PUTTALAM, Sri Lanka, May 24 (Reuters) (CENSORED) - One evening in October 1990,
Ismath Indon was suddenly faced with a choice between life or death.
He
had two hours to close his thriving meat shop, and leave Jaffna city with his
wife, five children and a few armfuls of belongings -- or be shot by separatist
Tamil Tiger guerrillas.
"They came at seven o'clock and said all Moslems must be out by nine
o'clock or they would start killing people. They had guns and we were all
frightened," said Indon, who joined an exodus of 110,000 Moslems from Sri
Lanka's strife-torn northern province.
Ten years on, Indon lives in an open refugee camp in Puttalam, a
Moslem-dominated coastal town 120 km (75 miles) north of the capital Colombo.
He has no voting rights, no running water in his rickety hut, no access to
proper medical care, no job and -- as fighting rages again in Jaffna -- no real
hope of ever returning to his home.
Classified only as "internally displaced people", the exiled
Moslems are not eligible for support from the United Nations' refugee arm. And
there is concern that the World Food Programme may stop providing rations on
which so many of them depend.
Before Sri Lanka's ethnic conflict took off in 1983, some 750,000 Tamils,
Moslems and Sinhalese lived side by side in the Jaffna peninsula, a flat and
arid spur of land at the northern tip of the Indian Ocean island.
But after the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE) seized Jaffna from
government troops in 1990, the population shrank to around 500,000 as non-Tamils
were sent packing.
Few hesitate to dub it ethnic cleansing.
FEAR OF THE TIGERS
Since then, tension and distrust have replaced the mutual respect that
Tamils and Moslems shared as minority communities. Sinhalese make up nearly
three-quarters of Sri Lanka's 19 million people, Tamils about 18 percent and
Moslems just 7.5 percent.
Moslems have been targeted several times by Tamil Tiger rebels, who have
left a trail of death in their quest for a separate state -- or Eelam -- on the
northern and eastern rim of the island.
Several months before Indon and his family fled in terror from Jaffna,
rebels massacred 140 Moslems as they prayed at a mosque in the eastern coast
district of Batticaloa. Nine days later, they struck again in the same area,
killing 122.
In 1995, Moslems in Puttalam received photocopies of a letter signed in the
name of the LTTE which told them to leave town within 10 days or meet the same
fate as their brothers in Batticaloa.
Nothing happened.
But fear of the Tigers is still palpable in Puttalam, which falls inside the
homeland that Velupillai Prabhakaran -- the LTTE's ruthlessly single-minded
supremo -- is pursuing from his jungle hideout.
M.S. Bazeer, a 55-year-old teacher who also left Jaffna in 1990, appeared
anxious not to criticise the LTTE as he told his story, and said it was bombing
that forced him out.
"They didn't threaten us. We don't have any problems with the LTTE.
They respected us. You must tell the whole story," he said.
BATTLE FOR BASIC RIGHTS
Although they have found a temporary home, the Jaffna Moslems feel alienated
even in Puttalam. Many local people resent the sudden burst of competition for
employment and scarce resources, and critics say the local authorities neglect
their basic needs.
Town officials directed Reuters to District Secretary J.R. Dissanayake for
information on the Moslem refugees.
But even he was unable to give a ready breakdown of the number of refugees,
the number living in camps and the total cost to the government of dishing out
food rations.
Typically, a family of three which does not benefit from World Food
Programme rations receives coupons from the government worth 420 rupees ($5.60)
every 15 days.
Rohan Edrisinha, a lawyer who works for a Colombo-based non-governmental
organisation, the Centre for Policy Alternatives, has launched a legal drive to
win basic rights for the refugees.
He says that because they don't come under the jurisdiction of the
northwestern province to which Puttalam belongs, they are treated as outsiders
and not citizens.
Edrisinha wants the waiver of a property law which stipulates that the right
of ownership is lost if abandoned for 10 years for those who left rice fields,
farms and houses behind in Jaffna. Without this, the refugees would have no
incentive to go back, even if peace returned to the peninsula.
He is also pleading for the refugees' right to health services and
education, and has also brought a case -- he lost the first round -- to win them
voting rights.
"Once they get a right to vote, political parties will start
treating them with more respect," he said. "The refugees' dignity and
self-respect are at stake...and we are trying to get the authorities to address
some of their basic needs."
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Tamil Tiger Rebels 'Ethnically Cleanse' Parts of Sri Lanka
By DEXTER FILKINS, Times Staff Writer
KALAYANAPURA, Sri Lanka--As Tamil separatists sweep toward victory on the battlefield, they
are beginning to cleanse their land of the people who were once their
neighbors.
The Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam, who have won a series of
victories against Sri Lankan forces in recent weeks, are stepping up
attacks against ethnic Sinhalese civilians living in the region that the
rebels claim as their homeland.
The Tigers are bombing schools, wrecking Buddhist temples and shooting
civilians in a campaign to force thousands of ethnic Sinhalese from their
homes. The attacks are directed at Sri Lanka's majority Buddhist
Sinhalese living in areas dominated by the mostly Hindu Tamils.
The attacks, overshadowed by the recent military engagements on the
northern tip of this island nation off the coast of India, portend a grim
round of ethnic expulsions as the Tigers inch closer to their goal of a
separate state for the minority Tamils.
"They want us to leave, but we have nowhere to go," said Kadirathage
Ran Keranhamy, a Sinhalese rice farmer whose 21-year-old son was
kidnapped Saturday by Tiger guerrillas. "We are brothers. Why are they
doing this to us?"
Keranhamy lives here in Kalayanapura, one of a cluster of Sinhalese
villages in the sprawling tropical flatlands of northeastern Sri Lanka.
The villages, populated by more than 10,000 Sinhalese, are an island in a
sea of Tamils. Kalayanapura is part of the region earmarked by the Tigers
for a future nation.
As guerrillas have rolled over government forces on the Jaffna
peninsula, the attacks on these Sinhalese villages about 80 miles to the
south have grown in frequency and ferocity. Tiger guerrillas are stepping
up their activities as hundreds of Sri Lankan troops are moving out of
this region to help their besieged comrades.
"We just don't have enough troops to protect the villages," said Maj.
Gen. A.K. Jayawardhana, the provincial governor.
In Kalayanapura, a hamlet of simple brick houses and about 600 people,
the Tigers come at night. They set fire to rice crops and sweep homes
with searchlights and gunfire. Last month, guerrillas blew up a school in
a neighboring village. On occasion, the guerrillas abduct the Sinhalese
men and boys who work the rice paddies; more than 30 have disappeared in
the area since 1995. None have returned, and few bodies have been found.
An additional 15 people have died in shellings and shootings.
More than a dozen villagers have already packed up and left, and
others say they are considering leaving. Those who remain are so
terrified of attack that they carry their straw mats into the jungle at
night to sleep.
"When the sun goes down, our houses are empty," said Indrawathi, a
39-year-old villager who sleeps in the jungle. "We are too afraid."
The Sinhalese villages are the victims of the tangled myths of Sri
Lanka's history and the bloody realities of its civil war. In the 17
years since the conflict began, more than 60,000 people have been killed.
The Tamils began their struggle after enduring years of discrimination at
the hands of the Sinhalese. The Tamils' fight is being led by the Tigers,
a fanatical guerrilla organization that has killed some moderate Tamil
rivals. The U.S. government has declared the Tigers a terrorist group.
Though the Tamils make up less than 20% of Sri Lanka's population, the
Tigers are claiming as much as a third of the nation's land area--the
northern and eastern rim of the island. The imagined Tiger nation
includes the entire Eastern province, where the village of Kalayanapura
sits. According to estimates, Eastern province is less than half Tamil,
but the Tigers want it all.
Some of the Sinhalese who live in Eastern province were settled as
part of government-sponsored land giveaways--a major grievance of the
Tamils. But many of the province's Sinhalese villages, including
Kalayanapura, have been settled for generations.
Some historians say that the Tigers' secretive leader, Velupillai
Prabhakaran, is trying to revive the old realms of the 13th century
Jaffna kings--and then some. The Tamil nation sketched out in Tiger
propaganda overlaps with the Sinhalese kingdoms that came later. Those
kingdoms stretched northward all the way to Kalayanapura.
"What the Tigers have done is imagine that the Tamil kingdom is much
larger than it ever was," said K.M. DeSilva, former chairman of the
history department at the University of Ceylon and author of several
books on the conflict. "It's a myth, but whether in Kosovo or Sri Lanka,
national myths are extremely powerful."
The Tigers' dreams bear directly on the villagers of Kalayanapura. In
the Tigers' imagined nation, the Sinhalese would be a minority. Or, if
the villagers heeded the recent shootings and kidnappings, they wouldn't
be around at all.
Sitting under the shade of a jackfruit tree, Keranhamy, the rice
farmer, recalled the day last week when the Tiger guerrillas kidnapped
his son. Keranhamy and his son were husking rice they had harvested from
their 3-acre paddy when four men appeared just before sundown. Unlike the
villagers, who mainly wear sarongs, the four men wore trousers and
carried guns.
