ACF in Sri Lanka

On 26th December 2004 ACF promptly mobilised to launch emergency, and later rehabilitation, programmes to help the survivors of the Tsunami. With the progressive resumption of the conflict in 2006, ACF also launched programmes to help people displaced by the conflict. In 2005 and 2006, ACF assisted nearly 165,000 persons in Sri Lanka via water and sanitation, economic and agricultural programmes.

In August 2006, following the killings of its 17 colleagues in Muttur, ACF suspended its activities and closed its offices in Jaffna, Trincomalee and Batticaloa.

In September 2006, the administrative council of ACF decided to remain in Sri Lanka, in view of the humanitarian needs in the country, the need to follow the inquiry, and to support the families of its employees.. Consequently, ACF announced that it was reducing its activities and that it was re-focusing its activities on emergency operations for displaced persons in Batticaloa.

The Batticaloa district was at that time one of the regions most affected by the conflict, with the number of displaced persons reaching 75,000. While fighting was ongoing and aid arriving sporadically, the ACF teams were implementing emergency programmes in several camps for displaced persons in the area. These programmes aimed at regularly providing food to about 10,000 persons, providing them with drinking water, and improving their hygiene conditions.

In August 2007, following the end of its emergency operations in the Batticaloa region and in view of the security conditions for its staff, Action contre la Faim decided to cease all humanitarian activities in the country, in order to focus exclusively on monitoring the inquiries into the Muttur incident with the help of a reduced team in Colombo.

On 28th March 2008, after 18 months of monitoring the different inquiries, and seeing that none of the three procedures had progressed, Action contre la Faim decided to withdraw its mission from Sri Lanka.

Action contre la Faim and the victims’ families

ACF has implemented specific measures to assist the victims’ families, modelled on the practice of international organisations. ACF promptly paid an indemnity to the families, based on a ratio factoring the income of the family and the number of its members, and on the years of services of each of the deceased employees, which amounted to an average of two years of salary.

The organisation also offered the families a “solidarity envelope” in order to cover funeral expenses.

To this day, ACF keeps in touch with the families through visits or regular phone calls, in order to keep them informed on the evolution of the inquiry proceedings. ACF has equally provided support to the families in administrative matters (to obtain death certificates, legal compensation owed by the government, etc…).

ACF was also able to assist families, who were threatened, in finding refuge outside Sri Lanka.

Political context

Since the end of 2005, the multiplication of serious skirmishes between the parties in conflict has increasingly raised doubt about the sustainability of the ceasefire agreement concluded in 2002 between the rebel Tamils and the nationalist Sri Lankan coalition government.

Fighting has intensified between the army and the separatist rebels, and negotiation attempts failed until the Sri Lankan government officially renounced the ceasefire on 8th January, 2008.

The fragmentation of the conflict is currently increasing the complexity of this war, particularly with the multiplication of paramilitary groups. At present, the battles that make up the fourth phase of the so-called Eelam war are just as brutal and leave little hope for an imminent resolution of the conflict.

There are also an increasing number of terrorist attacks and kidnappings. Moreover, it remains difficult to assess the true situation, due to the propaganda disseminated by each party to the conflict.

The Human Rights Situation

In the on-going conflict between the Sri Lankan government and the rebel Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE) group, both parties have shown little interest in ensuring the security and well-being of civilians – and as a consequence have violated the fundamental rules of international humanitarian law – by targeting areas where the majority of people are civilians, and by preventing the provision of much needed humanitarian aid. Since the beginning of the conflict, hundreds of civilians were killed or injured, and more than 215,000 persons were displaced.

Respect of human rights by all parties to the conflict is deteriorating with the escalation of the violence. Numerous reports have cited extra-judicial executions committed by government agents : political assassinations, recruitment of child soldiers by paramilitary forces associated with the government ; disappearances ; arrests and arbitrary detentions, etc... There are seldom any arrests, and no one was ever convicted following such acts.

As for the LTTE, which exerts an important control over the northern part of the country, it continues to attack civilians ; to practice torture and arbitrary detentions ; to refuse public and fair proceedings ; to restrict freedoms of speech, of the press, of assembly and association ; and to force recruitments, even of children. The LTTE has also been very active in areas it does not control, particularly by launching suicide attempts. The LTTE is considered a terrorist organisation in more than 32 countries, such as India, the United States and the European Union.