Sri Lanka “resettlement” claims slammed a “sham”
by T. Earakan
As Sri Lanka and even some United Nations press releases trumpet “resettlement” of Internally Displaced Tamils, there have been reports such as from The Washington Post that verify many civilians are being re-detained.
Emily Wax wrote on Nov11th in The Washington Post that, “many civilians have merely been shuffled from the large camps to smaller transit ones and are being held against their will. Others have been released, only to be taken from their homes days later with no indication of where they have gone”.
Particular concern being expressed in several quarters is that the Internally Displaced Persons are being forced to relocate away from their original homes and in the process being denied of their livelihood and dignity.
In the recent past several Tamil awareness rallies too decried the internment and the denial of childhood and livelihood of Tamils-Rally in New York in front of the UN to Unlock the concentration camps in Sri Lanka-On September 22
Today in a hard hitting interview with Colombo’s Weekend newspaper The Sunday Times, Tamil National Alliance Party Leader R. Sampanthan MP has slammed the government claims of “resettlement” are a “sham”.
The senior parliamentarian said: “In the name of settlement, the government simply takes the people out of the camps and abandons them without providing proper infrastructure facilities. They have no housing or a source of income. They do not have jobs as they cannot engage in fishing or farming. Many people have been sent to Batticaloa, Ampara, Trincomalee and Mannar, though they were originally living in the Wanni”.
Full Text of The Sunday Times interview:
You have expressed concern about the welfare of the internally displaced people. How do you see the resettlement plans going?
A: We cannot be satisfied by the manner in which the government is handling the IDP issue. In the name of settlement, the government simply takes the people out of the camps and abandons them without providing proper infrastructure facilities. They have no housing or a source of income. They do not have jobs as they cannot engage in fishing or farming. Many people have been sent to Batticaloa, Ampara, Trincomalee and Mannar, though they were originally living in the Wanni.
There are allegations that some IDPs who have been sent to their villages have not been properly compensated. Your comments?
A: Yes. Many of them are now living with relatives or friends. They have been given a meagre amount — Rs. 5,000 — to restart their lives. They are wondering what their future will be. Some families are shattered because they have not been reunited with other family members. They are desperately trying to locate their family members.
During this month’s debate in parliament to extend the state of emergency, you made allegations about state sponsored colonization programmes in the east. Can you elaborate on it?
A: This is a serious situation. I have reliable information that in the Trincomalee and Batticaloa districts, the government is bringing outsiders and settling them in villages. This was one of the main causes for the rise of Tamil militancy. Now that the LTTE is no more, such colonization programmes have returned. This may lead to another uprising.
Has your party identified the pressing issues the IDPs are facing and brought them to the notice of the international community in a bid to address them?
A: We have been meeting with the heads of diplomatic missions in Colombo regularly and keeping them informed about the problems the IDPs are facing. We even went to India and informed the Indian leaders about the situation of the displaced people. But more than the international community, it is the government’s responsibility to resettle the displaced people.
The war ended five months ago, but there has been no proposal of a political settlement. What is happening in this area?
A: The government apparently has a negative attitude towards devolution of power. The All Party Representative Committee too has failed to come up with suitable proposals. We are waiting for the government’s solution. We don’t know whether it has one.
President Mahinda Rajapaksa recently invited the TNA for talks. What was the outcome?
A: We had two meetings and informed him about our position. Particularly we spoke about the IDPs. Without sending these people back to their homes, I don’t think that any meaningful result could be achieved.
You have been discussing the possibility of forming a new alliance of Tamil parties. What is happening?
A: We have been meeting all the Tamil speaking parties. We want to bring them under one umbrella. We are trying to introduce a minimum workable solution. We believe if all Tamil parties unite for a common cause, we can win the rights of the Tamil people and protect our land rights.
Last week some of TNA local government members crossed over to the government side and there is speculation that two TNA Parliamentarians also are trying to join the government.
A: The TNA will soon take a decision about those members who have crossed over or who want to cross over. We will field new faces at the next general election.
PongulThambi said,
November 15, 2009 @ 2:10 pm
Um, the beginning of your article contradicts the second half. If the Washington Post claim is true then why does the TNA member say IDPs have been released from the camps into Batticola and Jaffna? I’m boggled by how you fail to stich your narrative together before starting to whine.
Devoneco said,
November 15, 2009 @ 7:16 pm
“Don’t deprive Tamils of Childhood and Livelihood”!!!!!!! Isn’t it ironic that it was the damned Tiger Terrorists who deprived the Tamil children of their livelihood by forcing them to join their ranks and take up weapons and face certain death while the terrorist leader’s children were pampered abroad and enjoying their livelihood? Cannot understand why no Tamil expresses this concern that was actually the curse of all the Tamil people in Sri Lanka.
seevali abeysekera - london said,
November 16, 2009 @ 8:45 pm
It is not the GoSL that deprived Tamils their childhood or livelyhood as your very emotive caption alleges – the message being sent to the diaspora and the wider world being the Tamils of SL are being imprisoned within barbed wire camps reminiscent of the camps in Bosnia or the third reich !
The people who most deprived the ordinary Tamil mother from seeing her children prosper and pursue normal lives were the very “savious” of the Tamil nation – the LTTE. It was Prabhakaren and his organisation that deprived the ordinary Tamil from leading a normal life. For three decades Tamil parents in the North and East were not able to have the same aspirations for their children as parents in the rest of SL had. All they could hope was for them to be trained in the art of war from a tender age and perhaps achieve “fame” through the act of blowing themselves up for the gratification of a leader who was leading them headlong towards a cataclysmic disaster.
That educated Tamils in the diaspora contributed towards this only highlights the fact that being educated and wealthy does not equate to wisdom !
Yes, the conditions in the IDP’s are very poor. If the diaspora however are truly interested in the welfare of those wretched villages who are interned, then accusing the GoSL of genocide is not the most effective way of helping them. Perhaps the funds that the diaspora so diligently sent the LTTE to buy wapons should now be chanelled into rebuilding the infrastructure in the Wanni and other areas so as to speed up the resettlement process.