Aid efforts in Sri Lanka hampered by obstruction from Sri Lanka's airforce

Caroline Gammell in Colombo
in Scotsman 8 January 2005

"The Sri Lankan airforce has confiscated two planes donated by the Italian government which can land on sea or ground and were brought in to deliver aid to the most remote areas.Each aircraft can carry six tonnes and were welcomed by relief workers last week. But now they are being held by the air force and are lying idle at the domestic airport in Ratmallan, Colombo.... “They say they want to check that the aid is not going to any Tamil organisation.The stuff (to be loaded on to the planes) was actually from the UN, it was completely legitimate and this is the air force’s way of keeping control.”

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Aid efforts in Sri Lanka are being hampered by obstruction from the island’s airforce, inappropriate supplies and a lack of co-ordination on the ground, a British aid worker said today.

Two weeks after the country was torn apart by the tsunami, there was frustration that bureaucracy was blocking desperately needed supplies.

The Sri Lankan airforce has confiscated two planes donated by the Italian government which can land on sea or ground and were brought in to deliver aid to the most remote areas.Each aircraft can carry six tonnes and were welcomed by relief workers last week. But now they are being held by the air force and are lying idle at the domestic airport in Ratmallan, Colombo.

Chris Weeks, director of Crisis Resource Network, a Dubai-based organisation helping to co-ordinate supplies being flown into the country, said attempts to access the aircraft had proved fruitless.

“There is no sign that the Sri Lankan air force are doing anything.They have been pretty obstructive and I am not very pleased with them.”

Mr Weeks said the planes had been impounded before making a single flight and their isolation was politically motivated by tensions between the government and the separatist Tamil Tigers.

The ceasefire, which was agreed three years ago after 20 years of war, was on shaky ground when the treacherous waves devastated the island. “The Sri Lankan air force are very powerful because of the war and they have a lot of control,” he said.
“They say they want to check that the aid is not going to any Tamil organisation.The stuff (to be loaded on to the planes) was actually from the UN, it was completely legitimate and this is the air force’s way of keeping control.”

Mr Weeks said he was meeting the Sri Lankan government on a daily basis but to little effect.

“This doesn’t do any good, they make excuses, the air force make excuses and it is pretty depressing.”

Canadian and American helicopters are flying aid to more isolated parts of the island, but can only carry two tonnes – a third of the load of the seaplanes.

“Psychologically it is quite good but it is not really effective,” said Mr Weeks.

US Black Hawks are taking aid to Ampara in the south east but they do not have people on the ground and are only guessing as to what aid is needed, he added.

“They are taking supplies that they are pretty sure are needed, but they don’t know what is really needed.

“They should be staff on the ground but there doesn’t seem to be that co-ordination at the end point.”

Mr Weeks said fewer but larger aircraft were now arriving in Colombo, but some were still bringing in the wrong type of supplies.

“We received 93 tonnes of blankets yesterday, they just do not need these heavy blankets.”

He said essential equipment such as tents, tarpaulins, kitchen sets and generators were coming through but he added that the government were trying to take every item through customs before releasing the aid.

This would seriously slow down the delivery of supplies and was being ignored by the Crisis Resource Network.

“We are going to keep going until we are forcibly told not to,” he said.

“The Americans are not going to put up with it.

“They will co-operate for a bit but then they will get the top brass in.”