O 311111Z MAR 09
FM AMEMBASSY COLOMBO
TO SECSTATE WASHDC IMMEDIATE 9709
INFO AMEMBASSY ATHENS 
AMEMBASSY BANGKOK 
AMEMBASSY DHAKA 
AMEMBASSY ISLAMABAD 
AMEMBASSY KATHMANDU 
AMEMBASSY LONDON 
AMEMBASSY NEW DELHI 
AMEMBASSY OSLO 
AMEMBASSY TOKYO 
AMCONSUL CHENNAI 
AMCONSUL MUMBAI 
AMCONSUL TORONTO 
USEU BRUSSELS
USMISSION USUN NEW YORK 
USMISSION GENEVA 
HQ USPACOM HONOLULU HI
DIA WASHINGTON DC
NATIONAL SECURITY COUNCIL WASHINGTON DC
SECDEF WASHDC
CDRUSARPAC FT SHAFTER HI//APCW/APOP//
CDR USPACOM HONOLULU HI//J3/J332/J52//

UNCLAS COLOMBO 000368 
 
SENSITIVE 
 
STATE FOR SCA (BOUCHER), SCA/INS AND PRM 
STATE ALSO PASS USAID 
AID/W FOR ANE/SCA, DCHA/FFP (DWORKEN, KSHEIN) 
AID/W FOR DCHA/OFDA (MORRISP, ACONVERY, RTHAYER, RKERR) 
ATHENS FOR PCARTER 
BANGKOK FOR USAID/DCHA/OFDA (WBERGER) 
KATHMANDU FOR USAID/DCHA/OFDA AND POL (SBERRY) 
GENEVA FOR RMA (NKYLOH, NHILGERT, MPITOTTI) 
USUN NEW YORK FOR ECOSOC (D MERCADO) 
SECDEF FOR OSD - POLICY 
PACOM ALSO FOR J-5 
 
E.O. 12958: N/A 
TAGS: PREF MOPS PHUM PGOV PREL ASEC CE
SUBJECT: Northern Sri Lanka SitRep 43 
 
Ref:  A) Colombo 361  B) Colombo 360  C) Colombo 357  D) Colombo 351 
 E) Colombo 342  F) Colombo 329  G) Colombo 321  H) Colombo 320  I) 
Colombo 316  J) Colombo 310  K) Colombo 307 
 
¶1. (SBU) SUMMARY: Walter Kaelin, UN Special Rapporteur for IDPs will 
visit Sri Lanka April 2-6.  ICRC President Kellenberger has 
tentative plans to visit Sri Lanka starting April 9.  India is 
sending additional equipment and personnel to support the GOI's 
field hospital in Pulmoddai.  Last week's visit by Indian Prime 
Minister's Principal Secretary T.K.A. Nair did not break any new 
political ground.  Foreign Secretary Kohona downplayed press reports 
of GSL consideration of a humanitarian pause in fighting and gave 
little ground on MFA clearance for Red Cross visas.  Approximately 
5,000 civilians escaped the safe zone on March 30, according to 
Kohona.  The ICRC evacuated 540 wounded and relatives on March 30. 
End Summary. 
 
Visits 
------ 
 
¶2. (SBU) UNHRC Representative Amin Awad confirmed to the Embassy on 
March 31 that UN Special Raporteur for IDPs Walter Kaelin will 
visit Sri Lank April 2-6.  He thanked the Embassy for its advocay 
with the GSL.  At Awad's request, Ambassador will host a meeting for 
Kaelin with Co-Chair Ambassadors early in the visit.  ICRC 
Representative Paul Castella informed the Embassy that ICRC 
President Jakob Kellenberger has tentative plans to visit Sri Lanka 
starting April 9. 
 
Government of India Provides New 
Assistance for Field Hospital 
-------------------------------- 
 
¶3. (SBU) Indian DCM Vikram Misri reported to DCM that the Government 
of India is sending equipment (ventilators, x-ray machines, 
operating tables, etc.) for an additional operating theatre at the 
field hospital at Pulmoddai, the current evacuation site from the 
safe zone.  A team of ten medical personnel, including one surgeon 
and one anesthesiologist, and the equipment will arrive at Pulmoddai 
on March 31.  A planeload of additional medicine will be brought in 
for the Pulmoddai field hospital.   Misri explained that the 
expanded capacity is required to treat the large number of wounded 
civilians who are arriving at Pulmoddai.  The last two boatloads of 
evacuees each carried approximately 140 patients who required 
immediate treatment, mostly for blast and bullet wounds.  Once 
patients are stabilized, the Ministry of Health arranges for their 
onward movement to other hospitals or IDP transit sites. 
 
Visit by Indian Official: 
No New Political Ground 
------------------------- 
 
¶4. (SBU) Misri also told DCM that last week's visit to Colombo by 
the Indian Prime Minister's Principal Secretary T.K.A. Nair did not 
break any new ground.  In a meeting with President Rajapaksa and 
other GSL officials, Nair discussed the need for a credible 
devolution and political package and ways in which India might be 
able to provide humanitarian and reconstruction assistance in the 
North.  Misri emphasized, however, that Nair came to Colombo 
 
primarily to address a conference of Sri Lankan civil servants on 
governance issues and to share with them insights based on his four 
decades of experience as a government administrator. 
 
