Sri Lanka’s IDP camp Manik Farm is what it is (but what is that?)
Most of the arguments about Manik Farm (and other transit camps in the North of Sri Lanka) seem to get stuck on definitions and comparisons. Is it a concentration camp? Is it like the camps run by the Nazis or old colonial powers? I believe these debates miss the most important question: what is the actual predicament of people who have escaped from the Wanni to be held in these camps? Can we spend just a few minutes to really consider their situation? Or does victory mean we do not need to know the cost of liberation and do not care what their new form of captivity means to those who have been newly ‘liberated’?
Family Separation
When people were fleeing the fighting, families were often split up. When they reached the Sri Lankan forces, men and women were separated for screening and after that were herded into vehicles to be taken to transit camps.   Although they assumed they would be taken to the same camps and could find their loved ones again, they were often mistaken On different days, people were taken to different transit camps, and even if they all escaped the shelling, fighting and screening, they did not always end up in the same place. They hoped they could find each other, but since no one is allowed to leave the camps or even call anyone, they have no way of finding their children, husbands, wives, parents and other relatives.
The people in the camps don’t know if everyone in their family made it. They don’t know if anyone of their family was taken away as a suspect. Families don’t know what happened to those who were injured, and the injured lying in hospitals sometimes don’t know where the rest of their family are. There are even injured children in hospital who do no know where the rest of their family is or whether they will find them again. There are no lists in the camps, no central registers of displaced people and camp inmates, no up-to-date public records of which hospitals the sick and the injured have been transferred to in Vavuniya, Trincomalee, Polonnaruwa, Anuradhapura or further afield.
Imagine if you were stuck inside a camp with no way of knowing whether your husband and child were alive or dead. Whether your son had been taken away as a suspect during screening. Whether your wife in the hospital will be discharged to your camp or transferred to some other place.
After the tsunami the government services and UNICEF registered every single separated child and rushed to re-unite most children with their living relative. Now UNICEF and the government authorities do not even know the numbers of children injured, without limbs, separated from their families, or seriously sick and dead.
Captivity
It’s not really the barbed wire itself that is the probem. Picture fenced-off make-shift camps, with a extended boundary of rolls of barbed wire. The perimeter is guarded by men with guns. Men, women and children stand inside the inner barbed wire fence, staring out for hours hoping that their relatives or someone who they know will come looking for them. On the other side, across the road from the barbed wire stand others who have come to look for their relatives. If they are lucky enough to spot their loved ones, they have to communicate with them through hand gestures or depend on the generosity of the guards to allow them to approach the fence.
Imagine those inside the camp clinging to that hope day after day as there is no other way of letting anyone know you are inside? Or you knowing if the others in your family made it and where they are?
Imagine not being able to make a phone call to anyone, not being able to talk freely to the few aid workers who are allowed to visit the camp. Imagine having a post office but not knowing by memory an address to which you could send a letter saying you are there. Imagine being a child who doesn’t know where to send the letter.
Imagine that when you fall sick the doctor cannot send you to the hospital, instead the military decides if you are sick enough to be sent there. Imagine being sent to a crowded squalid camp after having a limb amputated, or the day after you have given birth (with your newborn child) Imagine having your period and not having underwear. Imagine having no clothes to change into except the ones you escaped in. Imagine being given food which a Public Health Inspector has declared is not fit for consumption but you have no choice but to eat or starve.
Of course, the people in the camps don’t have to imagine this. They know exactly how it feels.
Victory and Defeat at What Cost?
I have one more question for us to consider for a moment. I will tell explain later why I ask this. Our media overwhelmingly supports the defeat of the LTTE. But what does defeating them mean? Should everyone in their ranks be killed? Doesn’t it matter that some of them were forcibly recruited as child soldiers a few years ago? Doesn’t it matter that some of them may be forced to fight now? Are we agreeing that it is perfectly acceptable that, while being screened, suspected people should be taken away to some unknown place without any record or any monitoring? How is this different to what happened in Iraq and Afghanistan? Or are these wars our models? It is not important that there may be mothers waiting for information as to whether their children are dead or not? We should also ask some questions about the soldiers in battle in the Vanni. What do their mothers and fathers, siblings and friends think when they are told their loved ones are missing in action or have died while fighting, or that they are going to be disabled for the rest of their lives? Is it unpatriotic to want to know the extent of this suffering and questioning whether this sacrifice will be worth it in the long run?
