The Society for Threatened Peoples (STP) has called on the European Union to bolster emergency aid for Tamils in northern Sri Lanka. "Since mid-November 2010, torrential rains and flooding have destroyed the dwellings of than 70,000 members of the minority returning home from the civil war," stated Ulrich Delius, head of the STP's Asia section, on Tuesday in Göttingen. There is a severe lack of food, as well as of any shelter sufficient to provide protection from the heavy rains of the monsoon season, which is just beginning. "The internally displaced persons have been weakened by 26 years of civil war and privations. They will not survive the flood disaster if humanitarian aid is not increased right away," warned Delius.

The majority of the 325,000 Tamils who have returned to their settlement areas in northern Sri Lanka since November 2009 had been held in internment camps for several months after the war ended in 2009. Eyewitness reports describe inhumane conditions in the camps, with grave shortages of fresh water, food, doctors, medicines and sanitary facilities. In November 2009, after international protests, officials opened the camps and permitted the inmates to return home to their old settlement areas.

But more than a quarter of those returning have failed to reach their homes in the short time since their release, leaving them without protection from the rains, which are particularly heavy in 2010. Not only homes, but also fields, streets and latrines are flooded, so that the outbreak of serious diseases and epidemics threaten. One of the hardest-hit areas is the Mannar District in the north, where more than 33,700 returnees have been made homeless. In each of the Kilinochchi and Jaffna districts, more than 13,000 returnees have been unable to find any protection from the forces of nature.

Aid organizations lament the fact that the relief programs planned in other countries cannot be carried out due to a lack of foreign funding. Only 50 percent of the funds needed have been made available by the international community so far in 2010.

For further information, please contact Ulrich Delius: 0049 -551 - 4990627

Translated by Elizabeth Crawford