Monsoon Journal

By Shihar Aneez JAFFNA, Sri Lanka, Oct 20 (Reuters) - The highway is open, prices are up and business is growing in post-war northern Sri Lanka, but traders say a legacy of tight security left by a 25-year conflict is holding back the region  ’s full potential. The northern Jaffna district has been all but cut off from most of Sri Lanka since war with the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE) separatists broke out in 1983. Now small-time traders and entrepreneurs, from paintshop salesmen to electronics sellers and fisherman, say sales have nearly doubled with eased restric- tions and the opening of the main highway after the Tigers  ‘ defeat in May.

The Tigers  ‘ control of parts of northern Sri Lanka just south of military-controlled Jaffna meant that the peninsula and its name- sake city were virtual islands — with goods only coming by boat or by air. The military opened the main north-south A-9 road in July and is now permitting transport under close watch. All of Jaffna remains under military control.   “In bad times, I had to sell a kilo of grapes at 30 rupees… now I am getting a wholesale price of 200 rupees per kilo,  ” K. Devendrarasa, a 56-year old grape farmer, said recently. Sri Lanka  ’s only native-grown grapes come from Jaffna, and street hawkers for the first time in years are now selling them in southern Sri Lanka.   “We need more finance for expansion and investment,  ” he said after receiving a 100,000 rupee loan from Hatton National Bank HNB.CM to finance the planting of a one-acre crop. Central Bank Governor Ajith Nivard Cabraal visited on Monday and Tuesday, and met with Jaffna business leaders and bankers.

The central bank has been expediting approvals for dozens of new bank branches in the north to speed up access to credit. Many Jaffna residents kept their money out of the banking system under LTTE rule, opting to convert it to gold or outside investments. Already, prices of consumer goods have fallen by about 15 percent in Jaffna, while the mar- ket price for goods produced or grown there have at least dou- bled, traders say.   “Earlier we paid 500,000 rupees ($4,350) for a truckload for shipping, but now we only pay 100,000,  ” Perambalam Naharathnam, the owner of a hardware and cycle shop, told Reuters after making a deposit at a new National Development Bank NDB.CM branch.

Poor links with the south dur- ing the war have turned most of Jaffna  ’s businesspeople toward trade, primarily financed through remittances from family members abroad. More than two-thirds of Jaffna residents have relatives living out- side Sri Lanka who regularly send money home, according to pri- vate-sector estimates. Motor vehicle dealer C.J. Paul said he had sold more than 120 motorcycles and 15 motorised three-wheelers for cash since his outlet opened on Sept. 9. Fishermen said their fortunes have been on the rise since the government relaxed a fishing ban. That has helped them meet strong demand for Jaffna  ’s prawns, crabs, lobsters and cut- tlefish — traditionally considered among Sri Lanka  ’s tastiest. Despite early positive signs, most entrepreneurs privately complain that security is still too tight and transport options limited to a handful of politically-connect- ed people.

“We can  ‘t send goods from here. There is a huge security process. All the transport business is monopolised by some influential parties,  ” one entreprenuer told Reuters. Most traders said Jaffna trucks have not been allowed to go out of town, while those from the out- side with Defence Ministry approval can travel in both direc- tions. The government has pledged to ease security once it gets a proper state administration in place. (Editing by Bryson Hull and Ron Popeski) [courtesy: Reuters] Economy sprouts under guard in Jaffna, Sri Lanka  ’s north North-South A-9 road

Donor frustration over IDP camps in Sri Lanka Report by UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs Donors are increasingly concerned over the conditions in Sri Lanka ’s camps for internally displaced people (IDPs) and are less likely to provide funding if they continue to restrict IDPs ‘ freedom of movement, say UN officials. Neil Buhne, the UN Resident and Humanitarian Coordinator for Sri Lanka, said the response from donors to humanitarian needs had been good, but there was frustration over the closed nature of the camps.  “Among the donors we talked to, there is a hesitation in terms of their assistance to camps over the next three or four months if there ’s not significant progress on people returning, or larger numbers of people being allowed to leave, ” Buhne told IRIN.

“Donor fatigue is really in respect to continuing these closed camps… Donors have not said no, but they have indicated their concerns to us, ” he said. Nearly 300,000 people fled the fighting in the country ’s northeast in the final months of the 26-year civil war between the government and the rebel Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE) in May. More than 245,000 people are still in temporary camps in the north, according to the latest humanitarian update from the UN on 9 October. Only 13,336 people have been released from temporary camps to host families and another 13,502 have returned to their places of origin in the country ’s north and east.

Resettlement commitment

The government has steadfastly said it is committed to resettling the IDPs, but is under growing pressure from the international community over the rate and manner that people are being released. It has said it will resettle up to 80 percent of the IDPs by year ’s end, and defended the pace of releases by saying it had to screen people to filter out any LTTE rebels, or those with links to rebels, in the camps. The government announced on 22 October that it had begun resettling 41,685 IDPs in the former LTTE-controlled districts of Vavuniya, Mullaitivu, Mannar and Kilinochchi in the north.

