| Published on 09-06-2007 In World |
| Viewed 1637 times | Written by R. Bhagwan Singh |
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It is now loud and clear that the Tamils in Sri Lanka do not belong to that Island Nation and they must seek their own land, Eelam. The purge of the Tamils from several lodges of Colombo on June 7 has established that. This unprecedented ethnic cleansing, under the pretext of combating the Tiger terror that scored a few hits in recent months in and around the Lankan Capital, is the most reprehensible chapter in the long string of human rights violations by the Mahinda Rajapaksa Government against the minority Tamils.
Fortunately, the Supreme Court of Sri Lanka stopped the Tamil expulsions the following day, albeit temporarily.
In pre-dawn raids on lodges in the Tamil-dominated areas, the police on June 7 herded about 500 Tamils onto buses and trucks for 'simply aiding them return to their hometowns since they had expressed desire to get back when their lodges were checked out.'
Eyewitnesses have said these hapless people were forced to leave and that included even those who had come to Colombo seeking medical treatment. There were dozens of women and children waiting for their visas and air-tickets to join families settled abroad. And there were young men and women seeking livelihood since all economic activities have grounded in the North-East and jobs were available only in Colombo, barring enrolment with the Tigers.
While the Ministry of Defence has placed the number of these 'willing' evacuees at 376, the actual figure is said to be over 500, as many Tamils are reportedly detained at the Pettah police station for lack of transport.
It was heart wrenching seeing all those wrinkled old men, confused children and shocked women clutching their few belongings, hoisted on to trucks and bundled into buses to be driven back into the conflict zone. It became clear now that the government, after all, has acknowledged that the Tamils do have their homeland in North-East Lanka, to which they must return for shelter.
Minister Keheliya Rambukwelle, spokesman for the government, told the Sri Lankan Parliament that Tamils from Colombo lodges had "voluntarily come forward" to be sent out and that the government was transporting them "free of charge."
The real motive was bared at his press conference, where he said the government agencies had found that 90 per cent of the recent terrorist incidents were hatched in these lodges. The Inspector General of Police has instructed the lodge-owners not to accommodate Tamils from the North- East.
All of this can only mean that the Rajapaksa Government considers all Tamils in Colombo, including children and their mothers, as potential threat to national security. Their arbitrary expulsion, even viewed in the backdrop of the terror strikes by the Tigers, defeats the basic Constitutional guarantee that people have the right to choose their own residence and enjoy freedom of movement.
Rights organisations have called this Tamil purge "a disgrace to humanity". The Colombo-based 'Free Media Movement' has warned that this 'ethnic cleansing' could only cement the perception within the Tamil community that this government is 'inimical to the fulfillment of Tamil aspirations.' The National Peace Council has expressed serious concern over the fate of an estimated 20,000 Tamil civilians who are residing in Colombo lodges and who may be subjected to the same fate.
Several Lankan watchers have expressed dismay at the turn of events in the battle-ravaged country. They argue that such forced expulsion of hundreds of Tamils from Colombo under the pretext of flushing out the hidden Tiger assassins, is similar to the government forces indulging in carpet-bombing of the North-East terrain just to silence some Tiger artillery unit.
Amid complaints that the other countries, particularly the West, have remained unconcerned about the increasing human rights violations in Sri Lanka, the U.S. Embassy in Colombo has come out with a media statement cautioning that the Tamil purge in Colombo violated the country's Constitutional guarantee that all citizens have the right to freedom of movement and choice of residence within Sri Lanka.
While it understood and supported Sri Lanka's obligation to defend itself against terrorism, said the U. S. statement, the Colombo purge " can only widen the ethnic divide at a time when important efforts are underway to reach a national consensus to end Sri Lanka's nearly quarter-century old conflict."
While the Colombo purge of Tamils led to widespread condemnation in and outside Sri Lanka, the Island's Supreme Court ordered an interim injunction halting the police action. Accepting a fundamental rights application filed by the Centre for Policy Alternatives (CPA) against the expulsion of Tamil civilians from Colombo, Justice Nimal Gamini Amaratunge spoke for the three-member Bench to declare that the court " has reason to intervene in this affair as it has violated the fundamental rights of citizens."
With the Tamils seeing this purge as the most sinister State act since the anti-Tamil pogrom of 1983 and President Rajapaska not appearing concerned about the dangers in alienating the Tamils, it now seems surer that the little island country is tumbling towards a fracture. The President is still bent on his dangerous strategy, which is to weaken the LTTE in battle and then try to ram in his political package down the throats of the dispirited Tamils. In the pursuit of his goal, he is all set to win the Eelam war for Velupillai Prabhakaran. |
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