My replies inline..

From: Saurabh Madan

To: Prabhakar Jeyalakshmi

Cc: Priya Ranjan

Sent: Friday, 6 March, 2009 1:21:50 AM

Subject: Re: [Awareness] Sri Lankan refugees face open-ended detention in camps



So what is your point? What should we do now? Clearly, anything the Indian Army does is "State Perpetrated Terrorism" and anything the LTTE did was a 'mistake'. And you want to blame the 'Muslim leadership' ... for gods sake man ... people were brutally murdered ... Its bad if the Indian Army does something to the Tamils in Sri Lanka but it is OK if the LTTE does the same thing to Muslims ... because they lack leadership ...



[Prabhakar] Please read my replies again. In Punjab when Sikhs were revolting for 'Kalistan' the Indian Army brutally wiped them off. No tables, no discussions.  As a result 'Indira Gandhi' was murdered by her own gun men.  For e.g. say Pakistan say suddenly "our neighbour country India is fighting for terrorists let me go and drop off some food relief through army flights" what will be India's response? Even in Kashmir issue the problem is not with militants.  It is the Indian and Pak govts who interfered into the lives of Kashmiri people and made their lives a worst nightmare. Remember, how India accused Pak on interfereing in India's internal issue Kashmir by supplying arms and training terrorists.  

First of all, It is Eelam Tamils freedom and let them fight, joined with their Muslim's counterparts or not. India has no business to interfere in it.  But India wants to be 'the big brother' like US. India should not do anything.  But the Govt sent IPKF and failed and lost Rajiv. Now Sonia Gandhis vengence strikes.  This time the Govt plays carefully.  It says 'we have to stop the war' on news and at the same time Indian tanks are on the way to Sri Lanka. Indians should have awareness in Tamils right there in the Island and should raise our voices on behalf of Tamils.  Condemn Sinhala Govt, Indian Govt and LTTE. LTTE is not a question here. But are we ready to know 'the history' of Sri Lanka and what is happening there now ?



[Saurab] You think it is not easy to get people to commit suicide because you lack perspective. It is all good to read about these things in news papers you have to know what violence humans are capable of perpetrating to understand how these things work. The same activist spoke about Suicide bombers also. The women carders of the LTTE were kept in isolation from men to preserve their 'purity' and it was the victims of Rape ... not necessarily by any army who were told to 'purify' themselves through such acts. I so realize that many of us did not care about justice. Some of us cared about 'India's regional Interest', while others cared about their 'racial affiliations' and still others forgot the difference between 'means and ends'. This is something for us to reflect upon.



[Prabhakar] No body wants to know 'why' LTTE fights and but every body wants to know 'how' it fights. Though many of the people do not know how and what they do, there are lots of such stories. Even the person who spoke to  you was an ex-LTTE you should be able to know what is he saying and why is he saying.  What is the 'purity' here to safeguard ? I heard a news that LTTE suicide bombers were not allowed to interact with ordinary cadres because their intent and purpose of actions they want it to keep within themselves. You can twist and lengthen this news to any extent as you wish.



[Saurab]Now let me tell you another story - This is a true story about a boy called Nimal. There is so much poverty in Sri Lanka that this boy, not more than 7 or 8 years old was malnourished. He was the same age as I was when my father was in Sri Lanka. I dont know how he got associated with the Army camp but he used to have food with them ... and his parents were so proud that they told him that he must not have free food ans asked him to 'work' for his food. At any rate, when the LTTE got to know, the cut his head and put it in the middle of the road as a lesson for the Indian Army. Have you ever seen a dismembered head lying in the middle of the road? Can you imagine it? When you see such a head ... do you wonder whether the boy was Tamil or Sinhala or something else? Yes that boy was Tamil. But here lies the flaw in our thinking ... we add racial affiliation to justice ... and until we do not separate the two, despite good intentions, we will continue to perpetrate injustice.



[Prabhakar] This is definitely one of the bad propaganda stories told about LTTE. I can also tell a hundreds of stories like this.

Do you want to hear them ? Anyhow lets analyze your story.  Who killed the boy ? anybody know for sure ? No. Ok. Lets assume LTTE killed that boy.  Would they be so brutal to kill a small boy just because he ate food with Indian Army ? Are they 'armed people' to fight for their rights or just kill everybody they see on their way ?

