V. Plight of the Internally Displaced

The situation of civilians who manage to escape from areas of active hostilities into government-controlled territory is dire. Instead of providing the internally displaced with the assistance and protection they are entitled to under international law, the Sri Lankan government continues to violate their fundamental rights.

The government has arbitrarily detained people during screening procedures; subjected all internally displaced persons, including entire families, to indefinite confinement in military-controlled camps; and failed to provide adequate medical and other assistance to displaced persons. The government has directly restricted the efforts of relief agencies seeking to meet emergency needs, and has deterred agencies from offering greater support through policies that the agencies rightly perceive as unlawful.

The LTTE's attempts to prevent civilians from fleeing the conflict zone remain the main reason why tens of thousands of people remain trapped. Various sources told Human Rights Watch, however, that many civilians who are able to flee have been reluctant to cross over to the government side because they fear for their life and safety in the hands of the government forces. As one relief worker put it:

If people knew that there was ICRC or other international agency waiting for them on the other side, thousands, virtually all of them, would have run for safety, even if it meant breaking through LTTE cordons. But risking your life to end up in government detention-not many are willing to do this.[77]

In October-December 2008, Human Rights Watch documented the plight of hundreds of civilians detained in de facto internment camps established by the government since March 2008, primarily in Mannar district on the west coast.[78]

The situation has further deteriorated since the beginning of 2009 with the arrival of thousands of new displaced persons in government-controlled areas. The government continues to immediately confine all of them in existing and newly established camps, mostly in Vavuniya district.

The number of newly arrived displaced persons changes daily and is hard to verify, especially since the government does not share lDP registration lists with any international agencies. As of February 16, according to estimates by international agencies working in the area, there were about 30,700 internally displaced in 12 sites in Vavuniya.[79]

Screening procedures and unknown fate of the detainees

Sri Lankan security forces subject people fleeing from LTTE-controlled areas to several stages of screening, ostensibly to separate those affiliated with the LTTE from displaced civilians. While the government has legitimate security reasons for screening displaced persons to identify and apprehend LTTE cadres, the screening procedures need to be transparent and comply with the requirements of international humanitarian and human rights law. So far, none of these requirements have been met and dozens of individuals, perhaps many more, have been detained during the screening process. The fate of such detainees remains unknown, raising fears of possible enforced disappearances and extrajudicial killings.[80]

The military and the police Criminal Investigation Department have set up several screening points for displaced persons leaving the Vanni. Most displaced persons are initially screened during their first encounter with military forces after they have crossed the front line. The army currently transports the displaced persons to one of the hospitals in Kilinochchi where they spend up to 36 hours, being questioned by the security forces. In Kilinochchi, the security forces encourage people to reveal any affiliation that they have with the LTTE voluntarily.

According to several sources, at the Omanthai checkpoint, the main screening point for displaced persons on the main A9 roadway before their arrival in camps in Vavuniya, the army conducts a more thorough screening process. During this screening process, the army has separated dozens of men and women aged 18 to 35, as well as some teenage children, from their families, allegedly for further questioning.

Very little information is available regarding the first two stages of screening and it is not possible to verify whether and to what extent detentions occur in these locations. The government provides no information on who has been arrested. Nor are international agencies provided with the number or registration lists of people arriving at Kilinochchi, and thus no comparison can be made with the number of displaced persons who eventually make it to Vavuniya.[81]

It is clear, however, that persons are arrested at Omanthai checkpoint. The government initially agreed to allow the ICRC and the UN High Commissioner on Refugees to monitor the screening process there.[82] In practice only the ICRC was allowed at the checkpoint, and since February 7, 2009, it too has been barred from monitoring the screening procedure. At this writing, no independent observers are present at the checkpoint.[83]

Meanwhile, dozens if not hundreds of people-mostly young men and women-appear to have been detained at the Omanthai checkpoint as of early February 2009. Some have been released within days and transferred to the IDP camps in Vanunya, but the fate of numerous others remains unknown.

Displaced persons arriving in Vavuniya continue to report to the international agencies working in the camps that for days, and now weeks, they have not had any information regarding the fate and whereabouts of their relatives detained at Omanthai.

