Sri Lankan authorities have quoted security as the reason for the additional restrictions and as a result ICRC has to halt its activities. The International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) told Al Jazeera on Wednesday, a day after Sri Lanka's government declared victory over the Tamil Tigers that "additional restrictions" meant it had no choice but to halt its activities. This means even after declaring that the war is over, Sri Lanka is trying to use food and medicine as weapons to subjugate the Tamil people.

AFTA appreciates the call by rights groups, for Sri Lanka to release the three Tamil doctors detained after government forces overran the LTTE's last outpost in the country's northeast. During the final stages of the conflict, journalists were prevented from entering the war zone and the international media came to rely on the reports from Drs Thurairaja Varatharajah, Thangamuttu Sathyamoorthi and V Shanmugarajah, three Tamil doctors working in the war zone.

These men were arrested on accusations that they gave false information about the number of casualties to the media. Police have said that they can be held for up to 90 days. According to Yolanda Foster, a Sri Lanka expert at the human rights organisation Amnesty International, "Two of the doctors are now being held in the terrorist investigation division in Colombo but no formal detention order has yet been issued”. That's a key concern for AFTA because without a formal order, the relatives of the doctors do not know where they are. If they are not to be charged formally then they should be released immediately. The third doctor is believed to be detained in
hospital after being injured while escaping fighting.

In regards to the plight of the Tamil civilians, in March 2009, 330,000 displaced persons were holed up in the “no-fire zone”. Now the Sri Lankan authorities claim that there are 280,000 people in the internment camps. AFTA is deeply concerned about the 50,000 people who are unaccounted for. Reports from the area indicate that the security forces are busy destroying evidence of all the atrocities committed by them on the civilians and the combatants using heavy weapons including phosphorous and cluster munitions.

Therefore AFTA appeals to the international community (IC) and the Australian Government to exert diplomatic pressure on Sri Lanka or by any other means, to gain immediate access for ICRC, UN agencies and other NGOs to the IDP camps for them to offer emergency relief.  AFTA also appeals to the IC and the Australian Government to apply pressure on Sri Lanka to release immediately the three doctors who are being detained and interrogated by the Criminal Investigation Department. AFTA also appeals to the IC and the Australian Government to ensure that Sri Lanka abides by International law governing armed conflicts and let ICRC and
UN agencies access the former “no-fire zone” and collect all available evidence of “war crimes”
committed by the Sri Lankan security forces.

AFTA appeals to the media to help expose the heinous crimes committed against humanity inform the public about these unscrupulous activities of the Sri Lankan government and save the Tamils from further hardship.

Media Enquiries:
Sydney: Dr. Victor Rajakulendran 0402 484 209
Melbourne: Mr. Siva Sivakumar 0404 894 591
Canberra: Dr. Raga Ragavan 0402 387 920
Auckland: Dr. Siva Vasanthan 021 023 51 007
Wellington: Mr. Mani Maniparathy 027 448 0340