Into the conflict zone

By Feizal Samath

Hardly a few weeks after arriving in Sri Lanka, Ms. Isabel Barras took her first trip to the war-torn northern Wanni region for what was perceived as a routine visit to ICRC field offices.

Suddenly she was slap-bang in the middle of intensive fighting between government troops and the LTTE.

"That crisis, unexpectedly gave me a quick idea of the Sri Lankan situation," recalled the ICRC official, who arrived in mid-September, 1999 from Croatia where she was head of the ICRC mission.

Barras took over from Max Hadorn who ended his two-year term as ICRC chief in Sri Lanka in September to take up an appointment as the ICRC head in Sudan.

In November, the LTTE, in a major offensive took control of a string of army-held towns including Oddusudan, Nedunkerny, Olumadu, Ampakamam, Mankulam and Kanakarayankulam in the Wanni sector.

Those battles were followed by an intensive effort by the rebels to overrun the Elephant Pass military complex in December but the attempt failed after a series of strategic moves by the military. Barras said that when the fighting erupted on November 1 - while she was in the region - the ICRC's main concerns were to ensure that civilians were safe and wounded or arrested combatants were treated in accordance with international rules.

"Our first step was to intervene, and intervene quickly to ensure both sides treated combatants with respect," she said, in an interview with The Sunday Times last week.

On November 8, the ICRC issued a public appeal urging both the military and the LTTE to respect wounded combatants under the Geneva Convention. 

"At the beginning of that crisis, the attacks were on army camps and we wanted to ensure that army wounded were respected and those arrested or who surrendered were treated in a humanitarian way."

The fate of the civilian population was also of concern to Barras and her colleagues in the Wanni. For the ICRC and Wanni residents - many who live in rebel-controlled territory - this was the second crisis situation in 1999.

In June 25, 1999 the only land route to rebel territory in the north had been closed by the army, after it launched an offensive against the rebels. 

Food and medical supplies were in short supply.

The ICRC acted as a neutral mediator between both sides - the military and the rebels - in a bid to open a new route or the old one. Negotiations were tight, difficult and weary.

During that period, residents in rebel-held areas in the Wanni held demonstrations in front of the ICRC office at Mallavi urging it to do everything possible to open a route.

"There were demonstrations by farmers and traders. We explained our role, and that we had our own limitations. We said the land route could be opened only if there was agreement by both sides," Hadorn, the former ICRC representative, told The Sunday Times in an interview just before completing his Colombo assignment in September.

Finally a new route was opened only on August 9.

This time around - during the ICRC's second crisis situation in November - the issue of security was paramount, more than food, on the minds of civilians. "Fighting was going on all the time and security was their (residents') first priority before food," said Barras.

Before the fighting in the Wanni ended after six weeks, Barras had already moved out of the region, making use of an emergency route by the ICRC to transport the dead and evacuate patients. She moved out of the Wanni on November 6.

The ICRC had to reduce its activities in view of the conflict situation and didn't take the risk of undertaking its normal work during this period. Even while moving patients and other urgent material, ICRC officials asked for security guarantees from both sides.

One of the emergency measures maintained by the ICRC was the use of a boat from Mannar to a small fishing village on the west coast further north of Mannar.

"We did this trip three times over in transporting dead bodies of combatants and evacuating patients. I went out of the Wanni in the first of these transfers on November 6," Barras recalled.

The new ICRC representative, whose husband Pierre also works for ICRC Colombo in the protection unit, says that she has faced similar situations in her previous postings, which include Somalia.

"This happens all the time for ICRC workers in countries where these conflicts exist. I have gone through this personally where fighting erupts while we are at work. We try to take as many security measures as possible but there are always risks," she said.

Unlike in June-August 1999 when Wanni civilians were desperately short of food and medical supplies - although not close to near-starvation levels - as the opening of the land route was held up due to consensus on both sides, the opening of a route in November was much faster.

It took six weeks for the land route to be re-opened but this was not due to the absence of consent by the military or the rebels but because the ICRC was preoccupied with other work and "there was no way we could discuss this issue with the two sides".

"The process of reopening a land route was actually quite quick after we approached both sides and offered to act as a mediator to open a route. This process took just two weeks," she said.

Talking about her experience in Croatia, Barras says it was different as she was in that country at the end of the conflict. "It was unusual for me to work in a country in a post-conflict situation, dealing with the consequences of the conflict. But there were still a host of problems there," she noted.

In Angola, Barras worked at different times, during conflict situations and during a peace agreement. One of ICRC's main roles there was to ensure that food reached the people.

"What is interesting for me in Sri Lanka is that the ICRC is involved in all its possible activities in relation to conflict situations, whereas in countries like Angola it is more to do with food or detention," she said.

ICRC jobs

The ICRC is currently visiting 17 people in LTTE custody - 13 soldiers, two sailors and two civilians. Last year the ICRC helped hand over 55 bodies of soldiers to the army and 142 dead rebels to the LTTE.

It also helped facilitate the release of nine soldiers in rebel custody in November/December 1999.

Barras, who has worked for ICRC for 14 years, says the Sri Lankan conflict is, unfortunately, one of the more stable conflicts in the world and necessitates continuous ICRC help for victims of the war here.

In Sri Lanka, ICRC's role encompasses almost all its activities like protection, assistance to the civilian population and combatants and acting as a neutral intermediary. ICRC works in more than 50 countries with its longest involvement being in Israel in the occupied territories where the organization has worked for nearly 30 years. Sri Lanka's ICRC office has 50 expatriates and over 300 local staff.

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