For example, one representative of an international agency who has been working in the IDP camps in Vavuniya told Human Rights Watch that during the week of February 2 the military separated 70 to 80 young people from their families at Omanthai checkpoint and detained them. Two days later, many of the young people were brought to the IDP camps, yet the fate of others remained unknown. The agency representative said that at least two mothers approached her saying their children have gone missing.[84]

Another international relief worker told Human Rights Watch that on February 8, 2009, she was approached by about 50 families whose relatives had been detained at Omanthai checkpoint in previous days. Neither the families nor the international worker had any information as to the fate and whereabouts of the detainees.[85]

 

A local relief worker said:

One woman in the camp told me that she was crossing the Omantai checkpoint with her husband and child on February 3. The husband was detained there, and for a week now she has no information about him. People like her call us all night long, trying to get information about their missing relatives.[86]

"Ahilan A." (not his real name), who managed to meet with several of his family members in the Pampaimadu camp, recounted to Human Rights Watch what his family had told him. After his family managed to cross the front line near Visuamadu on February 6, Sri Lankan forces loaded them onto buses, and drove them to the abandoned hospital in Kilinochchi. There, intelligence officers in uniform and plainclothes questioned the displaced persons before they were taken to the Omanthai checkpoint. In Omanthai they were photographed and registered. Several people, they said, were detained at Omantai, including Ahilan's 26- and 27-year-old cousins. At that time, Ahilan had no news about the whereabouts of his cousins.[87]

Efforts of international agencies, including ICRC and UNICEF (some detainees are children), to obtain the lists of the detainees and any information about their fate and location from the Sri Lankan authorities so far have proved futile.[88] 

Confinement in internment camps

Upon arrival in Vavuniya, all displaced persons apparently without exception are subjected to indefinite confinement in de facto internment camps, which the government calls transit sites, "welfare centers," or "welfare villages." Those requiring immediate medical attention are first taken to the hospital, and then to one of the camps (see below).

As of February 16, 2009, eight sites near Vavuniya alone had been allocated for newly arriving displaced persons. Local authorities were not prepared for the large influx of displaced persons and did not allow international agencies to adequately prepare the sites. As a result, the government started putting newly arriving displaced persons into schools and colleges, interrupting the educational process for hundreds of schoolchildren and students, many of whom had to vacate the facilities.

At the same time, relief agencies were struggling to set up additional shelter, water, and sanitation facilities at the last moment, as the displaced persons were being brought to the sites.

Sri Lankan authorities have ignored calls from the international community to ensure the civilian nature of the camps. The perimeters of the sites are secured with coils of barbed wire, sandbags, and machine-gun nests. There is a large military presence inside and around the camps.

 

The government has rejected the criticism. In February, Brig. Gen. Udaya Nanayakkara told the media: "They have barbed wire around them for the safety of the civilians. If the [LTTE] lob a hand grenade, a lot of people will be killed and we are responsible for their safety."[89]

Several sources reported to Human Rights Watch the presence of plainclothes military intelligence and paramilitaries in the camps. A UN official in Vavuniya told Human Rights Watch that she and colleagues have seen members of paramilitary groups in different camps. In particular, local staff members recognized several members of the People's Liberation Organization of Tamil Eelam (PLOTE), a pro-government Tamil paramilitary organization long implicated in abuses, present at one of the camps.[90] 

While officially the camps are run by civilian authorities, in reality the military remains in full control, ensuring, as one relief worker put it, that "nobody gets in or out."[91] Two sources independently told Human Rights Watch that military and CID officers regularly conduct nighttime interrogations inside the camps, summoning young men and women into their premises.[92]

Displaced persons confined in the camps enjoy no freedom of movement and are not allowed any contact with the outside world. Unlike the internally displaced brought to Mannar district in 2008, some of whom were granted passes to leave the camp for a day to go to work,[93] the displaced persons in Vavuniya camps have not to date been allowed to leave the sites on their own. The military delivers those in need of medical assistance to the hospital in Vavuniya, and on rare occasions has also accompanied several displaced persons for a short hospital visit to assist their young children or disabled relatives.

While many of the displaced persons have families in Vavuniya, their relatives have not been allowed to visit them in the camps. Relatives come to the camp sites, trying to find their family members and communicate with them through the fence and barbed wire surrounding the sites, yet they are often chased away by soldiers.