The Sinhala and Indian Govts maintaining that LTTE keeps 2 lakh of Tamil people as human shields at gun point in Vanni. And every media (where no other media except the army in Vanni) echoed the same news even without analysing what could be possible. Sinhal Govt's count of LTTTE is 2000. Two thousand people threatening 2 Lakh people at gun point. Can you believe it ? Only if you want to. Below link is not a 'story'.  It is a report from Amnesty who usually has more 'reports' against LTTE.  Even after this report published a few years ago

still nobody, not even a single army personnel was charged on 'rape'.  This is the humanity that Indian Govt supports, joins hands with.

I can collect more other reports for you.  But it depends whom do you want to believe.  Obviously, since your father served 'Indian Army' you can not see it as a 'wasted effort'. That would make his life meaningless and yours too. See any army, Iraq, Afganistan, Sri Lanka and in South African countries; this is the unwritten rule.  



http://www.amnesty.org/en/library/asset/ASA37/001/2002/en/dom-ASA370012002en.html  - report on rapes by Sinhala Army

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A30286-2005Mar12.html  - UN army's issue of rape.

http://www.sundaytimes.lk/071104/News/news0003.html  - Sri Lankan Army's action in Haiti.





[Saurab]But lets go back ... weren't boys like Nimal the very reason the LTTE took up this fight? So what went wrong? Why did it turn around and kill its own people ... and there are more brutal instances than this by the way ... we can talk about them if you like ... perhaps you will realize why when put in such situations, soldiers lose their minds. And people like us will reinforce our commitment to keeping our country on the path of justice. But first, we have to understand justice itself ... your whole stand, and its ethnic or racial bent will blind you from seeing justice. Your whole standpoint is one of 'Us' vs 'Them' and when we see things this way, we only see the 'us' side.

You probably think that the creation of an Elem for the Tamils will bring about justice ... so in effect, you endorse that it is OK to hate the Sinhalas (all of them) in order to bring this justice about. This also means that from your point of view 'hatred' is a justified if it is along racial lines - if it brings about the creation of the Elem. This means you are willing to compromise fair means ... to achieve an end ... it does not matter what the end is. Mohammad Ali Jinnah cared deeply about India and Muslims ... his error was the means he chose ... and because he chose those means, today, Pakistan is the largest exporter of hate and terror in the world.



[Prabhakar] I don't hate Sinhalas and for that matter LTTE too doesn't hate Sinhala people(Last October, Prabakaran gave his martyre's day speech in Tamil and in Sinhala languages requesting their people to understand what their leaders are doing).  Otherwise, like in Pakistan and in Iraq every day human bombs would explode all over Sri Lanka on the Sinhala common people. The last aerial attack of LTTE was targetted their 'air base' and it hit their 'financial building'. If LTTE wished, there were more 'crowded' Sinhalese people living places in Colombo that would have ensured a 'definite hit'.  But they did not do it. They did not do it for these 30+ years. Why ? Can you answer this question ? There are no good leaders among Sinhalese people. Except the 'majoritarianistic' Rajapakshe and JVP people.  They make their people believe that Tamils are immigrants and minority who wants to hold the entire country.



[Saurab]Yes I am for justice and for taking stands, but I think we have to first understand justice for ourselves before we go about dispensing it to the world.

And now I ask you the pertinent question? What should we do about the current situation? And if your answer is free of racial prejudice against anyone, Tamil or Sinhala, lets get to work. We are already doing a small service by creating awareness ... let us keep this journey going.

-Saurabh



[Prabhakar] We, common people, see the common 'Govt media' and hear what they want to hear and to think. My intention is we should see all the ends and try to 'comprehend' and recognize a freedom struggle. We should make everybody else in AID to not to have the eyes of  'George Bush'; seeing and treating 'freedom struggles' as 'terror acts' and brand 'terrorists' are not more than psychos who kill for pleasure, and raising war against evils for ultimate 'justice'(what justice is this ?). We should raise our voices against 'Big Brothers' like our own Govt to interfere in neighbourhood country's internal affairs to 'establish' its own 'justice'.

