Northern Sri Lanka SitRep 43

UNCLAS COLOMBO 000368

SENSITIVE

STATE FOR SCA (BOUCHER),SCA/INS AND PRM
STATE ALSO PASS USAID
AID/W FOR ANE/SCA, DCHA/FFP (DWORKEN, KSHEIN)
AID/W FOR DCHA/OFDA (MORRISP, ACONVERY, RTHAYER, RKERR)
ATHENS FOR PCARTER
BANGKOK FOR USAID/DCHA/OFDA (WBERGER)
KATHMANDU FOR USAID/DCHA/OFDA AND POL (SBERRY)
GENEVA FOR RMA (NKYLOH, NHILGERT, MPITOTTI)
USUN NEW YORK FOR ECOSOC (D MERCADO)
SECDEF FOR OSD - POLICY
PACOM ALSO FOR J-5

E.O. 12958: N/A
TAGS: PREF MOPS PHUM PGOV PREL ASEC CE
SUBJECT: Northern Sri Lanka SitRep 43

Ref: A) Colombo 361 B) Colombo 360 C) Colombo 357 D) Colombo 351
E) Colombo 342 F) Colombo 329 G) Colombo 321 H) Colombo 320 I)
Colombo 316 J) Colombo 310 K) Colombo 307


1. (SBU) SUMMARY: Walter Kaelin, UN Special Rapporteur for IDPs will
visit Sri Lanka April 2-6. ICRC President Kellenberger has
tentative plans to visit Sri Lanka starting April 9. India is
sending additional equipment and personnel to support the GOI's
field hospital in Pulmoddai. Last week's visit by Indian Prime
Minister's Principal Secretary T.K.A. Nair did not break any new
political ground. Foreign Secretary Kohona downplayed press reports
of GSL consideration of a humanitarian pause in fighting and gave
little ground on MFA clearance for Red Cross visas. Approximately
5,000 civilians escaped the safe zone on March 30, according to
Kohona. The ICRC evacuated 540 wounded and relatives on March 30.
End Summary.

Visits
--------------


2. (SBU) UNHRC Representative Amin Awad confirmed to the Embassy on
March 31 that UN Special Raporteur for IDPs Walter Kaelin will
visit Sri Lank April 2-6. He thanked the Embassy for its advocay
with the GSL. At Awad's request, Ambassador will host a meeting for
Kaelin with Co-Chair Ambassadors early in the visit. ICRC
Representative Paul Castella informed the Embassy that ICRC
President Jakob Kellenberger has tentative plans to visit Sri Lanka
starting April 9.

Government of India Provides New
Assistance for Field Hospital
--------------


3. (SBU) Indian DCM Vikram Misri reported to DCM that the Government
of India is sending equipment (ventilators, x-ray machines,
operating tables, etc.) for an additional operating theatre at the
field hospital at Pulmoddai, the current evacuation site from the
safe zone. A team of ten medical personnel, including one surgeon
and one anesthesiologist, and the equipment will arrive at Pulmoddai
on March 31. A planeload of additional medicine will be brought in
for the Pulmoddai field hospital. Misri explained that the
expanded capacity is required to treat the large number of wounded
civilians who are arriving at Pulmoddai. The last two boatloads of
evacuees each carried approximately 140 patients who required
immediate treatment, mostly for blast and bullet wounds. Once
patients are stabilized, the Ministry of Health arranges for their
onward movement to other hospitals or IDP transit sites.

Visit by Indian Official:
No New Political Ground
--------------


4. (SBU) Misri also told DCM that last week's visit to Colombo by
the Indian Prime Minister's Principal Secretary T.K.A. Nair did not
break any new ground. In a meeting with President Rajapaksa and
other GSL officials, Nair discussed the need for a credible
devolution and political package and ways in which India might be
able to provide humanitarian and reconstruction assistance in the
North. Misri emphasized, however, that Nair came to Colombo

primarily to address a conference of Sri Lankan civil servants on
governance issues and to share with them insights based on his four
decades of experience as a government administrator.