At Menik Farm, the largest of the camps, the military installed a second line of barbed wire to ensure that the outsiders cannot approach the people in the camp close enough to talk to them. A local relief worker told Human Rights Watch:

People from outside were not allowed to approach their relatives in the camp. I was a witness to a heartbreaking scene, when a mother with a very small child came to the gate because her husband came to see her. The child ran to the father, but the military grabbed him. We had to interfere and pushed them very hard to allow the father at least to kiss his son.[94]

The relief worker also said that one woman she spoke with in another camp was not allowed to attend the funeral of her mother who had succumbed to her wounds at Vavuniya hospital. The relief worker said:

I spoke to one woman in the camp-she was crying and screaming. It turned out that her elderly mother, who had been injured and admitted to the hospital, died there on February 7. The elderly woman's body was given to the son, who lived in Vavuniya, but her daughter was not allowed to leave the camp even to attend her mother's funeral. She was in agony because she couldn't pay respects to her mother.[95]

Several relief workers working with displaced persons told Human Rights Watch that many are devastated because they have been separated from their family members and have no information about their relatives-those who stayed in the Vanni, those detained at Omanthai, or even those who may be in Vavuniya but confined in a different camp. International agencies have been trying to assist with family reunification at least for those who made it to Vavuniya, but since the authorities have not provided them with IDP registration lists from different camps, so far it has been virtually impossible.

In apparent efforts to demonstrate that they can handle the influx of displaced persons without assistance from international agencies, and to prevent any communication between displaced persons and the outside the world, Sri Lankan authorities have significantly restricted the access of international relief agencies and local nongovernmental organizations to the camps. Nor have journalists or human rights groups been allowed access.

Until early February, only UNHCR and ICRC were allowed into the camps. However, with more and more displaced persons arriving in Vavuniya daily, the authorities realized that they would not be able to handle the situation on their own. They allowed various UN agencies and international humanitarian agencies to set up necessary facilities and provide emergency assistance in the camps.

That does not mean, however, that the agencies enjoy free access to the camps. Rather, as many representatives from humanitarian agencies told Human Rights Watch, they can never be certain that on any given day they will be allowed to enter the camps. The decision seems to be made on an ad hoc basis by military commanders in charge of the camps.

As a result, much-needed aid often does not reach the internally displaced. For example, on February 11, 2009, an international agency providing assistance and necessary equipment to the handicapped was not allowed to enter one of the camps. Given the large number of displaced persons disabled as a result of their injuries, the access of this agency to the camps is crucial.[96]

Those working in the camps who spoke with Human Rights Watch said that it was virtually impossible for them to talk to displaced persons and interview them about their experiences. The military, CID, and plainclothes paramilitaries were keeping a close watch on any outsiders in the camp, preventing them from talking to the displaced persons. The military made it clear to the international organizations that violating their rules would result in their losing access to the camps, while local relief workers simply feared for their lives should they get noticed, especially by the paramilitaries.  

Sri Lankan authorities maintain that detention at the camps is a security measure to protect displaced persons from possible LTTE reprisals. While the government has an obligation to protect internally displaced persons, it cannot do so at the expense of their lawful rights to liberty and freedom of movement.

The Sri Lankan government's treatment of displaced persons violates their fundamental rights under international law. International human rights and humanitarian law during internal armed conflicts prohibit arbitrary detention.[97] The UN Guiding Principles on Internal Displacement, an authoritative framework for the protection of displaced persons derived from international law, provides that, consistent with the right to liberty, internally displaced persons "shall not be interned in or confined to a camp." The principles recognize that "exceptional circumstances" may permit confinement only for so long as it is "absolutely necessary," but the Sri Lankan government has not demonstrated that such circumstances exist.[98]

The UN Guiding Principles set out how the authorities should provide people they plan to relocate with full information about the reasons and procedures for their relocation and should ensure that it is carried out in a way that respects their dignity and security. The principles also require governments to ensure that the displaced have, at a minimum, access to essential food and drinking water, basic shelter, and essential medical services and sanitation. Finally, the principles require that the authorities ensure the right of the displaced to "return voluntarily, in safety and with dignity, to their places of habitual residence or to resettle voluntarily in another part of the country."  The authorities should make special efforts to ensure that displaced persons fully participate in the planning and management of their return or resettlement.[99]

The UN Guiding Principles specify that while the primary responsibility for providing humanitarian assistance to internally displaced persons lies with national authorities, they must grant international organizations and other actors providing assistance "rapid and unimpeded access to the internally displaced."[100]

International bodies, including the UN Secretary-General's representative on internally displaced persons[101] and the UN High Commissioner for Refugees have repeatedly called upon the Sri Lankan government to honor its international legal obligations towards displaced persons.[102]