My view of LTTE is more supportive which need not be the case for everybody.  LTTE as an armed extremist organization did many human rights viiolations too.  But that can not be the reason to 'eliminate' or wipe them out from their 'freedom struggle'.  Doing such a thing would never bring peace but more and more rebels would emerge in the future.  Becos whether it is violent or not it is a 'freedom struggle'.  We must understand that. Even in violence, a Govt's violence is the most condemnable than a small extremist organisation's violations.   

-s.prabhakar

On Thu, Mar 5, 2009 at 1:10 AM, Prabhakar Jeyalakshmi wrote:



Please see my reply inline.

-prabhakar.

From: Saurabh Madan

To: Prabhakar Jeyalakshmi

Cc: Priya Ranjan

Sent: Thursday, 5 March, 2009 12:40:36 AM



Subject: Re: [Awareness] Sri Lankan refugees face open-ended detention in camps



Hi Prabhakar,

I am aware of the issue about the Indian Army raping women as you put it. It does happen. I wish I could say that it did not. But the Army does not endorse such behavior. It is true that many times individual soldiers get away with such excesses - this is a reflection of the character and strength of the officer or platoon commander in charge.

[Prabhakar] Did the LTTE endorse raping ever? No. In LTTE controlled areas raping was severely punished such that people feared about it. Raping and looting is considered to be part of war activities since the time of kings and colonial times and a Military 'has' to do it. What else will do the sexually deprived soldiers ? Similarly killing 'thousands of civilians'  'does happen'.  What to do ? What all other things 'that does happen' when encountered by IPKF ? Want to know ?See the last section of

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Indian_Peace_Keeping_Force .

Such an ordered and well-funded and non-strained military run by Govt can 'do mistakes' which are acceptable to you.  But a fighting organization that struggles and lives an hideous life and has no means of support, 'can not do mistakes'.  Isn't it ?



At times, people do not stop such things from happening. Why? Where does the army come from? You seem to have disassociated the Indian Army from yourself. Who are the people who serve in the army? What is their value system? Did the Indian Army give them the go-ahead to rape women during military training? I dont think so. In fact, I am sure it did not. So why do people do it?

Think about this - it is because this is what the boys have seen while growing up ... all around them. Violence in many forms - religious, gender based, caste based ... it is everywhere ... and when these people become powerful, they perpetrate the same injustice they have taken for granted all their lives. So what is the solution?

[Prabhakar] Army is the 'muscle-arm' of the Govt. It kills who the Govt points to. Soldiers are primarily doing it as a 'job'.  Not as a 'service'. But the 'patriotism' color is painted on them to justify the 'more than half the amount' allocation of money in every budget for military spending. As you said, not everybody in the army is evil; for e.g. your dad. Becos of good people's like your dad's 'service', the army's ugly-face is hidden underneath. Not just the IPKF, any army in the world for that matter. The soldiers activities are just because they were trained to do such things brutally.  You know how harsh and rigid an army training is. Even if an army man is not in work he is not allowed to stay with his family.  He has to be in the 'camp', doing rigourous training as if tomorrow is war. A soldier has to kill at the war front without 'thinking', because if he stops to think then he dies. His training is aimed at fighting in such perilous environment. So soldiers grow as killing machines. Add 'racism' with these soldiers; then they are what 'Sinhala Army' is.



Your view that this is a Sinhala vs Tamil conflict is also not accurate. I recently attended a lecture by a person who was formerly with the LTTE and then became a non-violent political activist (her sister was murdered by the LTTE btw). In the 1950s, there were Sinhala movements similar to the LTTE movement ... and they were crushed with the same brutality that was shown to the LTTE in the North.

It just so happened that In the North India decided to Intervene and help these people protect themselves. It was not an act of arrogance. When we realized our mistake we did pull out. I do not endorse supporting an organization like the LTTE, but it was a choice made to protect a section of people from Annihilation. And we withdrew support. As I said before, the LTTE was banned in the UN on India's behest. I dont know if you remember this, but we also lost a Prime Minister to their system of justice.

And what do you think would have happened if the Indian Army had not gone in? There would have been a US military base in Sri Lanka now .. powered by Nuclear submarines so powerful that one accident could wipe off the entire populations of southern India.