Keranhamy's son, Vimal, ran. Keranhamy, a 50-year-old farmer who looks
older than his years, was too slow. The guerrillas tore a piece of his
sarong to bind his hands. Keranhamy pleaded with the Tigers in his native
Sinhala tongue, but the guerrillas didn't understand.
"I spoke to them nicely, I told them we were brothers, and they hit
me," said Keranhamy, nursing an eye blackened by a rifle butt.
As the guerrillas began to blindfold him, he heard gunfire. Keranhamy
doesn't know who fired the shots, but they gave him the break he needed:
He dashed off into the paddies and dived into the mud.
"I never thought I would escape," he said.
Other Tigers were spotted by villagers that evening. Vimal and three
other villagers are still missing. The body of one resident was found the
next morning in a paddy.
The disappearance of Vimal is not the first time that Sri Lanka's
civil war has brought tragedy to the family. Tiger guerrillas killed
Keranhamy's in-laws in 1990. After that, he took his family away. But
they returned after 10 months because Kalayanapura is their home. After
Vimal's disappearance, the Keranhamys sent their 12-year-old daughter,
Sujiva, to live with relatives in another district.
Four days after the disappearance, Vimal's mother did not have much to
say. In a long drive through the Sri Lankan countryside, Vimalawathi
stared out the car window and silently wept.
The tragedy of the Keranhamy family was relieved slightly by an
unexpected gesture of goodwill. Among those abducted Saturday was Pinhamy
Dissanayake, a Sinhalese villager. The guerrillas also tried to take
Dissanayake's sons, Jayawardana, 15, and Sunil, 13.
R. Rashid, a 33-year-old Muslim laborer, asked the Tigers to spare the
boys. Muslims, a minority community in Sri Lanka, have recently been
spared the mistreatment inflicted on the Sinhalese. The guerrillas told
Rashid that they would keep the boys.
According to several villagers, Rashid faced down the guerrillas,
grabbed the boys by the scruffs of their necks and led them away.
Stunned, the Tiger guerrillas did not shoot.
"Tell the village it will be destroyed by May 25," the guerrillas said
as they walked away with their hostages.
Rashid, a quiet man who earns a few dollars a week harvesting rice,
said the blood drained from his body when he confronted the guerrillas.
Recalling the episode, he tried to explain what gave him the courage to
step forward to save the boys.
"I had pity for the boys," Rashid said. "I have children too."
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Bomb blast in Sri Lanka
[BBC]
More than 20 people have been killed and 75 injured in a bomb explosion in eastern Sri Lanka.
The bomb went off in the eastern town of Batticaloa during celebrations to mark the holiest day of the Buddhist calendar, known as Wesak.
It exploded near the Buddhist temple in the town inside a high security zone.
It is not known who carried out the attack although in the past, Tamil Tiger rebels have been blamed for targeting security forces and police in the area using bombs and landmines.
Local residents said the bomb was placed in an ice-cream box on a bicycle.
The celebrations were attended by large numbers of people from the armed forces and police as well as local civilians.
Most of the dead were civilians, but they also included a police constable and two soldiers.
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Archbishop urges followers to donate blood
[BBC]
The Roman Catholic Church in Sri Lanka has urged followers to donate blood to treat soldiers wounded while fighting Tamil Tiger rebels.
The Archbishop of Colombo, Nicholas Marcus Fernando, made his plea in a pastoral letter, where he also asked Catholics to show their solidarity with government soldiers by cutting down on celebrations and to devote two days at the end of May the 27th and 28th as special days of prayers for peace. Government troops are locked in fierce combat with the separatist Tiger rebels in the northern peninsula of Jaffna.
From the newsroom of the BBC World Service
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UNO declares Vesak day an international holiday [AsiaNews]
The United Nations Organization (UNO) has declared Vesak full moon Poya day as an international holiday from this year. The new millennium's first Vesak full moon Poya falls on May 17.
The day of Vesak, which marks the birth, enlightenment and passing away of the Lord Buddha falls on the full-moon day of the month of May. As a mark of respect for this great spiritual teacher of humanity whose teachings provide guidance and inspiration to nearly a quarter of the world's population, the United Nations Organization has declared Vesak full moon day as an international holiday.
To commemorate the Vesak full moon poya day and for declaring it as an international holiday, the UNO has organized a special Vesak festival on May 15 at the UNO General Secretary's auditorium in New York.
Buddha Sasana, Cultural and Religious Affairs Minister Lakshman Jayakody has been invited to deliver the main lecture on this occasion. 'This historical moment will be a great honour to the country,' said an official of the Cultural and Religious Affairs Ministry.