Meanwhile, the Sri Lankan government is proceeding apace with its plan to confine all of the internally displaced from Vanni into so-called "welfare villages"-while the army conducts the screening, clears areas in Vanni of remaining LTTE cadres, and de-mines the area. The "welfare villages," according to the government's plan, are supposed to have schools, banks, playgrounds, shops, and other facilities, yet those living there will not enjoy the right to liberty or the freedom of movement. Rajiva Wijesinha, the Secretary of the Ministry of Disaster Management and Human Rights, told the media, "Of course, it will not be voluntary-we need to check everyone."[103]

Originally, the government proposed to keep the displaced persons in the "welfare villages" for up to three years, but following the protests from UNHCR, said it intends to resettle most of the displaced persons by the end of 2009.[104] The Sri Lankan government's past record with regard to the resettlement of persons displaced by armed conflict does not give cause for optimism that resettlement will happen quickly.[105] On the contrary, it gives reason to be concerned that the government will end up interning those placed there indefinitely.

Inadequate medical assistance at the Vavuniya hospital

The situation of several hundred displaced persons receiving medical assistance at the Vavuniya hospital is dire.

The majority of patients were brought to the hospital on January 28, when the ICRC managed to escort 226 wounded civilians requiring urgent medical assistance, including 51 children, out of the Vanni.[106] Others were either brought to the hospital earlier, by transport organized by the Ministry of Health, or sent to the hospital after they managed to cross to the government side and went through the screening procedures along with other displaced persons.

While the medical staff in the hospital has been trying to do everything possible to assist the wounded, the influx of patients has been far beyond the hospital's capacity.

When Human Rights Watch visited the hospital on February 11, 2009-after some of the patients had already been discharged to the camps or transferred to other hospitals-there were still not enough beds for all the patients, and many of the patients, especially in the male ward, were lying on the floor in the corridor. The maternity ward was also overcrowded with no adequate accommodation provided for newborn babies and their mothers, many of whom were also injured.

Several sources told Human Rights Watch that due to the hospital's lack of capacity, patients were being discharged-and sent straight to the camps-long before their injuries were healed. A relief worker who has been visiting the hospital on a regular basis told Human Rights Watch that she is aware of at least two cases in which elderly patients with serious wounds were discharged and sent to the camps where, in the absence of minimally required sanitary conditions and medical oversight, their wounds got infected. The patients had to be rushed back to the hospital, where both of them died.[107]  

Human Rights Watch interviewed two women in the hospital who just gave birth. Both of them were in despair as they were informed that they would be discharged and sent to the camp that day. One of the women had been injured by shelling in the Vanni and had one of her feet amputated. She gave birth through Cesarean section four days earlier and still could not even independently take care of herself, let alone her newborn baby. Another woman gave birth to twins a day earlier and was terrified by the prospect of moving into the camp with her two babies and no one to help her take care of them.[108]

It was obvious that the hospital lacked even the most basic necessities. Many of the hospital beds had no bed sheets, blankets, or pillows, and a number of patients, including at least two children, told Human Rights Watch that they did not have a change of clothes.[109]

Despite the obvious lack of capacity to handle all of the wounded and attend to their needs, the hospital personnel, according to several independent sources, were instructed by the authorities not to ask for any assistance from the international agencies, and very few agencies were allowed access to the hospital.

One local relief worker told Human Rights Watch:

The doctors told me they were forbidden from asking anything from aid workers-the government wants to put up the pretense that they are taking care of the people and don't need to ask for assistance. This way they can also prevent outsiders from seeing the patients and talking to them. But the patients are in desperate need of clothes, food, and other items, so the doctors ask us unofficially, and we try to provide what we can.[110]

An international relief worker told Human Rights Watch that her agency tried to provide assistance to the hospital when the convoy with 226 patients arrived in Vavuniya on January 28, but the hospital did not allow them to. She said:

Authorities in the hospital kept telling us, "Go away, all needs are met." Medical staff are under a lot of pressure-they were instructed by the government not to ask for anything from relief agencies, not to speak about any of the needs, and not to provide any information. They were supposed to demonstrate that the government could handle the influx of patients. Now, however, the situation is so desperate that despite the government orders, medical staff confidentially approach international agencies, asking for medical supplies and other assistance.[111]

The situation of patients is aggravated by the fact that their relatives-even the ones who were allowed to accompany them from the Vanni-have not been allowed to stay with them and have been sent to the camps instead. That has been true even of small children and severely injured patients who require constant attention and assistance.