[Prabhakar] There is no correlation between how the 'army' behaves to crush 'a struggle'  and  what does equal right mean to a Tamil in Eelam. You are right in the 'intersts' point. India's intervention was mainly due to its 'regional interests'.  Not the dying Tamils there. In fact, LTTE,  TELO and PLOTE were funded by India in the beginning to take control in India's 'regional interests' over USA.  When Rajiv wanted his 'regional interest' be done he 'ordered' these groups to stop fight. But LTTE by then had realized their true motivation : 'self-determination' of Tamils, refused to oblige Rajiv. But TELO and PLOTE are still 'invisible hands' of Indian Govt and hence now allies of Sinhala Govt.  You are fearing about US occupation in Sri Lanka.  Irnoically, USA is one of the key-founder of UN, along with its allies France and United Kingdom. If you see, how many human rights violations charged against US and how they are 'vitoed' and how many of them were trialed by UN, then you could understand UNs 'extents' and 'limits'.

Rajiv Gandhi did the role of a 'traitor'. A 'life' is a life.  Whoever it may be. Either a civilian or a Prime Minister.  If Rajiv can justify IPKF's killings of thousands of civilians (not LTTE people) and rapes of women, then LTTE has their right to justify to take this single person's life.   

The conflict in Sri Lanka was an outcome of mis-governance and exploitation of the powerless by the powerful ... this happens everywhere in the world. It took on a communal color much later. If we interpret thsi situation with racial prejudice (Sinhala Vs Tamil), we will lose sight of real justice, which is blind to ethnic or any other affiliation.



[Prabhakar] I want to strongly object here on this point. Before the British colonization both Sinhalas and Tamils lived in separate regions ruled by their own kings.  British brought them under their single rule. Under Brittish rule most of the Govt employees, officials were Tamils becos of their educational advantage. British took the 'divide and rule' policy.  When British left the country they asked the then leaders to come together to become a single nation.  Or it would have been a division.  The Sinhalese leaders convinced the then Tamil leader to be together and assured Tamil's rights will be protected.  After freedom since the Sinhalese were majority (75%) and Tamils (25%) including Tamil speaking Muslims were minority, things started going wrong.  They started losing their 'rights' one by one. Then the Tamil leaders started their demands through peaceful agitations, demonstrations on the leadership of 'Selvanayakam'.  And the history goes like that... Only in 1976, armed struggle started.  And that too become intensified after 'Blak July' in 1983.



[Saurab]I dont know if you are aware, the LTTE is the most brutal terrorist organization in the world. They have pioneered the suicide bombers. And their system of justice is no terrible that people do not dare speak against Prabhakaran (the Head of LTTE) or does anything else that makes them 'traitors', they are killed, along with their families, their relatives and anyone who is close to them. These are not spur of the moment decisions, these are tactics of terror. Do the people who happen to live in their area have a choice but to support them? Do you know that it is the only terrorist organization in the world that does not have the patronage of a state ... and most of its operations are funded on Narcotics.

Are you aware that now there is a Muslim insurgency in Sri Lanka? Where the 5% of people who were Muslim took arms - want to guess against whom? the LTTE because they did with the Muslims what the Sri Lankan government did with them. So yes people are suffering and yes India must do what it can to protect them ... but first we have to free ourselves of the ethnic prism from which you have just viewed justice ... for justice cannot be viewed from any prism.



[Prabhakar] I can talk about more about the lack of Muslim leadership and their decisions and the issues that threatened Tamil's lives, and the mistake Prabakaran did towards Muslims that put a big divide between Tamils and Muslims.  But that is not the reason Indian Govt and Sinhala Govt fighting LTTE and killing Tamils.  As I told earlier, cause and effect are to be understood properly.  LTTE raising funds not through Narcotics but other (illegal means) they use.  But as I said, do you expect LTTE act as a registered company putting its 'profits' as 'investment' for purchasing arms to fight ? This is a war against a 'Government'.  Unless we realize the 'people's servant mask' that Governements used to wear, we can never realise 'a freedom struggle'.

