On our News tab, Interloper pointed out a BBC article about Tamils who were evicted from budget hotels by police in Sri Lanka’s largest city, Colombo.
Police in Sri Lanka have forced hundreds of the minority Tamil community out of the capital Colombo for what they say are security reasons.
They launched overnight raids in Tamil areas of the city and forced guests staying in budget hotels onto buses.
Police said that Tamils who were in the capital “without valid reasons” were made to board buses bound for the north and east of the island.
Police said that the move was necessary amid fears of renewed civil war.
The raids were justified in the name of impeding the Tamil Tigers; they were also meant to protect.
They also said the measure was being taken for the safety of the Tamil community amid a rash of abductions across Colombo blamed on the rebels and the security forces.
How many of you believe this? I’m not judging, I’m asking.
A statement released by the government said that the evictions were made “without communal considerations”…
“There have been instances where some ‘lodgers’ have lived in the Colombo area for over six months without making any progress, on the pretext that someone has to obtain his or her identity card or passport,” the statement said.
“The resulting action by the police is required considering security demands such as the recent Tamil Tiger bomb explosions resulting in several innocent lives lost, and severe damage to property.
“Investigations have also confirmed that those responsible for these brutal killings have hatched their brutal plans and executed them from these lodgings,” the statement said.
It said that a total of 376 persons – 291 males and 85 females – have left in seven buses for destinations in the north and east.
Tigers have “no comment”, but mainstream Tamil leaders are disturbed by the move:
“This operation is a very bad example,” Tamil political leader Dharmalingam Sithadthan told the AFP news agency.
“It is OK for the Tamil Tigers to indulge in this sort of ethnic cleaning because they have no moral responsibility, but a government can’t behave like this,” he said.
Apparently, it’s an anti-loitering sort of measure:
Colombo Inspector General of police Rohan Abeywardene told Reuters that some people who had no valid reasons to be in Colombo were “just hanging around”.
“They have been requested to leave and told they had better get back to their own villages,” he said.
Those rounded up (and they don’t know where they are being taken, by the way) were typically from poor, rural areas who were looking for better employment opportunities.
Human Rights concerns? Here’s where my title came from:
“This is almost like a variation of ethnic cleansing,” Paikiasothy Saravanamuttu of the independent Centre for Policy Alternatives think-tank told Reuters.
“It is quite appalling.”
No I don’t think you should have.
I really hope that were I to move to parts of India, that my rights aren’t hindered b/c it’s not my supposed “homeland”.
I don’t think you have anything to worry about. For example, there are Punjabis who live in TN (and vice versa), and nobody seems to have a problem with that at all.
Do you think I should have deleted lion/Guru?
Nah.
This idea of homeland is absolutely not a solution to the issue at hand, and further is awful. I also wonder how you come up with your definitions. Punjab, for example, is made up of a huge mix of ethnicities that have mixed together to form a kind of common Punjabi culture. Shouldn’t we ask why Sri Lanka has not come together to form a common Sri Lankan identity, if we continue with your train of logic?
Do you think I should have deleted lion/Guru?
I don’t think so either; I think it’s fine b/c it shows a different point of view.
Not yet. Let’s see how things play out 🙂 We all make stupid, sweeping comments at times.
It’s also useful for showing that extremism fuels both sides of this conflict. Sometimes it seems like people don’t realize the extent of the governments wrongdoing or what motivates it.
Thanks, everyone!
muralimannered – I don’t know too much about the history in Sri Lanka. Is the discrimination that you say Tamils undergo in Sri Lanka, is this discrimination written in the Sri Lankan laws…say like South Africa or USA during their apartheid heydays?
Or is it salient discrimination but not actually part of the legal code?
This is not the correct analogy.I am living proof . Tamilian by birth and heritage, lived all my life in Maharashtra , lived and worked in Delhi and Gujarat.My home? I say Maharashtra and no-one – not even “true blood” Maharashtrians – has ever called me out on it.
