million people. Assistance channelled through the Government of Sri Lanka has failed to reach the displaced in the northeast. It is only through the immediate, unstinted and generous support of the Tamil diaspora that we will be able to surmount the humanitarian crisis that has arisen. The Tamils Rehabilitation Organisation calls upon Tamils in each country to join with the efforts by the branch of the TRO in their country in this urgent task. Those individuals who wish to help directly may also do so online through our website www.troonline.org
In the present acute circumstances, we call upon the Tamil diaspora to urgently contact and inform governmental and non governmental aid agencies and religious institutions in their countries of residence of the critical situation facing the people in the northeast and to seek the urgent assistance of these agencies and institutions to alleviate the suffering of more than 500,000 victims of a natural disaster in the northeast. The branches of the TRO in each country will afford all help to this end. Meanwhile, the TRO has made a beginning to secure a record of the details of the damage.
Director
External aid yet to reach Vanni, 3,000 still missing in Mullaitivu
from TamilNet
No external aid was received until Monday afternoon to assist thousands of people injured and rendered homeless by the Tsunami in the coastal parts of the Vanni region and Southern Jaffna, a spokesman for the Tamils’ Rehabilitation Organisation (TRO) said. The Political Division of the Liberation Tigers convened an urgent meeting on Monday with international NGOs, local aid agencies and senior officials to assess the magnitude of the humanitarian crisis and to organize and enhance urgent relief and rescue measures in the Tsunami hit areas.
Until Monday evening 6 PM, 720 bodies have been recovered in Mullaitivu. Of these 256 bodies were located Monday. 3000 people are missing in Mullaitivu. 1386 injured persons from Mullaitivu are being treated by the LTTE’s medical units and by the Centre for Health Care and by TRO volunteers. Displaced people from Mullaitivu are located at 16 different public places (mostly schools) in the Puthukudiyiruppu area. TRO is delivering cooked meals to the displaced people.
In Vadamaradchi East, 300 people are still missing. 287 bodies were recovered Monday. 489 persons from Vadamaradchi East are being treated in Kilinochchi Hospital.
Many officials from international NGOs, including UNHCR, UNICEF, ICRC, UNDP and the Government Agents of Mullaitivu, Jaffna, Kilonochchi and the Additional GA for Vavuniya took part in the LTTE-organised meeting Monday.
Many local aid agencies and representatives of Tamils’ Rehabilitation Organisation (TRO) participated.
Two committees, one for Vadamaradchi East and one for Mullaitivu were formed for making immediate need assessments, an LTTE Peace Secretariat official said.
Fifty six villages have been completely devastated by the Tsunami along the northeastern coast, TRO sources told TamilNet
According to details given by TRO early Monday morning, 11 417 persons injured by the Tsunami in Northeast, were admitted to hospitals in the coastal sectors of the Northeast, according to TRO officials. More than half a million have been displaced in the districts of Jaffna, Mullaithivu, Trincomalee, Batticaloa and Amparai.
A review of the crisis covering 18 hours from Sunday to Monday afternoon done by the TRO states that 3800 persons have been found injured so far in Mullaithivu, 3400 in Trincomalee, 1800 in Vadamaradchi East and 2100 in Batticaloa.
The initial 18 hour overview of TRO suggested 137,000 displaced in Trincomalee, 118,000 in Batticaloa, 110,000 in Jaffna, 97,000 in Mullaitivu and 20,000 in Amparai.
More details are expected to be made available Tuesday by the committees appointed for requirement assessment, sources in Kilinochchi said.
Tamil MP Slams Colombo for Ignoring NorthEast Plight
from TamilNet
The Tamil National Alliance (TNA) Monday slammed the Sri Lankan government and Sinhala parties in Parliament for “callously ignoring the plight of thousands in the northeast hit by Saturday’s Tsunami. Mr. Joseph Pararajasingham, senior TNA MP who took part in a conference Monday on urgent disaster management convened by Sri Lanka’s Prime Minister, told that the nonchalant attitude of the government and Sinhala parties towards the suffering in the Northeast is “appalling”.
“The devastation and destruction in the northeast was discussed for not more than five minutes during the two hour conference on the Tsunami disaster management for all Parliament parties called by the Prime Minister at his reidence Monday.
“In fact the situation in the Northeast was taken up only after I raised the issue. They simply are not bothered about the plight of our people”, he told TamilNet.
“The TNA has therefore decided to appeal to donor countries and agencies to help directly the Tamil and Muslim people whose lives have been destroyed by the Tsunami”, the TNA Parliamentarian said.