IDP – A political foot – ball

By Saybhan Samat

(July 22, Colombo, Sri Lanka Guardian) With the conclusion of the dreaded 30 year war, the focus on internal displaced persons (IDPs) is top priority causing immense anxiety to the Government in particular and to the public in general. It seems that the problem is not going away as there are reports on a daily basis with banner headlines on the vexed question of the IDPS.

While the government paints a sunshine story of conditions in the IDP camps certain Western backed INGOs, NGOs and human- rights organizations report on the unsatisfactory conditions in these camps even declaring that there is a violation of human-rights like freedom of movement, communication, privacy, right to adequate water, food, medicine and to sanitation.

The situation is critical as these accusations of violation of fundamental and human rights of the displaced persons are given wide-spread international publicity mostly in the Western mass media brining the government into disrepute. The Government is making a concerted effort to defend itself of all accusations of mismanagement and violations of human-rights in the IDP camps even inviting the UN Secretary General Ban-Ki-Moon to visit the IDP camp in Vavuniya. Besides Ban-Ki-Moon, other representatives of the World Health Organization, the United Nations, India, Japan and Britain have also visited the camps.

The issue has now become a political foot ball. The Western-backed INGOs, NGOs and human –rights organizations are striving to maligns the government as President Rajapakse refuses to kneel and bow to the Western powers and to their neo-colonial agenda in Sri Lanka. The Western powers are also smarting on account of their inability to have saved Prabhakaran and the L.T.T.E in the recently concluded war. The Government in turn is not giving in, they although facing a down turn in the world economy which affects Sri Lanka too are doing their utmost to run the IDPs in a reasonably satisfactory manner. If the critics of the Government are patient and forbearing, just like the war, the problem of the IDPs will to a great extent be solved.

It is morally wrong to politicize the issue and give exaggerated reports on minor short-comings in the IDP camps in the island. A recent report in the media declared that condition in the IDP camps in Sri Lanka were much better than that of the refuge camps in India and other IDP camps in the world.

Internal displacement has become a characteristic feature of the post Cold War world, an increasingly common occurrence that, because of its global scope and magnitude, is of concern to us all. In a growing number of countries large numbers of people are uprooted and on the move- women and children most prominent among them, displaced within the boarders of their own nations as a direct result of armed conflict, internal strife or systematic violation of human-rights.

In 1982, there were an estimated 1.2 million internally displaced persons or IDPs in 11 countries; two decades later, as a result of armed conflict, there are as many as 25 million IDPs in some 40 nation states.

Dependant upon state government officials and other authorities for protection and assistance, internally displaced persons have been described as the single largest at risk population in the world in Sri Lanka as elsewhere, the precarious existence of this vulnerable group is inextricably linked to the refugees issue. IDPs who flee the country become refugees and refugees who return home are sometimes again displaced. Often destitute and marginalized, IDPs are likely to have their fundamental rights and freedoms compromised, their economic and political opportunities denied. It is not only the displaced who are adversely affected, however; the communities they leave behind, as well as those in which they seek refuge, are often disrupted as well.

The Government is aware of some short-comings in the IDP camps and is giving serious attention to rectify them. It must be remembered that running these camps in the back drop of the Government being aware that an unknown number of active L.T.T.E cadres are posing as displaced persons and remain in these camps is a constraint to maintain ideal conditions. At any rate security cannot become promised. What is disconcerting is that certain organizations and individuals are blowing minor issues out of proportion to later implement there own agenda. The subterfuge on the part of the Western powers should make the Government and the people of our fair island alert to such machinations which have become common to day.

-Sri Lanka Guardian