26th June 2007
Dear Sir/Madam

Sinister Developments in Sri Lanka

We would like to bring to your attention a very sinister development in social and political environment in Sri Lanka. In essence it is a directive from the Sri Lankan government that the Tamil people of Sri Lanka are not allowed to stay in the capital Colombo unless they have a “valid reason”. As we will explain below, this development implies a significant deterioration in the standing of the Tamils as equal citizens in Sri Lanka.

As reported by Reuters on 1st June 2007: ethnic minority Tamils staying in the capital Colombo “without a valid reason” are being sent back to their villages in a bid to stamp out rebel attacks, according to Sri Lanka's police chief. “Because there is no a special label to identify an LTTE terrorist and a civilian, we took the decision to send them back to their villages after they finished their work here in Colombo,” Inspector General of Police Victor Perera told a news conference.

“Some people who have arrived in Colombo do not have a valid reason to stay,” he added. “Anybody can come to Colombo, there is no restriction. But they can't stay loitering in Colombo. We have decided to provide transport facilities for them to go back to their own villages.”

As part of this process, Tamil owners of 68 lodges in Pettah (Peaddai) Police Division in Colombo have been instructed by the Police Officer in Charge of Pettah to immediately expel around 5000 Tamil tenants from Northeast and Upcountry to their “native places”, otherwise the military will be deployed to forcefully transport the tenants. Chief Inspector Jayaratne summoned the owners of the lodges on short notice to convey the warning, lodge owners told the media. Tamils who come to Colombo from Northeast stay in lodges if they have nowhere else to stay. People come for reasons such as medical treatment or to seek employment.

On 7th June, the police followed up on their threat and forcefully loaded approximately 500 civilians, including the sick, children and brides waiting to be married into buses and drove them to the northern town of Vavuniya, approximately 200 km away.

The eviction of Tamils from Colombo drew condemnations from many quarters in Sri Lanka as well as from governments around the world. The Sri Lankan parliament was adjourned after Tamil parliamentarians demanded a debate. The chief government whip Jeyaraj Fernandopulle refused the debate. The Tamil Member of parliament, S. Kajendran, tore up a copy of the Sri Lankan constitution in protest.

In the same session of parliament, the leader of the opposition and former Prime Minister Ranil Wickramasinghe, compared the eviction of Tamils to the treatment of Jews in Nazi Germany and the black people in apartheid South Africa. A more contemporary parallel might be the eviction white farmers from Zimbabwe by the Mugabe regime.

The Supreme Court of Sri Lanka made an "interim order" directing the respondents not to take any steps to evacuate Tamil persons from Colombo or to prevent Tamil persons from entering and/or staying in any part of Colombo until the hearing and final determination of the application. But in the current lawless environment in Sri Lanka the court order is not likely to give a sense security for the Tamils nor prevent the out of control military, police and their proxies in repeating the same.

There are many other instances where Tamil civilians, and those that try and help them, come under severe attack. This includes the intimidation and murder of Tamil NGO workers, media, academics, students, parliamentarians, as well as the bombing and massacre of refuges and orphans. All these acts are carried out by the Sri Lankan armed forces and their proxies.

There is no question that the people and government of Sri Lanka are primarily responsible for their own affairs. However, the international community has contributed to this decaying situation by ignoring, or at times even doubting, the victims.

An example is the cutting off of the main artery route to Jaffna, the northern city of the Tamils, since August 2006. The population there is slowly starving without supplies which are usually transported by road. Another example is the war to retake East, which has generated more than 700,000 internally displaced people. Even the World Food Programme is calling it quits, saying they could not cope. Every morning for the last 18 months or more the bodies of civilians are found dumped on roadsides.

For many of the blacks of apartheid South Africa and Jews of Nazi Germany it could be argued that the international community did not respond fast enough. What is happening in Sri Lanka is no different and it has all the same hallmarks: ghettos in Jaffna, arbitrary arrests and incarceration, aerial bombing of civilians, economic blockade of populations, disabling mobile and land telephone networks, prevention of fishing communities taking to sea and no judicial remit for any of the affected.

It is time for international community to change its stand on Sri Lanka. When the current Zimbabwe regime evicted the white farmers from their properties the New Zealand government, along with many others, responded by severely curtailing diplomatic links.

In a similar vein, does New Zealand want to have trade and sporting contacts with this regime in Sri Lanka? Does New Zealand want to be a silent onlooker to this genocide of Tamils? Some might argue about the effectiveness of such sanctions. The best people to ask regarding this question are the Tamils living in Sri Lanka.

ENDS

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