A local worker with a nongovernmental organization (NGO) who had visited the hospital told Human Rights Watch that at the time of his visit in early February 2009, there were about 10 injured children under seven years of age in the hospital who did not have any relatives with them-some relatives were confined to the camp, some were not able to leave the Vanni.[112]

While initially all relatives were denied access to the patients, by the second week of February, the authorities allowed relatives who reside in Vavuniya to visit their family members during short visitation hours. In several exceptional cases, relatives from the camps were escorted by the military to visit the patients. However, none of the relatives was allowed to stay in the hospital, and no patients were allowed to stay with their families-rather than in the camp-after their discharge.

The medical personnel in the hospital tried to advocate for at least certain categories of patients (amputees and otherwise disabled persons, small children, and mental health patients) to be allowed to stay with relatives after discharge, but they did not succeed.[113]

Human Rights Watch visited all of the hospital wards and most of the patients were in a state of despair, often crying incessantly. One of the patients told Human Rights Watch:

They promised they would allow us to go back after we get treatment. Now our families are back there, and we have no information about them. And we are not much better off. People are dying in the hospital as well; there are no relatives to help us, and there won't be anybody once we go to the camps. Why did they bring us here? We could have just as well died there [in Vanni], because there is nobody here to take care of us, to feed us, and we are likely to die anyway, just through more suffering.[114]

While there are legitimate reasons for limiting access to hospitals-just like the restrictions on access to the camps, the authorities' efforts appear less concerned with security and privacy than with ensuring that the displaced persons have nobody to tell their stories to. This is particularly true for the patients in the hospital, as the majority of them, according to the patients themselves, medical personnel, and relief agency staff, sustained their injuries from SLA shelling, including the shelling of the hospitals and the "safe zone."

The hospital is essentially run by the military and guarded even more closely than the camps. Uniformed servicemen patrol every ward of the hospital, the corridors, and the hospital yard. They register all visitors and watch closely, especially when international relief workers enter the wards. Attempts to communicate with the patients have already led to problems for both patients and the people who tried to talk to them. 

For example, relatives from Vavuniya who were allowed to visit patients were thoroughly registered when they entered the hospital, with the military writing down their names, national ID numbers, and residence addresses. From a number of sources, Human Rights Watch received reports that military or CID personnel came to these people's homes the night after they visited their relatives in the hospital and subjected them to questioning. A UN agency representative confirmed two such incidents to Human Rights Watch.[115]

A local NGO worker told Human Rights Watch that after one of his staff members talked to a young woman with a mental disorder in the hospital, the patient "had gone missing" the next day, and the staff member was approached by the CID and questioned about his conversations with the patient. Out of fear for his safety, he had to discontinue his visits to the hospital.[116]

The NGO worker added that he was aware of three cases in which relatives of the patients "had gone missing" after their visits to the hospital. He also said that, according to the information he received in the hospital, in early February several men arrived in a white van to the hospital and abducted the hospital canteen owner "because he used to go to the wards and talk to the patients."[117]

Human Rights Watch documented at least one other case in which a patient had been abducted from the hospital. According to one of the medical staff, the patient, "Rajeevan R." (not his real name), was arrested and brought to Vavuniya along with several other men and accused of being LTTE cadre. However, a judge ruled that the men's affiliation with the LTTE had not been proven, and released them. The men were then moved to one of the IDP camps, and shortly thereafter Rajeevan was admitted to the hospital. The medical staff said that Rajeevan had been tortured in detention and that there were visible marks of beatings on his back. Four or five days later, Rajeevan disappeared from the hospital. The medical staff as well as Rajeevan's relatives tried to find him through the military and police, yet their efforts proved futile. Two weeks later, Rajeevan was readmitted into the hospital. He told the doctors that a joint group of military and paramilitaries had abducted him on his way to the hospital canteen. They drove him away and kept him in detention for two weeks, questioning and torturing him. He did not have much time to share the details of his abduction with the doctors-the next day he was transferred to another hospital in contravention of existing procedures.[118]

The situation in the Vavuniya hospital raises serious concerns regarding the safety and well-being of patients not just in this hospital, but in other hospitals where injured civilians have been evacuated. After some 600 patients were evacuated from the makeshift hospital at Putumattalan to Trincomalee by the ICRC on February 10 and 12, initial reports from Trincomalee hospital suggest that it too has become militarized and access to the patients is similarly restricted.[119]