by Melani Manel Perera

Priests and religious leaders write to Ban Ki-Moon asking him to put pressure on Sri Lankan authorities and Tamil Tigers to re-start peace negotiations. The Mullaitivu area is on the verge of a humanitarian crisis. Displaced people find refugee in churches and other places of worship.

Colombo (AsiaNews) – Mgr Thomas Saundaranayagam, bishop of Jaffna, wants a humanitarian corridor to allow civilians to find refuge in a safe area. He made the appeal to Sri Lankan authorities and the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) on behalf of the residents in and around the city of Mullaitivu (Vanni) where clashes between the army and Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE) rebels are intensifying.

In his letter to Sri Lankan President Mahinda Rajapaksa, who is also commander in chief of the Armed Forces, the bishop of Jaffna called for an end to shelling and aerial bombings near civilian settlements in Vanni.

In a second letter, this one addressed to the Secretary General of the United Nations Ban Ki Moon, he said that Catholic leaders and leaders of other religions demand he put pressures on the parties to the conflict in order to get them to the negotiating table so that “that immediate steps [can] be taken to stop this senseless conflict and put an end to untold suffering for innocent civilians.”

Dated 13 January the letter said that in these “indiscriminate attacks babies in their mother’s wombs, infants, children, women and men, young and old, are being killed and wounded every day. Schools, hospitals, places of worship, civilian homes, whose security and safety are guaranteed by the constitution, are not spared in this aggressive war.”

The two roads, A34 and A35, that link Mullaitivu to Mankulam and Paranthan should enable people to get out of the area with the assistance of the IDRC and the United Nations, he said.

For Monsignor Saundaranayagam, who heads the diocese in the largest city in northern Sri Lanka, areas like Elephant Pass and the city of Paranthan could host the displaced.

The government for its part said that re-establishing security in Mullaitivu is the necessary condition for the creation of safe areas for civilians.  

“Displaced innocent people don’t know where to go for their safety,” the bishop noted in his letter, a copy of which was also sent to the prime minister, the minister of defence and foreign ambassadors in Sri Lanka.

The plight of the displaced is “terrible,” Monsignor Saundaranayagam explained in the letter. “We have asked them [the refugees] to gather in the churches and temples,” where “priests are also with them. [. . .] Churches and temples are traditionally places of refuge in times of danger in our country.”

The lack of food, medicines and care has created a humanitarian crisis in the area, and “the opening of safe corridors is of extreme importance in this situation,” the bishop of Jaffna said.

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