LTTE is not 'poineered' suicide bombers; they were 'destined' to go to their ends as a suicide bomber.  Do you think it is that much easy to simply brain wash a person and make him 'kill himself' even for money? Even if I am at the edge of my life I don't kill myself 'for money'. I can't kill another person along with me neither. The advent of suicide bombers show the people in a country were forced into their edge of their life.  Have you ever seen a suicide bomber in Indian naxalite movements, or other movements such as ULFA ? These people take arms and fight the government.  But remember, when the Government starts crushing them brutally and wipes them out of their existence, out of their struggle, instead of negotiating their issues on the table, then there will be suicide bombers too here.  'Suicide bomber' is a symbol of human lives driven to their dead ends of life; with no hopes for the future.



Saurabh

P.S. I will post on the blog. yes this does help us explore the issue from many perspectives.



On Wed, Mar 4, 2009 at 1:20 AM, Prabhakar Jeyalakshmi wrote:



Hi Saurabh,

Your father might be right. He might have also told you about IPKF's raping of Tamil women and killing of about 6000 innocent Tamils during their stay in Sri Lanka.

These Tamil people were the same who shouted in joy when the IPKF entered the ports of Colombo.  I call this 'treason'. What do you call this activity of IPKF?

LTTE is an organisation who were forced to the armed struggle path by the Sinhala Govt.  Their fight is about 30 years old and still continuing. Do you think

this fight is possible without the support of its people ?



In a deteriorating living conditions for half of their life, and struggle an organisation has to feed their people, purchase arms and fight like an 'army'.  They don't do 'work' and

earn money.  They just fight. How could this be possible for 30 years ? Is it just like running a company with crores of profits every year that can

be invested for next year ? No.  Are these terrorists like the ones in Mumbai who attacked blind-foldedly at the Railway station ? No.



Giving an example; Sri Lankan cricketers were attacked in Pakistan yesterday before the match.  The whole world is condemning it. Nobody asked with somany

people sufferring in the Afghan borders and America scheduling 17000 troups to launch an attack, do we really need these 'peace ambassadors' to play a 'game' amidst of a

troubled nation's people? What sort of peace these cricketers would bring in ? Or was it a free-open-to-all match without each ticket costing thousands of rupees ?

That's merely a business being painted with 'nationalism' color. Lets leave that aside. For this many years how many human bombs exploded in Columbo targetting higher officials

and Sinhala politicians? we know the count.

Do you think LTTE was incapable of attacking the cricket players for all these years? (recently India arrogantly sent its cricket team to Sri Lanka for 'playing' while the entire

TamilNadu people were shouting their voices against the genocide done by the Lankan Govt. At one end of Lankan peninsula 'Tamilians' are being massacred.  At another end people enjoy sixers and

fours. Why no media condemned this attitude of our Govt ?).



Am I justifying LTTE's bad things as good ? No. That organisation has lot of controversial things to talk about from Child soldiers recruitment to killing co-groups.

I just want to ask us to look into the practicability of a war and maintaining a self-disciplined group of warriors. LTTE is not a Govt and they are just some humans at their ends.



America used to portray 'Vietnam Gorillas' as villains in almost all their movies and all propagandas. E.g. the famous 'Rambo'.  That war lasted for about 23

years and finally america withdrew because it suffered severe 'loss' in their 'business'.



LTTE has been banned in India and in other big countries. Supporting its views is not good for NGOs like us. But identifying the Sinhala Govts wrong portrayals,

and exposing their brutality in every thing such as rescuing people only to bury the youngest later under their military camps, killing people by branding them as seperatists,

exposing Govt's double-tongued activities and their brutal rapings, etc.. we can certainly make awarness.



We fight the root cause of this issue (the Sinhala Govt) not the effect (LTTE). If we condemn LTTE once, we must have condemned 100 times the Sinhala

Govt before.  That is the right spirit.



What are we going to do about it ? In such political issues, we, NGOs should not limit ourselves into 'rehabilitation' alone.  A govt can do a hundred times a better

'rehabilitation' if it is directed appropriately. For this we need to create awarness among people by exposing the Govt's as well as LTTE's atrocities (remember the

ratio 100:1). Before sending out a govt news or any news we should look behind the 'trustworthyness' and 'motive' of such a news.  This is my request.



Please do publish it on your blog if you want to, so that we can get many other good and deep thoughts on this.



rgds,

s.prabhakar.

