2.2 lakh IDPs in LTTE areas face monsoon fury

T V Sriram

Colombo, Oct 23 (PTI) The international relief agencies
have expressed worry over the shortage of shelters for about
2.2 lakh Internally Displaced Persons (I.D.P.s) in L.T.T.E.
controlled areas saying the advent of monsoon is worsening
their plight.

"The onset of the north-eastern monsoon in Sri Lanka is
accelerating the need to provide adequate shelter to more than
2,20,000 people in areas controlled by L.T.T.E. in the north,"
a U.N. report said.

The I.D.P.s remain in the Wanni, a north-central area
under Tamil Tiger control and, according to the latest
situation report by the Inter-Agency Standing Committee
(I.A.S.C.), insufficient temporary shelters had been erected
by mid September.

"The first of the monsoon rains have started in
Mulaithivu District(in the Wanni), increasing concerns for
vulnerable displaced families," the U.N. situation report
said.

Humanitarian agencies are increasingly worried about the
large gap in shelter provision for I.D.P.s currently with
inadequate shelters available, stated the report.

"Although some I.D.P.s have managed to take shelter
material and roofing with them as they have had to displace,
only 2,100 temporary shelters had been built at the time
humanitarian organisations relocated from the Vanni on
September 16," it said.

U.N. and other international agencies working in the
Wanni left the area in September following a government
directive amid deteriorating security.

Imalda Sukumar, the government agent for Mulaithivu
District, which has the largest concentration of I.D.P.s at
1,55,000 persons (about 39,000 families), said almost half of
them needed proper shelter.

"We feel that at least 14,000 families are in need of
shelter material and we are working to get them that," she
said.

"The monsoon is something that we all were expecting and
now as we keep food supplies moving to the displaced (in the
L.T.T.E. dominated Wanni), we will have to look at
transporting shelter material as well," Gordon Weiss, the U.N.
spokesman in Sri Lanka, said.

As many as 66,000 I.D.P.s remain in Kilinochchi District
west of Mulaithivu where recent fighting has forced them to
move to Mulaithivu District in large numbers.

The situation report stated that many of the displaced
families had relocated to low-lying areas.

"Many I.D.P.s have congregated in areas along the A35
highway which were once paddy land and therefore prone to
flooding. Shelter agencies had previously assessed some of
this land as potential I.D.P. sites and found them
unsuitable."

The Meteorological Department has warned that the annual
north-eastern monsoon was likely to remain active until at
least November.