Inhuman Treatment of Eelam Tamils
Inhuman Treatment of Eelam Tamils : Soon it should come to an end
The unethical and cruel military
operations of the majoritarian racist
regime of Sri Lanka against the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam came to an end on 19th May 2009. Two days after, the President of the island country, Mahinda Rajapaksa announced a 180 day resettlement plan. Twenty parties, including the Tamil National Alliance, participated on July 2 in the first meeting of the newly constituted All Party Committee on Development and Reconciliation, and they assured of their cooperation and support to the President’s plan. Inspite of the announcement and the assurances there are no signs of the resettlement of close to 300,000 internally displaced persons affected by the Civil War, now staying in about thirty make-shift camps in and around Vovuniya and Chettikulam area.
Since the assurance was given by the Lankan President, practically nothing substantial has been done by the government to free the Tamil civilians trapped in crowded camps that lack the supply of essential needs like water and medicine, inspite of over one billion dollar international aid, including India’s relief package of Rs.500 crores and the separate contribution of Rs. 25 crores by the Tamil Nadu Government.
As a proof that the government was serious about fulfilling the promise of resettling and rehabilitating the internal refugees, it announced on 11th September it had released 9,920 people and sent them to their homes in the country’s east and north. But Mavai Senathiraja, a Parliamentarian from the Tamil National Alliance, representing Eelam Tamils said on 17 September that hundreds of Tamil war refugees whom the Sri Lankan government claimed it had released from military-run camps were simply moved to other detention centres. He also pointed out that thousands of others who were promised freedom remain in the camps. In this context, we want the international community to note that all the Sinhala chauvinist Sri Lankan governments since 1957 have been known for their breaking the promises given to the Tamils of the island nation.
A top UN official, who toured camps in the north on 17th September, urged the quick release of minority ethnic Tamils forced from their homes by the Civil War. Human rights advocates have called on Sri Lanka to immediately release all the civilians held in the camps, and have warned that monsoon rains due to start next month could create public health crisis in the crowded camps devoid of any sanitary facilities.
The government refuses to open the gates of the camps having steel wire enclosures, and says it will resettle 80 per cent of the displaced by the end of the year, after land mines are cleared from the villages. But the snail’s space at which the progress of mine clearing operation takes place shows that the authorities are not as usual, earnest in their commitment to safeguard the welfare and just rights of the minority Tamil nationality.
There are more than 50,000 children, about 1,000 of them orphaned by the war, and nearly 4,000 maimed men and women. Their present sufferings, and the horrible miseries they will be subjected to when the monsoon rains begin are not matters of concern to the chauvinist Sinhala rulers.
On 31st August, the Colombo high court sentenced senior Sri Lankan Journalist and Columnist J.S.Tissainayagam to 20 years rigorous imprisonment under the Prevention of Terrorism Act. He was an ethnic Tamil who wrote in English. The International Federation of Journalists (IFJ) described the sentence as “brutal and inhuman”, and accused Sri Lanka of misusing anti-terror laws to silence peaceful critics. In Sri Lanka at least eight journalists have been killed since 2007. Others have been beaten, harassed, detained and threatened with death. Many journalists, especially Tamils, have fled the country before or after the end of the war against the LTTE, fearing persecution for criticising the war. The attitude of intolerance practised by Lankan Administration and judiciary towards journalists shows that they are more interested in silencing the voices raised to protect the just demands of the minority Tamils than in protecting their life, liberty and property.
It is under these dire and tragic circumstances that the Tamil Nadu Chief Minister, Kalaignar M.Karunanidhi has taken the initiative to ameliorate the dangerous and deteriorating conditions in which the displaced Tamil civilians live, by urging the Government of India to take necessary measures to make the Lankan government to realise its responsibility. A delegation of MPs of Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam, Indian National Congress and Viduthalai Chiruthaigal Katchi met the Prime Minister, Dr. Manmohan Singh and the UPA Chairperson and Congress President Tmt. Sonia Gandhi, and put forward their demands in the form of a memorandum : The Sri Lankan government should expedite the resettlement of 2. 6 lakh people living in make-shift camps without any further loss of time, to get back Katchatheevu and the adjacent seas at least on “lease in perpetuity” basis, so as to enable Indian fishermen to go fishing without being targeted by the Sri Lankan navy. Referring to the sub-human existence of internally displaced tamils, the delegation stated: “We cannot completely close our eyes and shy away from projecting the gross human rights violation and gruelling experience of the displaced Tamil Civilians.”
We demand speedy steps to be taken to put an end to the sorrows and sufferings of our Tamil brethren in Sri Lanka.
