The team had a busy month of trips, escorts and presences, with regular, new and 'renewed' clients calling upon us. We met with individual clients as well as domestic and foreign nongovernmental organizations (NGOs), representatives from the government, the media, the military, the diplomatic corps, and law, student and women's contacts.Trincomalee
For some time now the team has been trying to respond to increasing requests from Trincomalee. In March we made our first trip in four months, our primary purpose being to lay a foundation for the regular visits we will soon be making. We spent a busy week renewing contacts, discussing the treatment of civilians, the constraints and opportunities for local NGO work and the chances for re-establishment of a peace committee. We also made several trips to the village of Muttur. See the article 'Aftermath to the Kumarapulam Massacre'.
Batticaloa
Team-members also travelled for our regular visit to Batticaloa District where the need for PBI work now falls primarily in the area between Batti town and Valechchenai. We visited our usual contacts Thadakam and Sittandi Community Development Foundation (CDF), and made a visit to a new contact north of Batti town. As with previous visits, all our contacts report abuses by the army in the area under the command of the Valechchenai Brigadier. Also, the Independent "Motorcycle" Brigade returned to the area in January and are reportedly responsible for one murder and five disappearances since that time.
However, of greater concern at this time are the activities of several non-governmental militant organizations in and around Batticaloa. Although officially independent of the military, these groups often work alongside the army or police and their offices are sometimes even on the same premises. Field workers in some NGOs outside of town are afraid to travel alone to work sites. PBI can anticipate more requests from this sector on upcoming trips.
Much of our attention on our latest trip was taken up investigating reports of an illegal detention center in Chenkaladi, and with the case of Kandiah Vairamuthu, a member of CDF who may have died there. Vairamuthu was apparently abducted by members of the Tamil Eelam Liberation Organization while on his way to the Eravur police station to obtain a travel pass. He was then allegedly handed over to PLOTE. Sources believe that Vairamuthu was most likely murdered and buried in the PLOTE compound. Local contacts suggest that at least four and possibly more bodies are buried in the PLOTE compound. As the government forces depend on these groups for information and other forms of assistance, there is often little done to curb such activities. PBI volunteers accompanied local activists who were collecting information from the family of the disappeared, and we will be following the situation closely.
Colombo
The team has received a high number of escort requests from outside the war-zone this month, especially from Colombo. Early in the month we escorted a group of Batticaloa clients from a non-violence trainers workshop they had been attending in the Hill Country to their homes in the east (see Visit to Batticaloa). Later in the month we observed as students of the Institute of Aesthetic Studies performed street theater around downtown Colombo to draw attention to poor campus conditions and alleged government inaction on the issue. A few days earlier the students had been forcibly evicted by around 400 police at their campus but on this day the police only watched.
Our presence was also requested at several group meetings involving NGOs, lawyers, parliamentarians and the media. One of these was a meeting to plan a unified response to the government's devolution package that would suit a wide range of parties. Organizers were afraid that without PBI presence attendance and participation would be low for fear that a large gathering of Tamils would draw undue attention. One organizer said afterwards that it was a very successful meeting. Many of the participants were known to PBI, so as well as providing a presence, it was interesting to see how the ideas bounced around and to get a broad view in one evening of where various groups stood on the issues being discussed.
Power Cuts
Power cuts have been affecting our work over the past few weeks. The insufficient rain early in the year has caused shortages of hydro power across the country. Currently we have cuts of four to five hours a day, with talk of ten hours a day. The hours of the cuts vary but always seem to come right at prime computer-use time for us, resulting in pressure for four of us to get at the keyboard in the short time available. It may get worse--as of now the hours of cuts are announced but as people have adjusted their electric use to available hours, not as much has been saved as hoped and there is talk of random cuts and perhaps water cuts as well. This could go on until the monsoon comes in mid to late May.
Upcomming Work
Upcoming requests indicate we will be working out of Colombo even more than in April. We made arrangements to continue providing a presence for trauma survivors workshops led by the Batticaloa Counseling Center, and to escort facilitators of a Gender Awareness and Role Modification Program put on by Plantation Labor Alert (PLA) in various towns of the Hill Country. The PLA program is the start of a three year project to empower and educate tea estate workers. We have also had a tentative request to do election monitoring for local council elections which appear to be coming up soon. Even though no date, indeed, no election has yet been announced, election-related violence is already occurring.
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