Oh,yes,Punjabi by marriage 🙂
Guru @44:
Not sure if you know this, but
There are more Telugu speaking people in Chennia(capital of TN) than in Hyderabad There are more Kannada speaking people in Mumbai (capital of MH) than in Bangalore Three are more Punjabi speaking people in Delhi than in Amritsar There are more Malayalee speaking people in UAE than in Tiruvananthapuram There are more Gujarathis in Mumbai than in Ahmedabad
I’ll let you rethink how the concept of Homeland works in Indians’ minds…
M. Nam
There are more tamil speakers in Colombo and Kandy than in Jaffna,Trincomalai or Batticalo
lion and guru, you guys are asshats. Sorry. Feeding the trolls, I know … but I really have serious issue with those comments.
voiceinthehead (#3): yes, they do have to carry ID and it’s not just Tamils. See, it’s quite difficult to tell Tamil and Sinhalese apart by appearance (whatever the nationalists may say). Case in point, I’ve been addressed in Tamil by coppers at checkpoints often and er… I just know a couple of words, if that.
muralimannered (#46): I’ve never seen anyone hit the high points of what I’ve been thinking quite so succinctly. Bravo.
Well said. Why should buddhist monks agitate?. I’m a bit surprised.
President is against the move too!
After reading the comment #64 ,better to read this ,too.Feel better now?
Quote
The Sinhalas should have just respected the Tamil cultural identity, language, and political rights from the beginning, and they would have never had this problem on their hands. It just wasn’t worth it. And the Sinhala language and culture could have still been very well-promoted, and given plenty room to express itself. But it seems too late now to ever fix this problem. Very short-sighted on the Sinhalas’ part. Of course, this doesn’t take away from the horrible actions and attitudes of the LTTE, on so many levels.
i can’t beleive this. what a moronic decision.
muralimannered, your comments are appreciated. but how realistic is bilateral disarmament? and we would need a much better third party than Norway.
I’m not one to beat around the bush but the Sinhalese dominated government’s aim is to wipe the Tamils out of Sri Lanka. They tried in the early 50s with anti tamil riots, early 70s with policies to discriminate the Tamils aswell as trying to destroy the language and culture (I can’t remember when they exactly burned downed the Jaffna Library destroying ancient Tamil books & records), early 80s again with anti Tamil riots killing thousands, destroying property aswell as social structure, early 90s/and now with bombing of civilian settlements. Recently with abductions/ransom of wealthy Tamils from Colombo, closing of the main road to the north and east of the island preventing humanitarian aid reaching the area aswell as preventing civilians fleeing to the south due to aerial bombings…but leaving the ports and harbours in the north and east open so they can flee to Tamil Nadu, India.
Tamils are seen as invaders just like the Dutch, Portuguese and British, even though the Sinhalese arrived in Sri Lanka a few hundred years earlier from Orrissa (India). The aim is to wipe out all invaders from the island.
The Indian Tamil Labourers who were bought over during British rule to work the plantations were discriminated on by not allowing them to be citizens…in 1974 600,000 were sent back to India. Burghers who are descendents of European settlers, were made ‘redundant’ and left the island because of the Sinhala only act which came to power in the 70s and made Sinhala the official language of Sri Lanka…so if you didn’t speak Sinhala you were made useless. If you go to Melbourne or LA you will find large Burgher communities of Ceylonese origin there. Native Sri Lankan Tamils were next but they stood their ground and fought…must be the Chola in us!!!
As Lion said this is war, between two animals…the Lions and the Tigers!!!
This war has lasted over 1000 years in different forms and will never end…
I say split the island in two and if in 50 years when both parts have sorted out their issues…come together as one…only way to save lives. I think its called a Federal system or something!!
A documentary by the BBC explains everything about Sri lanka…its one of the best i’ve seen so far and it critises both sides…It was shot in 2002. Since then, in the period of 4 years 4000 people have been killed, hundreds abducted and over 1 million made refugees in their own country.
http://www.sl2uk.com/content/civilwar.shtml
i don’t know if someone answered Voiceinthehead’s earlier question (there are a lot of posts here and i didn’t get to read them all!) about whether Tamils in Sri Lanka must carry their national identity card or passport at all times. The answer is yes–pretty much anywhere you go–unless you’re a very well-off and are a well-known and trusted colomboite–Tamils do need to carry their some form of valid i.d. in case the police or military stop them for security reasons (which means practically everywhere, given the expanse of military checkpoints). This wasn’t the case during peacetime: during the 2002-05 ceasefire, Jaffna was opened up and even Sinhalese folks could cross territory that had been held by the LTTE, unharmed. During wartime, even back in 2001 on the other hand, Tamils from the Upcountry (so called “Estate Tamils” because they predominantly work/reside on the plantations or “Indian Tamils” even though they were “imported” as labor from India several generations before) were so frightened of the security forces near Kandy, Nuwara Eliya, CMB, and throughout the country–so much so that they would erase their pottu (bindi) or thiraneer (sacred ash) from their foreheads, to disguise their Tamilness. The security forces would even test them if they tried to speak to them in Sinhala–asking the Tamil passer-bys to pronounce the Sinhalese word for “trash bin”–because they could rarely pronounce it with Sinahlese accentation; it was a shibboleth that would give them away as Tamil.