I recently met a woman who was told that she had to give one of her sons to the LTTE. She refused and she was taken away and imprisoned for many days. Her eldest son, who was 16, could not bear to see his mother treated like this, and joined the LTTE so that his mother could go home and look after his younger siblings. This loving son is somewhere in the Vanni now and the woman prays to the gods that by some chance she will see him or hear from him again.
As things stand now, it seems like this may never happen. That is why I ask this question.
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A most therapeutic dose of empathy that we all need very disparately Aruna. Even though the emotions this bring out cannot be relied upon entirely to inspire the answers we seek to these problems, being able to feel what people on the other side of the lagoons and barbed wires feel, should remind us more than anything else that despite what we all have suffered as a result of this war, these people especially have been the direst victims.
Many many thanks!
the thing with most oassive peace mongers are that they are not realistic. they expect that things to happen over night wihout a issue for practicality and security issues… the IDP camps are to avoid LTTE carders coming in as IDP and then going and digging up wepons and claymores and taking targets inside our lines.. but then the NGO types have a different measure for armed forces lifes verses civilian lives i guess…
While I do sympathise with those that have been coerced, it is important to remember that the government forces are trying to re-establish the rule of law in a situation where some people have taken up arms and are killing, maiming and disrupting civil life. Those apprehended should be brought before a court of law which should decide whether some of them who were coerced or threatened into taking up arms should be dealt with more leniently than others. There is however no question that the government forces should continue to totally eradicate this menace from Sri Lanka.
People who are real human beings, with real human values, are lacking or perhaps are a minority in the South of Sri Lanka. Buddhism has become an anti Tamil murderous cult. Therefore, there are no Buddhist values of compassion and kindness towards a fellow Tamil human being.
Even animals are better than this. I have never seen a dog killing another dog. Sinhalese have become sub human in their relations with Tamils.
It is vainful to talk of anything better to take place in the military concentration camps in the North. They are similar to those that were run by Nazis.
What is wrong with LTTE? what is wrong with those who support it? What is wrong in seeking liberation from an oppressive state? Do Sinhalese know what brutal oppression is and how people respond to it to survive from it? No
If supporting the terror and criminal state of SL is correct, as we see openly in the media in the South, why is it wrong to support the LTTE internally and internationally? There should be a counter terror to subjugate state terror for survival.
Sinhalese will never ever understand this because they are a brainwashed Tamil murderous people. They justify it. They are indifferent to it.
I believe in God almighty. His judgement will surely come upon the Sinhalese of SL. Biblical history supports it. May be you or your children will face the price for the crime and evil that is being done now. One should think of those days of curse to come upon the Land. Cry SL now and repent from the evil. It may be too late when the dark clouds of curse fall upon the people.
