RIGHTS-SRI LANKA: Tamils Flee Harassment in Colombo

By Feizal Samath Reprint | | Print |

Feizal Samath

COLOMBO, Jan 6 1998 (IPS) - Fearing the midnight knock, ethnic Tamils are fleeing the Sri Lankan capital to Western countries — an exodus that defies immigration laws.

“At least 200 to 300 people, including families, go west each month and about 90 percent through illegal ways,” said noted political commentator Sivaram.

With Western governments tightening immigration procedures, desperate immigrants even put their lives at risk. Recently 15 Tamil immigrants were discovered trying to sneak into Britain on the roof of a truck carrying frozen potato chips from France.

British Home Office junior minister Mike O’Brien was quoted in newspapers there saying the refugees could easily have met an icy death and were lucky to be alive.

But there is no guarantee that Colombo is any safer for the island’s minority community. “It is a disadvantage to be Tamil nowadays. You are in instant target for harassment by security authorities,” Sivaram said.

“We are treated like second-class citizens in our own country,” says Maheshwary Velautham, a Tamil lawyer and secretary of the Forum for Human Dignity.

“In Colombo, young Tamils are picked up from cinemas, hostels and other places and kept in local police stations until they are cleared,” says Velautham who also runs a free legal service for hapless Tamils.

“No explanation is given for taking them in. The government thinks all Tamils are Tigers. This attitude hardens the attitude of the Tamils. We are helpless. Nobody fights for our rights,” Velautham said.

The Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam, commonly referred to as Tigers, have been waging a 14-year battle against government troops in a bid to establish a separate homeland in the north and east, claiming discrimination by majority Sinhalese who account for 70 percent of the population of Sri Lanka.

In recent months, the rebels have stepped up a bombing campaign in the capital which has targeted the country’s Central Bank, the World Trade Centre and a couple of posh hotels. The attacks have led to intensified searches and raids on Tamil residences.

“When these searches take place, it hurts the people and frightens them … not knowing what to expect from the soldiers or police. The neighbours also begin to think they may be connected with the Tigers,” says one respected Tamil, who is a university professor.

Nor are people’s personal belongings spared in the searches. The professor said his nephew lost some gold when soldiers searched his home.

But things can be far rougher for Tamils visiting the Sri Lankan capital, who must carry a police permit to enter the city and can look forward to a thorough frisking at security checkpoints.

Once in the city, Tamils checking into hotels and lodges still risk arrest or worse. Recently a Tamil woman who works for the government in the north was arrested in a small hotel when it was raided.

The woman was taken away on charges of prostitution and dumped in jail along with other prostitutes. She was even ordered to undergo checks for HIV/AIDS and other venereal diseases.

A top Tamil government official was picked up from a Colombo hospital where his wife was undergoing eye surgery. While he and a maid were taken away for questioning immediately, the security forces arrested the wife the day after she was operated on.

The frequency of such arrests has increased since Tamil rebels raised the level of attacks in the capital and in other regions. In addition to the harassment, more than 600 Tamils have also disappeared in the northern region between June and August 1996 during a government crackdown.

Last week, President Chandrika Bandaranaike Kumaratunga promised at a meeting with parents and wives of missing persons that she would appoint a commission of inquiry to probe the disappearances and that its report would be submitted within six months.

“The President said she had complaints of 854 people missing of which 150 had been traced. Of this, 26 had been released and another nine confirmed dead. The fate of the others was not known,” said Velautham who was present at the meeting requested by rebel-turned-parliamentarian Douglas Devananda.

Parents or wives of missing persons related how their sons or husbands were taken away by the army in Jaffna and identified some officers as being behind the disappearances.

“The President expressed surprise that some Tamils are tortured while in custody in Colombo. She said some level of harassment at the checkpoints is unavoidable in view of Tamil rebels sneaking into the capital,” Velautham said.

Velautham and other human rights activists say government authorities see a rebel hiding behind every Tamil resident. “Go after the Tigers … we have no objection to that. But don’t harass innocent people,” she said.

The problem is compounded by the presence in the quieter neighbourhoods of non-rebel Tamil political parties whose members are armed to the teeth as defence against Tigers attacks. Other residents have complained about the military presence needed to ensure their safety.