GSL Considering Humanitarian Pause
--------------


5. (U) Press reports carried statements by Foreign Secretary Palitha
Kohona, Defense Spokesman Keheliya Rambukwella and Media Centre for
National Security Director General Lakshman Hulugalle indicating
that the government was considering a humanitarian pause in
fighting. The statements echoed earlier comments from the Foreign
Minister (Ref C). In a March 31 meeting Ambassador asked Kohona
about possible GSL support for a humanitarian pause. Kohona drew a
distinction between short "ad hoc" pauses, which he said the GSL
already is doing to allow evacuation of wounded and delivery of food
and medicine. The Foreign Secretary said that now that the military
is closing in on the safe zone, it believes more and more civilians
will try to escape. For example, 5,000 civilians had waded across
the lagoon in the northern part of the safe zone during intensive
fighting on March 30 further south. Since the military was now
close enough that they could see when groups of civilians were
trying to leave, they would hold fire and facilitate such escapes
whenever possible. The GSL was also prepared to consider longer
term pauses to allow larger scale evacuations, Kohona said.

GSL Gives Little Ground on ICRC Visas
--------------


6. (SBU) Ambassador also pressed Kohona to approve the backlog of
ICRC visas. Ambassador stressed that ICRC had done a superb job
under exceptionally challenging circumstances helping to deliver
food and medicine to the safe zone and evacuate sick and wounded
from there. It also continued to perform a wide range of essential
tasks in the rest of the country. Kohona agreed the ICRC had done a
great job, but said that some in the GSL were now questioning why
ICRC needed more staff when some of its functions had now stopped,
such as its previous work transferring dead bodies of combatants
across the forward defense line.


7. (SBU) Ambassador pushed back, noting that its range of tasks had
increased, not decreased, and would increase further if it had to
facilitate a large-scale evacuation of civilians from the north.
Surely the GSL wanted the ICRC to be prepared to support this GSL
goal, the Ambassador asked. Kohona allowed that the MFA had
approved four ICRC visas, but was carefully reviewing all the other
requests, with a view to considering which of these billets the ICRC
might fill with locally-recruited staff. Ambassador conveyed the
substance of the conversation to ICRC Chief Castella and suggested
Castella provide more details on exactly what the replacement and
TDY staff - for whom visas were needed - would be doing. Castella
thanked us for the intervention and will follow up directly with the
MFA.

ICRC Evacuates 540 Civilians
--------------


8. (U) ICRC spokesperson in Colombo Sophie Romanens told the BBC
that 540 patients and relatives were evacuated by sea on March 30.

This brings the total number of civilians evacuated by the ICRC to
approximately 6500 since February. ICRC is planning the next
evacuation for April 2.

GSL: 300 Children Reunited With Families
--------------


9. (U) The Ministry for Disaster Management and Human Rights
announced 300 children who were separated from their families while
crossing over to cleared areas in Vavuniya have been reunited with
their families today (March 31).

GSL Backs Off Demand to
NGOs to Turn Over Assets
--------------


10. (SBU) During the Consultative Committee on Humanitarian
Assistance (CCHA) meeting on March 30, GSL officials present agreed
that the request to NGOs to turn over their assets to the government
(Ref D) was too extreme. We expect the request will be scaled back
or removed entirely.

Five Bishops Urge Protection of Civilians
--------------


11. (U) Five Bishops published a letter expressing their extreme
concern for the plight of civilians trapped in the conflict and
urging continued evacuations of wounded from, and shipments of food
into, the safe zone. The Bishops called for negotiations to permit
the evacuation of all civilians who wished to leave the conflict
area and for a "temporary cessation of fighting" to facilitate that
evacuation. The letter was signed by the Roman Catholic Bishops of
Jaffna, Mannar and Anuradhapura, as well as the Anglican Bishops of
Colombo and Kurunegala.

Civilian Casualties and IDP Outflow
--------------


12. (SBU) Sources from within the LTTE-controlled area report 112
civilians were killed and 164 injured on March 30. Tamil and
Government sources report 1,648 arrivals, including 709 children
into Government-controlled territory on March 30. (Note: Such
reports from Tamil sources cannot be confirmed and are frequently
exaggerated. The GSL has yet to publicize the Foreign Secretary's
claim to Ambassador that 5000 civilians escaped during fighting on
March 30.)

BLAKE