I feel really so sad for what is taking place. Why can’t the LTTE just give it up if they know that their own people are suffering… or are they just giving a blind eye. Why don’t the tamil community give the government a chance(may be a year) once the LTTE is gone… If the people in the camps can go back to their homes and live a normal life that would be great if not all Sri Lankans should rally together to show solidarity with the IDP’s
All these troubles are due to greed and hatered. People must learn to share and live contended lives,peacefully. When people fight the vanquished suffers. The idea of a homeland for each race must be forgotten. To-day the whole world is one small unit and everyone has to depend on the other. The present recession that started in the USA and spread to all corners of the globe is a good example.All these cruelty we hear as a result of the terrorists war in Sri Lanka is solely due to the inhuman behaviour of the tamil terrorists. The suffering the IDP’s are undergoing in the Government controilled camps are bearable compared to the shooting of their own people escaping from the bombs and starvation by the tamil terrorists. Neither the tamil terrorists or the tamil diaspora thriving in rich countries have a heart to see the immense suffering small children,women and old men are undergoing in the No Fire Zone. These civilians have to shield the Tamil terrorists from gun fire and also surrender their teenage children to the Terrorist Army to do trench digging and fight for them while being half fed. The food that is being sent by the ICRC and the Government are robbed by the terrorists for their consumption. Can you imagine any worse cruelty than this. I only hope the UN will be able to use force even and make the tamil terrorists to release the innocent civilians forcibly kept by the terrorists so that the Sri Lankan Government can wipe out these heartless thugs from this earth. After that the world must tell the TAMILS to learn to live peacefully with the rest of the people in Sri Lanka with fighting for separate homelands. Tamils must learn that the whole world is the homeland of humanity. If human beings learn to live peacefully during the short span of life they live on this earth we will not hear or see any in human acts like we see in the vanni now. Lets hope at least all those in Sri Lanka and the rest of the world, who had to suffer due to this terrible episode will learn a lesson and not resort to violence to solve their problems ever again.
Sri Lanka: Trapped and Under Fire | Audio Slideshow
http://www.hrw.org/en/features/sri-lanka-trapped-and-under-fire
Human Rights Watch researcher Anna Neistat says both sides in Sri Lanka’s conflict are violating the laws of war. Approximately 100,000 civilians are trapped in a government-declared “no-fire zone” in the northern Vanni region. Tamil Tiger (LTTE) rebels have prevented civilians from leaving a tiny strip of land, while government
forces have repeatedly and indiscriminately shelled the area.
These photos are from a makeshift hospital in Putumattalan that was treating survivors of attacks on April 8 and 9, 2009. Many were women and children who were waiting in a food distribution line in Pokkanai when artillery shells hit.
justin,
you are no better than the Sinhala ultra nationalists. They are saturated with the same racism and violence that you claim to despise.
Tell me Justin, is there anything that you accuse the Sinhalese of – that cannot be said of the LTTE? Have not the LTTE indiscriminately bombed and and destroyed Sri Lankans of all races for three decades? Have they not strapped explosives onto the bodies of Tamil youth and have those bombs been selective in choosing their victims? How can anyone who would value the wealth we lost with the destruction of the Jaffna Library, value such mindless violence?
The LTTE is despised not because they are Tamil, or because they fought for Tamil rights (they did not), but because of the violence they unleashed on all Sri Lankans. In that vein, if should be a counter terror to subjugate terror as you advocate, doesn’t that itself justify the current predicament of the LTTE?
But most of all Justin… please tell me – am i trying to reason with a reasonable man?
It looks as if the GOSL has succumbed to the Indian pressure to halt military operations at least the use of mortars and big guns. The next stage of the war would have to be hand to hand combat. The International Community have shown that they are only interested in safeguarding the lives of the civilians and not of the LTTE. So the GOSL can still go ahead and vanquish the LTTE. It would mean the sacrificing of our soldiers althouugh it would also mean the final defeat of the LTTE. But the key question is how many civilians are still there and whether they will fight the Army or not.
But will all this killing ultimately ensure the unity and territorial integrity of the country or lead to the setting up of two states at the instance of India and the Tamil diaspora?
Unlike “legally” elected governments, “Terrorists” are not admitted as members of the UN. They do not subscribe to the UN Charter. Nor are they supposed to be civilized people. They are not elected by the people to safe-guard the people. According to the UN they are criminals.
So it is better to stop comparing the actions of the “terrorists” with those of “legally” elected Governments.
The “legally” elected Governments are expected to behave as a “civilized” group.
“The lack of engagement and communication, in turn adds to the sense of estrangement. This is not in the interests of either side, particularly the Sri Lankan people who yearn for peace, a just solution to the ethnic conflict and the hope of prosperity at least for their children.” – Jehan Perera
With the above end in view please spare a part of your valuable time to ABSORB the views submitted below.