Criticism growing

Even so, disquiet from the international community over the lack of what donors say are basic humanitarian principles of care in the camps has become increasingly vocal in recent weeks. Citing concerns over the closed nature of the camps and their living conditions, David Miliband, the British Foreign Secretary, on 14 October said his government would withdraw all funding except for life-saving emergency interventions in camps. Donors say they want to see a number of benchmarks achieved by the government in the treatment of IDPs and camp conditions. These include freedom of movement for the IDPs, unhindered access for aid agencies to the camps, transparency in the government ’s resettlement process and plans, and the assurance of a voluntary and safe return for the IDPs.

“There have been numerous promises, but there needs to be tangible change. We want concrete action instead of promises, ” a senior official from a western donor agency told IRIN.  “If the camps open, then I think there will be a lot of donors willing to give more. But as it stands, the concerns are too great to continue to support a closed camp scenario, ” the official added, speaking on condition of anonymity.

Future funding

Besides direct donor funding for agencies and their projects, money for the humanitarian response in Sri Lanka has been channelled through the 2009 Common Humanitarian Action Plan (CHAP). With the large influx of IDPs in the last months of the war, a revised CHAP in July identified funding requirements of about US$270 million for 185 projects, and Buhne said the donor response had been  “pretty good “. The best funded sectors are food, shelter and water and sanitation, while health and education are lagging, he said. As of 23 October, $155,092,037, or more than 57 percent of the funding requested for the CHAP had been secured, while total humanitarian funding stood at $209,758,256, with uncommitted pledges of $7,194,828. Agencies are now preparing for the 2010 CHAP, and Buhne said donors were shifting their emphasis to helping people pick up their lives, and moving away dependence on outside assistance.  “The message we ‘re getting is that it may be difficult to sustain the amount of funding we ‘ve had over the last months into 2010, ” he said. By IRIN News

Thousands of jobs in Sri Lanka  ’s crucial textile industry are under threat following a European Union (EU) report over alleged human rights abuses and the failure to implement human rights conventions in the country. As a result, a key trade concession worth more than US$100 million could be withdrawn, EU officials suggest.   “It  ’s like foreign aid. It was there to help people like us get better pay,  ” Suwarna Malkanthi, a 27-year-old garment worker, said in the factory town of Katunayake, about 30km north of the capital, Colombo.   “We appeal to those who are going to make a decision to think twice about suspending it.

If they do that a lot of jobs will be lost and some of our families will lose all income.  ” On 19 October, the EU released an investigative report examining whether Sri Lanka should continue receiving tariff concessions known as the Generalized System of Preference Plus (GSP+). The report refers to the lack of freedom of movement of civilians in camps:

Serious restrictions have been placed on freedom of movement, notably concerning the thousands of persons interned in IDP camps. According to the report, the Sri Lankan government was in breach of implementing the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights, the Convention against Torture and the Convention on the Rights of the Child. Sri Lanka has been given time to make representations to the EU and a final decision on the tariff  ’s extension will be taken in the next two months (Nov-Dec 2009), EU spokesman for trade, Lutz Güllner, said. The EU was the single largest importer of Sri Lankan apparel products in 2008, with trade worth $1.6 billion, and the GSP+ tariff concession helped to make the EU its biggest market, surpassing the US, according to the World Bank  ’s latest Economic Update. If the facility is suspended, it could raise the cost of the exports by 10-12 percent, one factory owner said.

Livelihoods threatened

More than 250,000 people are employed in the garment industry - a sector accounting for 10 percent of GDP. Many work 12 hours a day, six days a week, in mundane jobs paying just $150 per month. Their very livelihoods depend on the decision.   “I really don  ‘t know much about GSP+,  ” Anusha Kumari, 29, a factory worker at the Katunayake Free Trade Zone, one of 12, with more than 100,000 employees, told IRIN.   “But we are nervous about what we hear and read in newspapers, that it can be removed and factories will close,  ” she said. Achila Mapalagama, head of Stand-up, an activist group, said there were fears that withdrawal of GSP+ could affect 50,000 jobs.   “There is no clear data, but the small and medium factories will definitely feel the pinch. The larger ones with better and established buyers will survive,  ” she told IRIN.

Government under fire

The EU says it is still not clear what will happen in the coming weeks.   “We certainly want to keep the open dialogue going and discuss how we can work together,  ” Bernard Savage, EU Ambassador to Sri Lanka, told IRIN. Meanwhile, the government says it is studying the report; however, it refused to cooperate with the investigation when it was announced in October 2008. The report comes amid growing international pressure on the government to allow thousands of Tamil civilians being kept in closed camps in the north to return home. According to a government statement on 26 October, the resettlement process was proceeding well, and the number of displaced had fallen from 288,000 to 196,088. [IRIN (Integrated Regional Information Networks) is part of the UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs, but its services are editorially independent]