GSL Considering Humanitarian Pause 
---------------------------------- 
 
¶5. (U) Press reports carried statements by Foreign Secretary Palitha 
Kohona, Defense Spokesman Keheliya Rambukwella and Media Centre for 
National Security Director General Lakshman Hulugalle indicating 
that the government was considering a humanitarian pause in 
fighting.  The statements echoed earlier comments from the Foreign 
Minister (Ref C).  In a March 31 meeting Ambassador asked Kohona 
about possible GSL support for a humanitarian pause.  Kohona drew a 
distinction between short "ad hoc" pauses, which he said the GSL 
already is doing to allow evacuation of wounded and delivery of food 
and medicine.  The Foreign Secretary said that now that the military 
is closing in on the safe zone, it believes more and more civilians 
will try to escape.  For example, 5,000 civilians had waded across 
the lagoon in the northern part of the safe zone during intensive 
fighting on March 30 further south.  Since the military was now 
close enough that they could see when groups of civilians were 
trying to leave, they would hold fire and facilitate such escapes 
whenever possible.  The GSL was also prepared to consider longer 
term pauses to allow larger scale evacuations, Kohona said. 
 
GSL Gives Little Ground on ICRC Visas 
------------------------------------- 
 
¶6. (SBU) Ambassador also pressed Kohona to approve the backlog of 
ICRC visas.  Ambassador stressed that ICRC had done a superb job 
under exceptionally challenging circumstances helping to deliver 
food and medicine to the safe zone and evacuate sick and wounded 
from there.  It also continued to perform a wide range of essential 
tasks in the rest of the country.  Kohona agreed the ICRC had done a 
great job, but said that some in the GSL were now questioning why 
ICRC needed more staff when some of its functions had now stopped, 
such as its previous work transferring dead bodies of combatants 
across the forward defense line. 
 
¶7.  (SBU) Ambassador pushed back, noting that its range of tasks had 
increased, not decreased, and would increase further if it had to 
facilitate a large-scale evacuation of civilians from the north. 
Surely the GSL wanted the ICRC to be prepared to support this GSL 
goal, the Ambassador asked.  Kohona allowed that the MFA had 
approved four ICRC visas, but was carefully reviewing all the other 
requests, with a view to considering which of these billets the ICRC 
might fill with locally-recruited staff.  Ambassador conveyed the 
substance of the conversation to ICRC Chief Castella and suggested 
Castella provide more details on exactly what the replacement and 
TDY staff - for whom visas were needed - would be doing.  Castella 
thanked us for the intervention and will follow up directly with the 
MFA. 
 
ICRC Evacuates 540 Civilians 
---------------------------- 
 
¶8. (U) ICRC spokesperson in Colombo Sophie Romanens told the BBC 
that 540 patients and relatives were evacuated by sea on March 30. 
 
This brings the total number of civilians evacuated by the ICRC to 
approximately 6500 since February.  ICRC is planning the next 
evacuation for April 2. 
 
GSL: 300 Children Reunited With Families 
---------------------------------------- 
 
¶9. (U) The Ministry for Disaster Management and Human Rights 
announced 300 children who were separated from their families while 
crossing over to cleared areas in Vavuniya have been reunited with 
their families today (March 31). 
 
GSL Backs Off Demand to 
NGOs to Turn Over Assets 
------------------------ 
 
¶10. (SBU) During the Consultative Committee on Humanitarian 
Assistance (CCHA) meeting on March 30, GSL officials present agreed 
that the request to NGOs to turn over their assets to the government 
(Ref D) was too extreme.  We expect the request will be scaled back 
or removed entirely. 
 
Five Bishops Urge Protection of Civilians 
----------------------------------------- 
 
¶11. (U) Five Bishops published a letter expressing their extreme 
concern for the plight of civilians trapped in the conflict and 
urging continued evacuations of wounded from, and shipments of food 
into, the safe zone.  The Bishops called for negotiations to permit 
the evacuation of all civilians who wished to leave the conflict 
area and for a "temporary cessation of fighting" to facilitate that 
evacuation.  The letter was signed by the Roman Catholic Bishops of 
Jaffna, Mannar and Anuradhapura, as well as the Anglican Bishops of 
Colombo and Kurunegala. 
 
Civilian Casualties and IDP Outflow 
----------------------------------- 
 
¶12.  (SBU) Sources from within the LTTE-controlled area report 112 
civilians were killed and 164 injured on March 30.  Tamil and 
Government sources report 1,648 arrivals, including 709 children 
into Government-controlled territory on March 30. (Note: Such 
reports from Tamil sources cannot be confirmed and are frequently 
exaggerated.  The GSL has yet to publicize the Foreign Secretary's 
claim to Ambassador that 5000 civilians escaped during fighting on 
March 30.) 
 
BLAKE