on Diwali of 2000 there was a massacre of 27 Tamils (& 14 injured) who were being held in a “rehabilitation camp” in Bindunuwewa (in the UpCountry, sort of near Bandarawela). the Tamils being kept there were being “reintegrated into society”–some were working in the nearby town, and their only crime was not having a valid national identity card on them. only one of the detainees had strong links to the LTTE–he was being kept there temporarily (possibly as a “favor” by the police to the LTTE)–and was seen as a serious threat. Among the local Sinhalese villagers rumors started flying and a smear campaign got locals thinking that the camp was an LTTE camp. So, that night in October an angry (and unnecessarily frightened) mob attacked the camp, with flaming torches and knives, killing 27, and seriously injuring others–all of them Tamil.
now, it turns out that 2 or 3 of those many were Upcountry Tamils, from plantations. They were picked up simply because they weren’t carrying their national identity cards. In fact, they probably didn’t have national identity cards (NIC). Many others were also probably not involved in any LTTE activity. See, the paperwork necessary to obtain a NIC is typically in Sinhala & English. (Thanks to that damn 1956 “Sinhala only” language rule.) If a official form is in Tamil, it often is read & processed by a Sinhalese civil servant–so they usually screw up the NIC, rendering it invalid. Back in the 80s and 90s, when there were labor shortages, the plantation management could have been playing on this power that they had; due to their vested interests they may have intentionally not helped their workers to get NICs, so they would be too afraid to travel beyond the plantation to find work elsewhere. (this isn’t the case nowadays, the planters are generally quite helpful in this.)
this purging of poor Tamils who allegedly have “no business” in Colombo further keeps poor Tamils from getting any good urban jobs, and further entrenched in poverty. they’re being pushed back to work or be unemployed in their villages–or to take up necessary agricultural work which unfortunately “modern” sensibilities teach them that they should strive to get away from. if unemployed, and “idling” in their home villages, they’re then easy targets for LTTE recruitment. the sri lankan security state is about as ass-backward as that of the U.S. phooey.
the Sri Lankan government forces, and often, many civilians, don’t distinguish between the LTTE & ordinary Tamilians. between the LTTE propaganda & government propaganda, Sinhalese & Tamils who just want to live in peace simply can’t.
71. Thanks for the answer.
I’m sorry to have to say this but as a half-Sinhalese British woman, I really feel digusted by the Sri-Lankan government and their treatment of Tamil civilians. I understand the need to take out people who are going to bomb civilians, but like Hezbullah, it is completely understandable why Tamil civilians would supprt the LTTE and disregarding innocents who get go up in the cross-fire is just wrong.
The recent news in Colombo is disturbing. Accusing all Tamils of involvement in terrorist activity is yet another failure on the governet’s part. The police force in Sri-Lanka are horribly corrupt. Have you heard about the child prostition protection rackets around Negombo? Yes, Sri-Lanka is a sex-tourist’s/ paedophile’s paradise these days, thanks to corrupt police bosses who are cashing in on the industry sine 2001, and about half of these children are boys as young as six. I know this is off-topic, but I’m tired of my people running away our own social problems and making out that the Tamil civilians are the source of Sri-Lanka’s problems. The authorities are fully aware that perhaps over one third of tourists who visit Sri-Lanka (mostly Scandinavians and northern Europeans) are in fact visiting for to exploit young children, but do not want to tackle this rising social problem because of the money that tourism generates for the country. The situation is even worse than in Thailand, due to proprtion of children involved in the sex trade, bearing in mind Sri-Lanka’s population.
I’d also like to point out that it is not so unusual to find critical Sinhalese like myself and I praise this blog for allowing me to do that. The racism shown towards Tamils reveals deep-seated anxieties and issues with our heritage; the fact that European sex-tourists are encouraged into the country, shames me to say that we really haven’t recovered from the after-effects of European colonialism. I am considering exploring this in more detail (time allowing) and would be grateful if anyone else wanted to.
N.WIJ – Thanks so much for your statement; for me it is encouraging to hear this from someone of Sinhala descent
You are very welcome PS, sorry about the typos (posted cheekily during work)! It is a duty to speak out and I assure you that I’m not the only one who feels anger about the mistreatment of Sri-Lanka’s Tamils and how the law and order, generally, conduct themselves.