Too much of time has been wasted in discussing the origins of the problems and the paths taken by various persons to solve the problems in the ways they believed as the best. The problems have grown and evolved and twisted by many to suit their way of thinking.
So, it is high-time we start thinking in terms of a solution that would address NEARLY ALL THE PROBLEMS rather than continue to criticize other people for their “faults”.
Failures are the pillars of success. We have learned a lot of things through experience. With the experiences gained we will have to work for a change of heart not just a change of mind of the people in the country.
“People who value democracy, equality and equity, needs to pressure the Sri Lankan state to take immediate action towards a meaningful and just power sharing arrangement. That is the only way to ensure security and the dignity of the peoples of Sri Lanka. If peaceful coexistence through power sharing is not achievable, the only other solution that would be available will be secession” so said Mr. Lionel Bopage, former Secretary of the JVP.
Let us absorb the views expressed by others and ponder and come to a conclusion as a civilized group of persons.
Control your “self” first and then the need to “control” others may not arise.
Hey Everyone,
Please take a look at what is really happening inside the IDP Camps in Vavuniya…. Its sad that the SL Government is doing this to their own people and don’t care!
What did Buddha breach? Are we practicising it in reality? It looks like we all singalese are going to hell!! Please friends, wake up and see this and take actions… If we are real Buddist we should stop this SL government from doing this… Show your support to the people who are the real victims here!! As a real Buddist show your mercy on this poor people!!
http://www.channel4.com/news/articles/politics/international_politics/grim+scenes+at+sri+lankan+camps+/3126257
What it is is a travesty of justice and I can assure everyone in Sri Lanka that I will be doing everything I possibly can to ensure that people know about the illegal detention of 300,000 ethnic Tamils before they buy a garment with the ‘made in Sri Lanka’ label or drink Ceylon tea, or book a holiday in paradise in a hotel built on the mass grave of Tamils.
You cannot punish an entire ethnic group for the war, or hold them to ransom. The Justice Minister claimed that the IDPs would be freed only when they identify all the LTTE cadres hiding in the camps.
I will also make sure that everyone knows about the persecution of medical staff whose crime was to treat victims of indiscriminate violence of war. Under the Geneva Convention, even enemy combatants have a RIGHT to medical treatment.
This is something that even President Rajapakse cannot take away. I cannot wait for him to stop over in a country with conscience and have a warrant served on him. Let see if he is as lucky as Pinochet.
Is Sri Lanka moving any way towards reconciliation? There is no evidence of this. Instead there are daily extra-judicial killings, intimidations of politicians and journalists, beatings and murders.
One only has to look at he success of the Tamil Diaspora in the countries that gave them refuge following the pogroms and massacres inflicted on them and you have an indication of valuable resource that Sri Lanka has lost.
The internment camps are not a move to peace and reconciliation. If you cannot learn from your own history, learn from Roman history and do not be dismayed when you hear cries of ‘I am Spartacus’ emanating from behind the wire.
Stop the witch hunts, free the Internally Detained People. In the meantime I will continue to tell everyone I can through every means available to not buy Sri Lanka, to not holiday SriLanka. I love the internet, I can tell millions of people about the injustices and how you persecute my fellow Brit Vany Damilkumar who risked her life to help the innocent victims of war and how instead of deserved veneration, she is imprisoned in the Menik Farm concentration camps, her crime to be of Tamil origin.
What a beautiful country, what fantastic potential, what missed opportunities! Shame on you Sri Lanka.
need to look into the situation rather than blaming the other parties, if we do not step into the situation to do something it is really useless for us to talk. we are trying to bring the people solitarity to find the answer for this suffering.
we are not allow to get into the camps why because of fear not of LTTE but the fear of showing their inhumanitarian act to the outsiders. if we are maintaing the people without decently then why have not allowing the people to visit us.
it is the high time to sit and think and start working rather than blaming other people.