GOVERNMENT AGREES TO TEMPORARY CEASEFIRE IN

UNCLAS COLOMBO 000113 SIPDIS SENSITIVE SIPDIS STATE FOR SCA/INS, USPACOM FOR FPA E.O. 12958: N/A TAGS: PREL PTER PGOV CE SUBJECT: GOVERNMENT AGREES TO TEMPORARY CEASEFIRE IN VAKARAI TO ALLOW EVACUATION OF CIVILIANS ¶1. (SBU) At the fourth Consultative Committee on Humanitarian Affairs chaired by Minister for Human Rights and Disaster Management Samarasinghe and Defense Secretary Rajapaksa on January 19, Samarasinghe briefed selected donors, UN agency representatives, Ambassador and AID Mission Director on the rapidly evolving situation in Vakarai explaining that he had been on the phone that morning with the Government Agent responsible for the area. Samarasinghe said that government forces had initiated a cease fire at 0400 on January 19 so that civilians could depart the area. He said that six to seven thousand were in the process of moving. He estimated that approximately 2,000 might be left. Samarasinghe noted that the civilians were moving both south along the beach and west through the jungle. He indicated that the Government Agent has made arrangements for all civilians to be transported to government schools and government buildings where they would be provided temporary shelter and food. He told the UN representatives that there was sufficient food but requested that the ICRC and UNHCR work with the Government Agent to provide temporary shelter for all of the recently evacuated civilians. The ICRC representative and the acting UNHCR representative were both present and agreed to help. ¶2. (SBU) Ambassador asked about the status of the remaining 2,000 civilians and noted reports that food and medicine in all likelihood had run out for them. He requested that the ICRC and/or UNHCR be allowed access to determine the needs of those civilians remaining. After consulting with the Defense Secretary, Samarasinghe agreed to the request and asked the SIPDIS ICRC rep to work with the Government Agent to organize an expert-level assessment team as soon as possible. The ICRC agreed to do so. Samarasinghe also requested the Government of Sri Lanka officials present to assess what might be needed to enable all of these displaced civilians to return as quickly as possible once the fighting had ceased. ¶3. (SBU) Comment: The evacuation of civilians and the government's willingness to allow and ICRC assessment team are both welcome and suggest that very few LTTE cadres remain in the area. Embassy will continue to try to obtain whatever information is available from defense sources on the military situation there. More broadly, this was the first meeting of the Consultative Committee since November. Embassy has been pushing quietly to get these resumed as they are a unique forum for the donors to discuss all the humanitarian issues with both Samarasinghe and the Defense Secretary and get immediate answers. By prior agreement with the other Co-Chair Ambassadors, Ambassador will represent the Co-Chairs at these biweekly meetings for the next several meetings at least, after which Norway or Japan will take the lead. BLAKE