From: kumar@syd.dit.CSIRO.AU (V.R.Kumar)
Subject: Sufferings of Civilians in Sri Lanka
Organization: CSIRO Division of Info Tech, Sydney, Australia
Date: Mon, 9 Nov 92 23:58:27 GMT


The following article might help those who are unaware of the
sufferings of SL tamil friends in Sri Lanka to know the present   
situation. I feel that this article is only an abstract of the
real problems. The human sufferings in Sri Lanka is much more than
mentioned in this article. This article is posted with no 
intention of attacking/supporting any groups or governments. Lets 
pray for peace in Sri Lanka and lets wish that Sri Lanka returns to 
'normal life' very soon.

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Sri Lanka

		B E Y O N D   H E L L
		---------------------
                         by
                   Anita Pratap, Jaffna
        Time (Australia), Page No.40,Nov.9, 1992
                                     ^^^^^^^^^^^
As Government forces inch towards Jaffna, life grows steadily
more painful for a million surrounded Tamils
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Ever since they lost a 24-day battle with government troops
last year, the fighters of the seperatist Liberation Tigers
of Tamil Eelam have found themselves in a tightening noose.
Thousands of government soilders, backed ny T-55 tanks, fighter
bombers and gunboats, have been advancing in the Jaffna Peninsula,
the core of resistance by Tamils intent on breaking away from 
the majority Sinhalese. More than 10,000 troops have moved to within
a few kilometers of the town of Jaffna, which is a Tiger headquarters,
and a re positioned to attack from six directions. A final assault 
may be still in months away, but in the meantime, a million Tamil
civilians are trapped on the peninsula, victims of a slow-motion
tragedy. Says T.Vythilinkam, Jaffna's deputy commissioner: "We have
been living in hell for the past 10 years, but the worst is about
to begin."

Sri Lanka's civil war has steadily shapened since the Tigers withdrew
from a brief rapprochement with President Premadasa's government in
June 1990. Nearly 15,000 people have since died in combat and in
terrorist bomb blasts, taking the toll in the nine-year ethinic 
conflict beyond 33,000. Terrified civilians have fled before the army's
advance through the Tamil-dominated north eastern province, to the 
ppoint where some 243,000 refugees find themselves penned around Jaffna.
In the town itself, residents hide in bullet-scarred homes while the
displaced huddle in overcrowded churches, temples and schools. Says
Anthonypillai Benadette, a refugee at a camp just outside Jaffna :
"It is better to get hit by a bullet than die this slow death."

The government has cut off the flow of gasoline supplies in an attempt
to curtail Tiger movement, and the only connection remaining between
Jaffna and the rest of the country is a dangerous three-hour boat
ride across a 20-km-wide lagoon. Prices of essential commodities have
risen 10-fold since mid-1990. For a while, the International Red Cross
shipped 7,000 tonnes of food once a month by freighter from Colombo;
the supplies were transferred to barges and distributed to 283 refugee
camps. That already mearger support was cut in half last September
because of dwindling funds.

Shortages are taking a steady toll. Malnutrition and siarrhea are
ramphant; In jaffna hospital, one of the the few still functioning,
an average of 100 people die each month, close to half of them for
lack of antibiotics. rabies, spread by roving, ravenous dogs, is
killing more people; vaccine is not available. D.N.Kanagarathnam,
the Jaffna hospital director: "This war has reduced us to a nation 
of stray people and stray dogs."

The survivors are showing ingeniousness honed by years of adversity.
They are blending vegetable oil and kerosene as a substitute for diesel
fuel to run generators and vehicles. They are using palmyra,a type of
palm oil still available in jaffna, for detergent and are making paper
out of straw and waste matter. Contraband items from Colombo are 
craftily sumggled in: batteries in hollowed-out bars of soap, 
antibiotics in sanitary napkins, diesel fuel in coconuts.

If anything, the seige has intensified Tamil support for the tigers.
The guerrillas allow civilian authorities and the Red Cross to handle
food distribution but run the police, collect taxes, settle disputes
and inform people through radio broadcasts and street-corner notices.
says T.Puthirasigamany, the jetty chief at Point Pedro, a town on the
peninisula: "We are all with the Tigers. They are the only ones 
fighting for our rights."

The government's strategy is aimed at weakening the fighting capability
of the Tigers and wrestling back control of the town of Jaffna to score
a major political victory before another attempt at peace talks.
According to Lieut.General Cecil Waidyaratne, the Chief of Army Staff,
government forces intend to grind down the rebels in steady 
skirmishes, consolidate their position in the eastern areas and gain
control of the northern districts. Only then an additional 15,000
soilders be spared to launch a final offensive on jaffna town. What
the army wants to avoid is heavy civilian casualities. Says General
Hamilton Wanasinghe, the chief coordinator of military operations:
"The effort to win the hearts and minds of the Tamils will be    
destroyed if many civilians die in jaffna".

The Tigers are responding with tried-and-true methods, ambushing
army patrols, mining key approaches around Jaffna and killing
Sinhalese civilians caught in tamil-dominated areas. Last month,
guerrillas massacred 142 muslim and Sinhalese villagers in the east
and wounded another 120. The Tigers have lost 3,000 fighters over
the past two years; army estimates place the remaining strength at
7,000, mostly young men and women. Morale among the guerrillas is
high, even though they are running low on arms and ammunition. At
their headquarters in Jaffna, spokesman Anton Balasingham declares
that "we will fight to the last man". That determination will ensure
that Jaffna remains a hell for some time to come.

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Anpudan,

V R Kumar

"thamizha thamizha kaNgaL kalaNGaathE
 vitiYum vitiYum uLLam maYaNGaathE"

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