Sri Lanka fell silent to remember its 31,000 dead on the second anniversary of the Asian tsunami, with the United Nations criticising the rehabilitation efforts hindered by the renewed conflict.

The island, which received huge amounts of money for reconstruction, has failed to complete much of the rebuilding, with officials admitting that only about 56 per cent of the work has been finished.

A family in Mullaitivu mourns victims of the 2004 tsunami. Photo TamilNet

President Mahinda Rajapaksa admitted last year that the country had failed to do enough to help the survivors and thousands still live in "tent villages" along the coast.

Sri Lanka, one of the worst-hit countries, attracted US$ 3.2 billion in foreign aid pledges, but the state auditor general in September 2005 noted that out of the US$ 1.16 billion, only 13.5 per cent had actually been spent.

Moreover, most of these reconstruction efforts have been directed to the Sinhala south.

Almost 80% of people displaced in the Northeast by the December 2004 tsunami have not been resettled or have been driven out again by Sri Lankan military action, the Tamil Rehabilitation Organisation (TRO) said this week.

The TRO blamed several key factors of the slower implementation of tsunami recovery activities in the Northeast compared to the rapid recovery that is seen in the south of Sri Lanka.

These included the disproportionate allocation of governmental resources to the Northeast, Colombo’s rejection of a landmark aid sharing and management structure (P-TOMS), the centralization of bureaucracy and decision making in Colombo and the government’s slower rate of fund disbursement tsunami affected people in the NorthEast.

Furthermore, with fewer international NGOs (per capita) working in the Northeast compared to the south, less funds and other resources (per capita) were available in the NorthEast, TRO said.

“The difficulties that NGOs have in working in the Northeast due to government restrictions, regulations and harassment [were another factor],” TRO said.

The TRO’s protest comes as both outgoing UN Secretary General Kofi Annan and former US President Bill Clinton, Annan’s special envoy for tsunami recovery, singled out Sri Lanka for criticism.

Mr. Annan said the renewed conflict between the Sri Lankan government and Tamil Tigers was making the reconstruction effort "even more difficult".

Both Annan and Clinton said that the tsunami had produced an impetus for peace in Aceh, Indonesia.

"Alas, in Sri Lanka that spirit has not been sustained. Instead, the spiral of tension and open conflict, which had wrought so much misery and destruction over the years, has resumed," Annan said.

“Tragically, the tsunami has not had a similar impact on reconciliation in Sri Lanka, where the recovery will be continue to be hampered until the parties resume a serious dialogue and reestablish the cease-fire,” Clinton said.

Simmering violence between Sri Lanka Army-backed paramilitaries and the LTTE exploded into direct confrontations between the military and the Tigers in the middle of 2006.

In April the military began large scale bombardments of LTTE-controlled areas, after a suicide bomber wounded the Army chief.

Over 200,000 people, mainly Tamils, have been displaced by repeated military operations and bombardments since then. Hundreds of civilians have been killed and many more wounded.

"I am deeply disheartened by this turn of events. Let me remind all parties of their obligation to respect human rights and international law, and particularly to protect and allow access to the civilian population," Annan said.

Even the TRO’s tsunami related projects are on hold due to the prevailing “security situation” and the Central Bank’s freezing of the TRO’s bank accounts for six months from August for ‘investigations.’

Approximately US$ 800,000 was in ‘project specific’ accounts at the time of freezing, 80% of which come from international NGOs, the UN, the government itself, ADB, World Bank, and various other multi-lateral and bi-lateral donors, TRO said.

Meanwhile in a statement issued Tuesday this week to mark the second anniversary of the devastating tsunami, the LTTE condemned the Sri Lankan government’s campaign against the Tamils.

The tsunami had left “deep scars on the Tamil psyche,” the statement said. “In the early hours that day, within a few seconds, in excess of 17,000 Tamils died. Many more thousands were injured. 344,000 people became refugees having lost their homes. Tamil cities and villages were razed to the ground.”

“Ten countries in the Indian ocean faced similar devastation. … The tsunami did not discriminate between ethnicity, religion or language.”

“The devastating tsunami also brought out, in an unprecedented manner, the concern of the humanity. As the media took the news of the devastation to all corners of the world, the tragedy shook the conscience of fellow humans all around the world.”

Humanitarian agencies and many governments gathered with enormous sums of money to assist. “Sri Lanka had a unique place in their plans; The international community planned to use the opportunity to also create goodwill between the divided ethnic groups.”

“[But] the sunami that shook the conscience of humanity failed to wake the conscience of the Sinhala government immersed in the Sinhala Buddhist hegemonic philosophy.”

“This government treated the tsunami as a welcome means of destroying the Tamil people,” the LTTE said.

Instead of seeing the suffering of the Tamil people, the government “imagined and celebrated that the Tamil leadership and the naval wing of the Tamil force lay destroyed by the tsunami.”

The Sri Lankan media was totally occupied with reports of this nature, the statement pointed out.

The Sri Lankan government, “ignoring the fact that two thirds of those affected in the island were from the Tamil homeland, channelled all international tsunami aid to the Sinhala areas. It used the volunteers and the security forces that came to assist from several countries to rebuild the Sinhala areas.”

“The responsibility of caring for the devastated Tamil people fell on the shoulders of the LTTE. It is well known to the world that the recovery work in the Tamil homeland was exemplary. The structures put in place by the LTTE for tsunami reconstruction was praised world wide.”

“The assistance from their Tamil brethren living around the world went a long way to help the affected Tamil people. Many international humanitarian agencies also came forward to channel their assistance through the structures put in place by the LTTE. The Government of Italy also gave its assistance directly to the LTTE.”

“All of this assistance went a long way to alleviate the misery of the Tamil people.”

“[But] not a drop of the international assistance given to the Government of Sri Lanka reached the Tamil homeland.”

Instead, “relief convoys sent from the northern parts of the Tamil homeland to the eastern parts of Tamil homeland of Trincomalee, Batticaloa, and Amparai, were stopped and redirected to the Sinhala areas by the Sri Lankan military and [Sinhala nationalists].”

The international community is well aware of the government’s conduct, the LTTE said, pointing to how Mr. Annan and Mr. Clinton were both denied access to the northern areas devastated by the tsunami.

Referring to the PTOMS, the LTTE said “[we] came forward to create a joint structure with the Government of Sri Lanka to implement reconstruction projects with international aid and facilitation. This too was thrown to the dustbin by the Government even though this joint structure was promoted by the international community.”

Even now, assistance to the Tamil people devastated by the tsunami has not progressed beyond the temporary shelter phase, the LTTE said.

Instead the government has begun to openly wage another war on a people who have been devastated by decades of war and the tsunami, the statement said.

Singling out the Vaharai region, which is being bombarded and blockaded by Sri Lankan security forces, the LTTE said: “while tsunami affected Sinhala people are resettling in new homes, the worst affected Tamils are being chased even from their temporary shelters.”

On Tuesday, as tsunami anniversary memorial prayers were being held in Vaharai, Sri Lanka’s military launched a sustained bombardment.

Sri Lanka Airforce (SLAF) Kfir fighter jets bombed Kathiraveli and Palchenai residential areas while artillery and rocket fire was directed from Sri Lanka Army camps in Mankerny, Kadjuwathe.