SL: Jaffna adapts to siege, but food a worry

Jaffna (Sri Lanka), Sept 21: Heavily armed troops man razor wire checkpoints, a curfew is on and food and fuel are in short supply, but life in Sri Lanka's northern Jaffna peninsula is gradually adapting after weeks under siege.

Residents such as 60-year-old peanut seller Selama have been hardened by years of civil war. They barely flinch as the military fires outgoing artillery rounds at Tamil Tiger rebel positions.

But life is hard.

The military is shipping emergency stocks of rice and dry rations to the peninsula, which is cut off from the rest of Sri Lanka by rebel lines, but aid workers say it is not enough, and prices in shops have sky-rocketed.

''People are not buying my peanuts. Things are very expensive.

There is no food, no earnings,'' the elderly mother-of-six said, squatting beside her modest curbside stall at Jaffna bus station, sheltering from the baking sun under an improvised parasol.

With little more than a few hundred grams of peanuts and two coconuts to sell, she will be lucky to earn a dollar for her day's work. Many residents like her say they are not receiving government food handouts, and aid groups are having trouble sourcing stocks.

''Here we have a food problem. We are buying local food such as bananas, paddy rice and other things,'' said World Vision Jaffna purchasing officer Robert Tony.

''Now we are facing the basic problem that rice or dhal, sugar, tinned fish, milk powder (are scarce or unavailable).'' With diesel and petrol in short supply, most residents travel by bicycle. Some three-wheel rickshaw taxis are running on kerosene.

Residents must stay indoors between 6 pm to 6 am, and watch with trepidation as armoured personnel carriers and army trucks bristling with rifles screech through the streets.

Thousands of people displaced by the worst fighting between the government and Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE) since a 2002 truce are living in churches and schools on the peninsula.

REUTERS

Related Stories

In-focus: Sri Lanka Crisis