Food parcels were thrown to people after making them run like dogs, and two children were killed in the melee in the barbed-wire camp at Menik Farm, Vavuniyaa. A 12-year-old boy on Monday and a 7-year-old boy on Tuesday were crushed to death in the melee, media sources in Vavuniyaa said. Meanwhile, around 300 Tamil youth from several camps in the area were forcefully taken by the Sri Lanka army, in the name of arrest, amidst protests of family members on Tuesday. Recently, 60 people have died of sickness in the camps, the sources further said. A total of 154,368 Vanni civilians are in captivity by the SLA up to Wednesday and out of them, 90, 181, were captured after 20 April.
“The pattern is typical of the Nazi concentration camps, questioning the credibility of all the ‘international guardians’ who wanted the civilians to end up in camps in the name of the freedom of movement of people”, said a Tamil official in Vavuniyaa.
The family members turned agitated and violent in the camp at Ne’lukku’lam, from where 98 youth were taken by the army. It is feared that around 300 youth have been arrested on Tuesday alone from the 24 camps. The SLA officials later guaranteed that they were responsible for the safety of the arrested.
Meanwhile, of those youth arrested on suspicion of having connections with the LTTE are taken to a separate camp located in a technical college for an ‘undisclosed agenda’. They are now given with prison camp uniforms, military sources said on condition of anonymity.
In the meantime, SLA has announced in the camps that all those who worked in various capacities for Tamileelam civil administration, had to submit themselves for a separate registration.
The elderly are suffering, despite announcements that people over 60 can go out of the camps to stay with relatives, if the relatives take responsibility. But this is applicable to only those who have relatives in Vavuniyaa. The other elders are in a condition of destitution. One of them died of sunstroke Wednesday.
No assistance has so far come from the government for the IDPs. Whatever provided was from the foreign and international organizations. Besides, the SLA is exploiting the sentiments of the Tamil residents of Vavuniyaa in supplying food and clothing to the IDPs.
Tents have been recently provided. But a tent that is meant for five people is accommodating seven to twenty.
Sanitary conditions are one of the worst problems, in the absence of proper toilets, etc. Women have to use tissues that come with food parcels as sanitary napkins.
All civilians captured during last week arrived past of Oamanthai, officials said on Wednesday.
A total number of 143,221 individuals of 32,734 families are now staying in the camps of Vavuniyaa, district officials said Wednesday. 58,412 individuals of 18,135 families were registered in Vavuniyaa camps prior to 17 April. The remaining has come during the last week.
11,147 individuals of 3698 families of the Vanni civilians are registered in the camps of the Jaffna peninsula, up to Wednesday. Out of them 5775 individuals of 1907 families were already staying there two weeks ago.
Figures indicate that a total of around 90,181 were captured by the SLA since 20 April.
Reliable sources put the figure remaining in the so-called safety zone to at least 120,000.
Colombo and New Delhi earlier insisted a figure of only 70,000 civilians in the safety zone. Mahinda Rajapakasa now says only 5 to 15 thousand civilians remain in the safety zone. Colombo’s figures are aimed at hoodwinking international concern of the gravity of the situation and to reduce food supply in order to starve people, observers said.
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