From: Saurabh Madan

To: Priya Ranjan

Cc: Prabhakar Jeyalakshmi

Sent: Wednesday, 4 March, 2009 8:38:53 AM

Subject: Re: [Awareness] Sri Lankan refugees face open-ended detention in camps



There is something else I wanted to add about this. My father has served in the IPKF in Sri Lanka ... and in one instance,collected bodies (16) of Tamil people who were hung by a village judge (appointed by the LTTE). This person was a 17 year old boy who had never gone to school.

I don't know if this is published anywhere but more Tamil people have been killed by the LTTE than by the Sri Lankan Army.

This is not all. Before the Indian army went to Sri Lanka (with the mandate to protect the Tamils btw), the Sri Lankan army would patrol areas. If they found a house that belonged to a Tamilian, the would break the window and empty a magazine (bullets) of an automatic weapon into the house.

So the question is - who is the perpetrator? the govt or the LTTE? And my reasons for asking this is - "What are you going to do about it".



My personal conclusion and I ask no one to agree with me - is that brutality is in human nature ... and if we can only take injustice and violence out of ourselves, the world might improve a little bit.



Saurabh



On Tue, Mar 3, 2009 at 7:03 PM, Saurabh Madan wrote:

Hi Prabhakar,

May I publish your perspective on the blog.

Saurabh





On Tue, Mar 3, 2009 at 5:23 AM, Priya Ranjan wrote:



Dear Mr. Prabhakar:

Thanks for your message. Lets clarify some of the things here:

1. This email list has nothing to do with AID's view. Its a list run by me and Saurabh helps me in posting it on http://awareness-2009.blogspot.com/

2. Article I forwarded was to show how bad things are and not to condone what Srilanka government is doing. I think whats happening to Tamilians is extremely unfair and terrible.

I hope you will understand my point of view and I am sorry if it didn't come out clear.

kind regards,

-priya





On Tue, Mar 3, 2009 at 8:18 AM, Prabhakar Jeyalakshmi wrote:



Hi Ranjan,

    Nice way to put off the struggles for freedom.

    First you drive the people to their end of life, with no food,    shelter and rights.Then kill them cruelly in the name of crushing separatists.



    After all this is done over a period of years, the thought of freedom is gone now in the people.  Instead the desperate wandering of

    survival beholds the Tamil people in Eelam.



    And your 'news' article just is an expression of this.After all an NGO's concern is 'survival' of people who are

    driven to their extremities of life. So we(AID) got one lakh of people here. We cover them, rehabilitate them.  Write their tragedies of life; and how

    Govt fights terrorism and 'bad conditions' of rehabilitation. In this process, the fight for freedom    struggle, the thought of freedom can safely be buried.



    What a perfect tactics ? Isn't it ?

    

    Unfortunately the limt of NGO's concern is short-sighted and in the long run this will just end up in all NGO's cleaning up the wounds made by the oppressed Govts on the oppressed people.

    On contrast, in Singur and in Nandhigram AID's angle was different. It was against the (communist) Govt.  Here it is for the Sinhala Govt.

    My question is why ? I think I know the answer. Would you reply your answer ?



rgds,

s.prabhakar.



From: Priya Ranjan

To: [email protected]

Sent: Tuesday, 3 March, 2009 6:23:02 PM

Subject: [Awareness] Sri Lankan refugees face open-ended detention in camps



Have backpack, will learn: Children headed to class at a refugee camp Monday. As civilians flee fighting in Sri Lanka, officials are bracing for a fresh influx.

RAVI NESSMAN/AP



Sri Lankan refugees face open-ended detention in camps Relieved to be out of the fighting, they also chafe at strict rules and often grim conditions.

By Simon Montlake | Correspondent of The Christian Science Monitor from the February 25, 2009 edition



Correspondent Simon Montlake discusses conditions at a Sri Lankan refugee camp he recently visited.



VAVUNIYA, SRI LANKA - The camp's dry goods store opened only a day ago, but its windows are already greasy and smudged from the many faces pressed up against it. As workers stack bags of rice, lentils, and flour on crude wooden shelves, war-weary Tamil refugees stare longingly inside. None have money to spend here, only time to kill.

Behind them, a resettlement camp for 2,800 people is taking on an air of permanence. Classrooms are being built to house the children who study outside in crisp white uniforms. A post office, bank, clinic, and vocational training center have already opened.

