Christian forum voices for war-displaced Sri Lankan civilians

The Ecumenical Christian Forum for Human Rights (ECFHR) has appealed to the Sri Lankan government to ensure resettlement of the remaining war displaced civilians and to do it earliest in collaboration with humanitarian aid agencies.

Organizing a demonstration in Madurai last week, the ECFHR demanded the Sri Lankan government to "follow the Sphere Standards for food, nutrition, water, clothing, sanitation, medicine and other basic needs, including temporary shelters to all the affected people."

The demonstration attended by a large number of priests, pastors and lay people coincided with Sri Lankan President Mahinda Rajapaksa's visit to India during when Prime Minister Manmohan Singh stressed the need for a political settlement which would give the Tamil minorities full civil and economic rights.

Last year, Sri Lankan forces defeated the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE) after a long bloody civil war in the north and east of the country. Many Sri Lankan civilians died in the final months of the war and the fighting drove 300,000 people from their homes.

According to humanitarian groups, an estimated 76,000 are still living in temporary camps. A further 73,000 Sri Lankan refugees are living in 115 camps in Tamil Nadu, India.

ECFHR says India must use its "goodwill and good offices to press the government of Sri Lanka on the resettlement of affected civilians."

It demanded that the "Sri Lankan government undertake a human audit covering the dead, the wounded, the amputated and the disappeared as well as assess the damage – material, resources, documents – so as to present a true picture of the losses." This, it said, will lead to a process to provide just compensation for the losses.

Furthermore, it underlined the need to "put in place an emergency health care system with well-trained, committed personnel to take care of all aspects of physical, mental and psychosocial health."

"The Sri Lankan government should take steps to normalise life in war-affected areas and address the longstanding and legitimate grievances of Tamil and Muslim ethnic groups. This would include reestablishing the primacy of the civilian administration," it added.