The Vesak festival is being organized under the guidance of Sri Lanka Ambassador for United States of America, Mr. John de Saram. 189 representatives from the UNO member countries are expected to participate at the festival.
The proposal for declaring Vesak full moon Poya day as an international holiday was one of the main recommendations submitted by the foreign and local Buddhist delegates who met at the International Buddhist Conference held at the BMICH in Colombo, in November 1998.
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Rebel attack in Sri Lanka
At least 21 people have been killed and more than 50 wounded in a suicide bombing and ensuing gun battle in the Sri Lankan capital, Colombo. From BBC
The government said the fighting broke out when two policemen tried to check on a suspected Tamil Tiger rebel.
He was at a tea kiosk near the Ceremonial Drive that leads to the national parliament building.
The constables were killed and later one of the rebels detonated explosives strapped to his body.
Several of his colleagues exploded grenades and fired indiscriminately at vehicles trapped in the evening rush-hour traffic.
Reports said several people were caught in the cross-fire.
Police said the attackers, believed to be members of the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE), also fired rocket-propelled grenades along the highway that is used by ministers and legislators to return from parliament.
Commandos take up position in Colombo
Nimal Gunatilleke, a top police official, said he believed the attackers may have been lying in wait for Deputy Defence Minister Anuruddha Ratwatte, who had been due to take that route after a parliamentary debate.
One of the minister's advance security vehicles was hit by a grenade. The minister, who was not in the vicinity at the time of the attack, has been co-ordinating the war against the Tigers.
Security personnel gunned down two of the attackers, including a suicide bomber, and commandos defused the explosives strapped to him.
A gun battle followed as several other rebels fled the area by detonating at least four other bombs or grenades.
The government said that security forces were conducting a cordon and search operation in the area, to locate the Tigers who escaped.
Police said many of the wounded were in a critical condition in hospital, and fatalities were expected to rise.
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High time international community brought pressure on Prabhakaran to hold talks with Government-Lord Naseby
Daily News
British-Sri Lanka Parliamentary Groups Joint Chairman Lord Naseby told the House of Lords recently that it was high time that the international community brought pressure on LTTE leader Velupillai Prabhakaran to hold talks with the Government of Sri Lanka. He also expressed his belief that the United Kingdom could play a significant role in bringing some pressure on Prabhakaran and all other parties to get together.
Quoting excerpts from the President Chandrika Bandaranaike Kumaratunga's acceptance speech following her victory at the December 21 Presidential election where she emphasised the need to exercise influence to bring the LTTE leader to the negotiating table, Lord Naseby said: "... on the invitation of that Government, I feel that the international community could play a significant role to advance the peace process".
Lord Naseby who paid a tribute to the British Government for signing the United Nation's Convention for the Suppression of terrorist Financing expressed the hope that was not a mere piece of paper, but that action would flow from it. "In this country it is known that the LTTE is collecting funds," he pointed out.
He added: "I speak personally now, I find it repulsive that tonight in Camden there is an office of the LTTE".
Lord Naseby prefaced his remarks with a reference to the threat facing the Maldives of being submerged in the event of a high tidal wave due to global warming and later referring to the situation in Sri Lanka said in his speech in the Home of Friends:
'I now turn to Sri Lanka, which is one area of the world where there is significant conflict. It has particularly close ties with this country. I do not know whether I should declare an interest, but I am joint chairman of the British Sri Lankan parliamentary group.
I hope that all noble Lords will give unreserved condemnation to the recent acts of terrorism committed by the LTTE. The recent bomb attacks on 18th December - just before Christmas - injured President Chandrika Kumaratunga, killed 21 people and left 110 severely injured. There was another bomb on 5th January outside the office of the Prime Minister, which resulted in the death of 12 more people and injured another 20. Understandably, such acts of terrorism have, for the moment, stalled negotiations aimed at progressing the peace process.
Despite the bomb attack on the President, in which she lost an eye - I do not need to remind your Lordships that her father and her husband have been assassinated - the President election went ahead, which is a true reflection of the strength of democracy in that country. Even after that, in her acceptance speech having won the presidential election, she was brave enough to say,
"I urge you to use every ounce of influence at your disposal to bring Mr. Prabhakaran to the negotiations table without further delay. I urge you to persuade with every conceivable argument anyone who is a member or a supporter of the LTTE to renounce violence and join us in establishing peace."
That was not just a message to those in Sri Lanka; it was a message to the world. There are significant numbers of Sri Lankans in the United States, Canada, Germany had not least in this country. I hope that those in this country, who are known to support the LTTE, will heed those words.