Inside razor-wired fences, soldiers patrol the dusty lanes. And there is relief and joy among those who escaped the battlefield carnage. But there is also frustration and anguish over the strict rules and the prospect of open-ended detention.

On a 1,000-acre site nearby, a vast refugee town for as many as 200,000 people is planned, as authorities brace for an even larger exodus from what appears to be the final stand of the separatist Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE). So far, some 32,000 of those fleeing the fighting have been evacuated to Vavuniya. Most are crammed into schools and other public buildings until more camps are carved out of the red-dirt soil.

For those in the most makeshift facilities, conditions are grim. "It's so bad here, I want to go back to the Vanni. We're like prisoners here," says Mr. Balachandran, who sleeps with 47 others on the floor of a squalid classroom.

Once the fighting is over, the Tamils of the Vanni, the final stronghold of the LTTE, are supposed to return home. Sri Lanka's government says it must first de-mine the conflict zone, a process that will take many months, if not years. To guard against LTTE subversion, refugees aren't permitted to leave the camps. Nor are visitors allowed in.

"We're not detaining anyone. We're not separating anyone. We're keeping them in a safe place," P.S.M. Charles, a district administrator, told reporters on a visit organized by the military.



A NEED TO IMPROVE CONDITIONS

Authorities say conditions will improve once more camps are built and international aid flows more freely. Sri Lanka has asked foreign donors to shoulder much of the cost. A cash economy should emerge once work initiatives start within the camp, bringing customers to the newly opened cooperative store, whose manager reckons that its sunflower-yellow concrete walls will still be standing in three years' time.

Officials say a faster timetable is possible, once the fighting ends. "The government is trying to think in terms of getting 80 percent of people back [to their homes] by the end of the year," says Rajiva Wijesinha, secretary general of the government's peace secretariat.

A darker fate may await suspected rebels who cross as civilians into government-held areas, where the military tries to weed out LTTE infiltrators. The government says it has detained 32 self-confessed militants and is monitoring another 218 people in camps. But aid workers and church groups have received reports of men being separated from families at Kilinochchi, the rebel capital seized last month.

Western diplomats say they are pressing Sri Lanka to allow the International Committee of the Red Cross to monitor the screening and to register those who arrive. Government officials have publicly rebuffed the idea, however. They insist that as a sovereign power fighting domestic insurgents there is no legal requirement for international observers.



Aid workers point out that war refugees can easily be separated in the chaos and that those reported as missing may simply have been sent to other camps. Although the ICRC had begun helping to trace relatives, its program is currently on hold pending further talks with the government.

But there is some trepidation over a repeat of the tactics of the 1990s, when Tamil men taken out of military-run camps joined the ranks of Sri Lanka's disappeared. Some were later traced to detention centers, but many never came back. Fed by LTTE propaganda, such fears die hard among Sri Lanka's Tamil minority.

Still, the most pressing crisis is in the jungles of the Vanni where at least 70,000 civilians are caught between the advancing Army and the cornered LTTE, which has menaced those who seek to flee. While Sri Lanka has insisted that its troops are doing their best to limit civilian casualties, aid groups say the toll of dead and injured is rising.

"My biggest concern is that people are dying … the real crisis is up there," says Annemarie Loof, the country head of Médicins Sans Frontières, a relief agency working in the camps.

Refugees in Vavuniya tell of desperate treks through no man's land, dodging bullets and artillery shells that fell "like monsoon rain," before being evacuated. All cited the constant bombardment and lack of food and water in the war zone as the reason for their escape. Many said they had moved several times due to the fighting.



A DASH ACROSS A BATTLEFIELD

Devi Segaram, an English teacher, joined around 1,000 others who waited till dawn on Feb. 7 before cutting across a field that lay between the two forces. On their way out, they ran into a group of five LTTE soldiers, who fired warning shots to stop them. When the refugees kept running, the shots came closer, and two young boys fell down, she says. But Ms. Segaram and her daughter, a high-school graduate, didn't hesitate.

"We came running. I held her hand, and we just kept running," she says. Within half an hour, they caught sight of soldiers who called them over with a megaphone. Within days, she was in the camp.

Now she says her hope is eventually to be reunited with a son who lives in the capital, Colombo, far from her war-torn homeland.