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Dr.T.Sathyamoorthy, Regional Director of Health Services in Kilinochchi District has written to Health Officials in Colombo seeking assistance to improve health care services to civilians being hit in Sri Lanka Army artillery fire in Northern Sri Lanka.

Full Text of Dr.T.Sathyamoorthy’s letters to officials in Colombo as follows:

_____________________________________________________________
Secretary Health Ministry of Health
Colombo

Through

DGH
Ministry of Health
Colombo

Dear Sir

Hospitals need protection from attack

Displaced hospitals are functioning in the following places
• Visuvamadhu
• Tharmapam
• Kallaru
• Punnaineeravi
• Kannaginagar
• Redbarna
Surrounding above places is heavily congested with IDPs. The recent days many IDPs places hit by shell. Up to today 213 civilians were injured and 28 civilians died.
The following supports are urgently needed.

1. Should be opened to transfer injured civilians to vavuniya hospital.
2. Hospitals are hospital near by side should be attack free zone.
3. Medicines including surgical items should be sent to hospitals from MSD.

Thank you

Yours sincerely

Dr.T.Sathyamoorthy
RDHS
Kilinochchi

Copy: Secretary Health/ North Province
_________________________________________________________
Dr.U.A.Mendis.
DGHS, Ministry of Health Care, Nutrition & Uva Wellasssa Development

Dear Sir,

Re: ensuring Security of the Doctors and Patients in Wani region.

This is to inform you that, our doctors and patients are now in a pathetic situation as we heard blasts and gun fire near to Wiswamadu area. We received 9 injured civilians on 11th and 5 today at the Wisamadu maternity unit and all are transferred to PTK BH with the help of ICRC.

The ground situation is the same at Puthukudiyirupu BH.

So ultimately we are now not having a secure place to keep our patients for the treatment in Wanni. Adding to this worst ambulance transports between Wani and Vavuniya are frequently interrupted and Due to this condition we had lost 2 patients including one maternal death.

Especially for the maternity care all Wani region now depended in Wisamadu maternity unit and PTK BH. If we dope our services in both places, it will lead more maternal and neonatal mortalities.

Taking this into your kind consideration we are requesting you to locate a secure place in Wani to continue our services.

Also we want to get the official stand of the Ministry of health in regarding to our health services as the war is now spread through out the Wanni. Specifically we are asking whether we have to continue our service or to stop and leave from the area for a period.

We hope that you will give us the clear reply as soon as possible.

………………………………..
President
KMA

C.C:
1. Dr. V. Jeganathan
Consultant Health Care Development, North and East
Ministry of Health Care, Nutrition & Uva Wellasssa Development

Places near Puthukudiyiruppu and Visvamadhu hospitals came under heavy Sri Lanka Army shelling today, Tuesday Jan 13th.

4 Civilians died and 18 civilians were injured.

Doctors in Kilincochchi district have requested ICRC to ensure hospitals safely.

Medical facilities in the area have reported shortage of health care supplies to treat increasing civilian causalities on a daily basis.

COLOMBO, 12 December 2008: Aid agencies have sent a consignment of seed potatoes to Jaffna, for distribution to hundreds of farmers before the end of the monsoon season.

Responding to a request made by the Government Agent in Jaffna coordinated by the Ministry of Social Services and Social Welfare, Approximately 58 metric tons of seed potatoes is being supplied to some 500 conflict-affected farmers, some of whom are also Samurdhi beneficiaries who are restarting their livelihoods.

file pic by: HumanityAshore

The UN Development Programme (UNDP), the International Organization for Migration (IOM) and the Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) worked closely together to import the seed potatoes directly from the Netherlands and to ensure that this joint effort complements other programmes these agencies are involved with in Jaffna to increase people’s well being. Since there is a current shortage of potatoes in the district, this distribution will boost production in what is considered to be one of the most fertile regions for potato farming in Sri Lanka.

The Department of Agriculture, the Agrarian Services Centre and the Government Agent in Jaffna are assisting with the distribution of the seed potatoes, ensuring efficiency and fair distribution.

“By swiftly responding in this targeted fashion, and as team with the expertise of different UN agencies, we’re boosting critical producers, helping create jobs and adding to the food security of this country,” said Neil Buhne, UN Resident Coordinator.

This joint effort will also complement efforts to mark 2008 as the United Nations International Year of the Potato. Potatoes are an integral part of the global food system and its consumption is expanding strongly in developing countries, which now accounts for more than half of the global harvest. In addition, the ease of cultivation of this crop and its high energy content have made it a valuable cash crop for millions of farmers.

