No access to relief camps even after UN chief's visit

Even after the visit of top U.N official, the war-torn Sri Lanka has refused to budge on its disallowance of aid agencies to relief camps.

On Sunday, responding to U.N secretary general Ban Ki Moon's urgent plea for complete access to relief camps, Sri Lanka's President Mahinda Rajapaksa said he would not yet lift restrictions until security formalities on refugees were complete.

Ban made the appeal during his Saturday visit to Manik Farm - one of the largest displacement camps in the world.

The farm, which houses over 200,000 Tamil civilians, said Ban, "Need to resettled as soon as possible."

"The UN and other international humanitarian agencies need immediate and unimpeded access to the camps," Ban urged.

Major aid agencies including the World Vision on Thursday had sternly warned the Sri Lankan government of deteriorating conditions in displacement camps if the restrictions were not removed.

In a joint statement, the agencies also appealed to the authorities to lift recent restrictions on vehicular access to the camps.

"The camps in Sri Lanka are huge. They stretch over 1,000 acres and take nearly an hour to walk across. Without vehicles we can't do our work properly and that's putting lives at risk," World Vision and 12 other agencies said in the statement.

"We're asking the Sri Lankan government to adhere to the guiding principles agreed by them with the humanitarian community and to let us do our job properly."

However, World Vision is relieved that the government has not blocked the Christian aid agency from entering the displacement camps.

Dion Schoorman, Group Director Public Engagement of World Vision Sri Lanka told Christian Today that the "government has not blocked our aid agency". But, he says, "we face with lack of funds" to aid the people.

The agency so far have helped people with water, food, shelter, non-food relief items as well as nutrition, education and psychosocial programs, he said, calling for more support from the international community.

"In a day we provide 12,000 liters of water, 57 metric tons of food, 3000 tarpaulins and more than 85000 packs of cooked food," he added.