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SRI LANKA: Gov’t to Resettle Displaced Tamils Ahead of Monsoon
By Feizal Samath
COLOMBO, Sep 12 (IPS) - The Sri Lankan government, accused of keeping the refugees who fled fighting
between the military and Tamil rebels against their will, is preparing to resettle
these minority civilians ahead of next month’s monsoon period, officials from
non-government agencies said Friday.
"We have been told that a large number (of Tamil civilians) would be released
or returned to their homes by October 15 before the monsoon season," said
Jeevan Thiagarajah, executive director of the Colombo-based Consortium of
Humanitarian Agencies (CHA), an umbrella group of humanitarian agencies
who are working in the camps.
More than 250,000 internally displaced people (IDP) have been languishing in
IDP camps in the northern town of Vavuinya since fleeing fighting between
government troops and rebels from the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam
(LTTE) group earlier this year.
The military smashed through strong rebel defences and killed the group’s
elusive leader Velupillai Prabhakaran in May, ending more than 20 years of
conflict and destruction during the rebel campaign to carve out an
independent homeland for Sri Lanka ’s 14 percent minority Tamil population
in the country’s north-east region.
Some 4.6 percent Tamils of Indian origin brought by the British to work on
tea and rubber plantations – where they live to this day – during colonial rule
do not support the separatist cause and prefer to maintain their own identity.
They still live in these plantations, and currently number around 500,000.
The government has repeatedly denied allegations from human rights groups
and western states of forcibly keeping refugees in the camps for more than
four months since the war ended, saying mines – laid by the LTTE – have to
be cleared and damaged housing restored before the refugees can return to
their homes. The government also said there are hundreds of suspected LTTE
cadres in the camps, and they have to be filtered out before allowing camp
residents to be freed.
On Thursday, the Ministry of Resettlement and Disaster Relief Services
announced that camp residents would be released to relatives who can
provide shelter for these people. The Ministry, which is the main government
agency involved in caring for the displaced, said in a public statement that all
IDP-related details should be provided to the District Secretary, the highest
government official in a region, in the northeast districts where the displaced
come from, for a quick release of the affected civilians.
The government had previously allowed those over 60 years old, numbering a
few hundreds, to leave the camps and stay in the homes of their relatives.
Several NGOs and other organisations, including civic and religious groups,
have been helping out at the camps where facilities are poor, particularly
where sanitation, accommodation and water needs are concerned. Journalists
have been barred from visiting the camps.
"I cried when I walked into a camp which houses more than 200,000 people,"
said an elderly social worker, who returned to Colombo from one such camp
visit, on Wednesday.
While conceding that the government has a tough chore in making the
refugees as comfortable as possible, the female worker – who declined to be
named – told IPS that she was "saddened" by the hardships faced by the
women and children. "We took clothes and milk powder, and they kept on
pleading with us to ask the authorities to release them," she said.
"When we told them that their former homes have mines which have to be
removed, they said they are prepared to go anywhere where they can be free,"
she added.
Among the problems faced by the women are the lack of privacy in bathing
areas outside tents (in which the families live) and areas to dispose of sanitary
towels.
"Because water is a problem – as it has to be brought from long distances –
the women bathe every four days, and this is an issue during their monthly
periods," she said.
On Wednesday, Sri Lankan Opposition Leader Ranil Wickremasinghe accused
the government of violating the law and the country’s Constitution by holding
the displaced people against their will.
Speaking in Parliament, Wickremasinghe, whose United National Party, the
main opposition party controlled by majority Sinhalese, has repeatedly urged
the government to release the refugees as early as possible, said no law in
the country allows the government to detain people in camps without a
detention order.
"It is clear that these citizens are not being held in government camps under
any law. This is illegal. We have a government that is acting outside the law
and violating the Constitution," he told Parliament. "We do not accept the
argument that the government is acting in the interest of displaced people."
He added that all the displaced people must be free to leave if they have
alternate accommodations.
Tamil National Alliance leader in Parliament, Rajavarothiam Sampanthan, had
told the legislature that the government did not have the resources to resettle
the IDPs expeditiously, as only 8.5 percent of them had been resettled after
three months since the fighting ended in May.
"The government made a commitment (earlier this year) to India, the United
Nations and the international community that the resettlement of IDPs would
be 80 percent complete within 180 days (from May)," said Sampanthan,
whose party represents the minority Tamils.
In Jaffna, the capital of the northern province of Sri Lanka, relatives of the
displaced persons were waiting patiently for their return. "One of my relatives
left for Vavuniya on Monday after learning that the displaced were being
released to their relatives," said a journalist by telephone from this northern
town.
According to government figures, close to 50,000 refugees have relatives in
Jaffna. CHA’s Thiagarajah said there are 2,880 pregnant mothers, 14,000
differently-abled persons and 600 orphans whom the government said would
be released or relocated quickly.
The National Peace Council, which has been working on a peaceful resolution
of the ethnic conflict which has killed thousands of people since the war
broke out in 1983, welcomed the government decision to release the
displaced civilians to relatives willing to house them.
But as a precondition to release, said the Council, those wishing to leave the
camps will go through a rigorous process of screening and identification,
which it urged should be conducted speedily and transparently.
(END/2009)
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