The UN remains committed to helping developing countries such as Sri Lanka boost food production in close cooperation with the local government and entities. [undp-press release]

Sri Lanka Army (SLA) fired artillery shells killed four displaced civilians, including the parents and the daughter of a family, residing in the settlement located behind the hospital of Puthukkudiyiruppu in Mullaiththeevu district Saturday, Jan 10th night, according to medical sources. Two of the killed victims were 17-year-old students.

A grandmother with a wounded child at the hospital

Four civilians, including a 5-year-old child were wounded in the indiscriminate artillery attack.

Meanwhile, artillery barrage on Vaddakkachchi and Puliyampokkanai in Kilinochchi district continued, disrupting the access roads for civilians to move away from the areas that have come under artillery barrage.

The families had displaced from Chlaavaththai in Mullaiththeevu to 9th division of Puthukkudiyiruppu after SLA offensive in the district.

Family members and relatives at hospital mortuary

The victims killed in the artillery attack which took place around 11:00 p.m. Saturday were:

Kaaththan Thuraisamy, 61, the father, Sinnamma Thuraisamy , 55, the mother and their daughter Thamilini Thuraisamy, 17, and S. Thavakumar, 17.

Pope Benedict the XVI has stressed that a political solution for Sri Lanka was essential. He said that for peace in Sri Lanka “a definitive solution” to the ongoing conflict must be political.

Reports from the Vatican today, Sunday Jan 11th – said the Pontiff had expressed his views on Sri Lanka during his annual address to the diplomatic corps where Ambassadors from 178 countries including Sri Lanka were present.

The government of Sri Lanka has ignored calls for a political solution and has been carrying out the military onslaught through villages and towns held by the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam.

Sri Lanka has requested the displaced civilians to return to areas that the government forces have taken over. But UNHCR spokesman last week said in the East of Sri Lanka where similar moves were carried out, “the return process [is] at risk.”

The U.N. refugee agency says there has been a significant increase in recent months in the numbers of killings, abductions and injuries in places where Tamil internally displaced people and refugees have returned.

The Human Rights Watch (HRW) recently said Sri Lanka government and government paramilitary units were behind the rise in the violence in East.

The three armed forces of Sri Lanka have carried out a joint indiscriminate bombardment from air, land and sea targeting the civilians on Sunday Jan 11th. They were displacing from Vadamaraadchi East villages to Vanni mainland, causing injuries to at least 40 civilians, initial reports from the area said. The Sri Lankan forces that have been attacking fleeing civilians have also been targeting access routes towards Liberation Tigers of Tamileelam (LTTE) held areas of Mullaiththeevu and Kilinochchi districts.

Sri Lanka Air Force (SLAF) bombers and Sri Lanka Army artillery guns and the gunboats of Sri Lanka Navy (SLN) have targeted civilians who were fleeing.

Health workers in the area are requesting assistance from International agencies for critical medical supplies which are in short supply.

An aid worker said thousands of families under siege in Sri Lanka North are facing “desperate conditions” as mounting civilian casualties swamp already weakened health care system and scarcity of food and medicine under tight Sri Lanka government ban on essentials. [pix: puthinam.com]

The Sri Lanka Army fired artillery shells targeting Tharmapuram Junction, the remaining centre of displaced civilians in Vanni killing at least four and causing injuries to many around 1:20 p.m. on Thursday, January 8th.

The artillery shelling killed three, including a child in Vaddakkachchi. Two of the slain victims were children. The attack has targeted Tharmapuram Junction, which is located 75 meters from the hospital.

Tension and chaos prevailed in the hospital, which was full of the wounded civilians, as they were forced to seek shelter from the artillery barrage.

The shelling on the civilian administrative centre in densely populated Vanni comes in the wake of SLA denial of medical transport and humanitarian supplies to the civilian population in Vanni.

Health authorities in Kilinochchi district have said the situation is getting worse, with more people getting displaced on a daily basis amidst thundering sounds from artillery barrages.

Drinking water, food, medicine and antibiotics shortages are being reported as well.

Although Sri Lanka government has asked the civilians to come over to government held areas, the United Nations refugee agency has called on the government of Sri Lanka to ensure the security of refugees who have returned home in the eastern part of the strife-torn nation.

“More than 50 families have already left their villages in some of the return areas in Batticaloa due to fear and insecurity. Others are no longer sleeping in their own homes, but gather several families in one house at night,” Ron Redmond, a spokesperson for the UNHCR told reporters in Geneva on January 9th.

The UNHCR said it is also keeping a close eye on the situation in the country’s north, where some 250,000 people remain displaced due to intensified clashes between soldiers and rebels in recent months.