The team expressed concern over the plight of the civilian population and the difficulties of students in the peninsula. There are only 862 teachers for 126,650 students. Schools have inadequate furniture and there is a lack of school equipment and school books. The Jaffna university is also facing shortage of experienced lecturers and equipment.
The World Bank team says that Jaffna hospitals suffer from shortage of medicines, medical equipment and doctors, particularly specialists. Basic needs are lacking in refugee camps. There is no security for young women. Fishermen have been badly affected by security force restrictions on fishing. Local people in Jaffna’s Neduntivu Island, are banned from fishing, but Indian fishermen freely operate in the area.
The World Bank team also said that the roles of 1,500 youths recruited by the Northern Development Ministry and 440 officers of the government poverty alleviation programme Samurthi were unclear. The Bank declared that a land route must be opened to the Jaffna peninsula, if the problems of ordinary people are to be solved. The Sri Lankan Army has failed in its attempts to open a land route to Jaffna through the region controlled by the LTTE in the Vanni.
In early September, the World Bank announced that it will fund a landmine clearance programmes in the northern war zone. According to the Bank, landmine casualties in Sri Lanka are the third highest in the world after Cambodia and Afghanistan. Six members of a family travelling in an auto-rickshaw were killed at Kaddaipirai in Jaffna by a landmine on 24 September. The driver died later in the Jaffna hospital.
Human remains were discovered near the Jaffna hospital in early September. Jaffna magistrate RT Vignarajah inspected the remains on 12 September and ordered examination by forensic experts from Colombo. Over 600 Tamils disappeared after the Army capture of Jaffna in 1995. Three police investigations have not revealed the fate of the disappeared. A fourth police team is currently making enquiries from relatives in Jaffna.
Sixteen skeletal remains were discovered in Chemmani in 1999, following information provided by soldier Somaratne Rajapakse, who had been sentenced to death in the Krishanthy Kumarasamy rape and murder case. He said that he was involved in the disposal of bodies of civilians murdered by the military. The police say DNA tests on the remains have not been completed. Local people are concerned over delays in the investigation and have expressed suspicion of an intended cover-up.