In that speech she put out a hand of friendship to Ranil Wickremesinghe whom I have known, I guess, for some 20 years. He is the leader of the main opposition, the United National Party. She sought from him a bi-partisan approach to finding a peaceful solution to the problem. Despite the understandable political differences which we have across this Chamber sometimes, there we have across this Chamber sometimes, there are occasions when we work together. Her Majesty's Government could help in trying to ensure that that message is conveyed to the government and opposition in Sri Lanka. This country is held in the greatest respect in Sri Lanka and I am sure that we can assist in that regard.
I turn to the international situation in Sri Lanka and the international community and ask the question: is it not now time for the international community to put pressure on Mr. Prabhakaran to hold talks with the Government of Sri Lanka. And, on the invitation of that Government, I feel that the international community could play a significant role to advance the peace process.
Those in Government who listened to the interview of the Secretary General of the Commonwealth on the World Service, to which I listened, will know that he was involved in the meditation attempts in 1997, and more recently Norway has been involved. I hope I do not express too partisan a wish in my belief that the United Kingdom could play a significant role in bringing some pressure on Mr. Prabhakaran and all other parties to get together. When I read about and listen to the Secretary General telling us that he only communicated with Mr. Prabhakaran, I feel that that is not satisfactory. Whoever is in that role must see the man face to face; it is not enough to have an intermediary.
I recent days Britain signed the United Nations Convention for the Suppression of Terrorist Financing. Indeed, I pay tribute to the Government for signing that on the very day it between available for signature. But I hope it is not just a piece of paper but that action will flow from it. In this country it is known that the LTTE is collecting funds. I do not mean a charity day with a flag; I mean protectionism; money being extorted from Sri Lankans living in this country. Unless they pay up, as your Lordships know only too well, their families will suffer. That's the way terrorism works. Many in this Chamber have as much experience of it as I have.
I speak personally now: I find it repulsive that tonight, in Camden, there is an office of the LTTE. That is not acceptable. Given that we passed the new Terrorist Act in the last Session, which gives us powers to prevent parties from carrying out, planning or preparing terrorist activities, I hope that high on the agenda-leaving aside the Sikh problem-will be the LTTE. I realise that it is not the responsibility of the foreign minister, but there is evidence that junior officers of the LTTE are seeking asylum in this country in order to keep the conflict going. The Home Office should pay some attention to that problem.
I want to end on a positive note. Sri Lanka is a highly literate society. The people are pro-British. Nevertheless, it is a developing country, though it is not the poorest country by a long shot. However, there are great challenges to be faced in that part of the world. Its growth runs at around 5 per cent a year. Understandably that growth is stifled by the fact that 5 per cent of GNP goes to cover the cost of war. If the United Kingdom, in the international community, could find a solution, it would allow a further 50 per cent growth. That sort of growth is so significant that it would have an incredible effect on all the people of Sri Lanka, be they Tamil, Sinhalese, Muslim, Burger. That is a power well worth striving for, I ask Her Majesty's Government to recognise that this is a problem to which we must find a solution. It is a key problem. It has been going on for nearly 20 years and urgently needs resolving. It is time that this Government played an active role in the international community to get that moving."
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01/10 Train Bomb defused
By DILIP GANGULY
Associated Press Writer
COLOMBO, Sri Lanka (AP) -- Authorities found and defused an
explosive on a railroad track in central Sri Lanka on Thursday,
averting another in a series of public transportation bombings in
the last week.
No one has claimed responsibility for the seven bus bombs in
the past week across Sri Lanka, but defense ministry spokesman
Brigadier Palitha Fernando has blamed the Liberation Tigers of
Tamil Eelam.
The government appointed a high-powered committee Thursday to
investigate the explosions and recommend "urgent steps to combat
these systematic acts of terror."
The bomb found Thursday was in Badulla, about 100 miles east
of the capital, Colombo. Badulla is the gateway to the eastern
province where Tamils are the majority.
On Wednesday, police arrested three Tamils suspected in the
bombing of two buses in Colombo on Tuesday that left four people
dead and 47 wounded.
In Colombo, Deputy Inspector General of Police Gamini Ran-
deniya said the accused were masquerading as roadside hawkers and
traders around the Pettah Bus Station when the explosions took
place.
One of the men was wounded in the blast and was arrested when
he resisted attempts by a rescue team to take him to hospital.
During interrogation, he confessed that he and two other men
were involved in the bombings. Police then arrested the other
two, police said.
Police and transport officials have announced special precau-
tions against further attacks. Parked buses will be locked and
bus drivers and ticket collectors have been told to be more vigi-
lant in checking passengers.
Meanwhile, government troops killed 11 rebels in clashes
Wednesday, a defense ministry spokesman said.
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