Evicted `jobless' Tamils return to Colombo

COLOMBO: In yet another twist to the eviction of "jobless" Tamils from lodges of the national capital, 186 of the 376 evacuees returned to Colombo from Vavuniya in the north on Saturday as they could not proceed to Jaffna peninsula as all links are cut off.

Colombo Range Deputy Inspector of Police (DIG) Rohan Abeywardene told The Hindu, "Since road links to Jaffna peninsula are cut off and those who had earlier agreed to voluntarily leave Colombo expressed reservations in crossing into the peninsula via the sea route, the authorities have facilitated their return to Colombo. Now these 186 people are back in the lodges that they vacated on Thursday."

Separately, Inspector-General of Police (IGP) Victor Perera rejected the allegations made by "certain political elements" that the police had forcibly evicted Tamil people from Colombo lodges. Sri Lanka Supreme Court on Friday temporarily stayed the evictions.

In a statement here the IGP said, after a special discussion held with the Colombo police chiefs at the Police headquarters, that people who are making these allegations have either misunderstood the process or deliberately misinterpreting the truth.

The IGP further said that he had summoned all the inspectors-in-charge of Colombo police stations and inquired into the matter but "found no evidence" of such forceful expulsion.

President Mahinda Rajapaksa on Friday ordered a special inquiry on the manner of eviction of "jobless Tamils."

The IGP maintained that the government provided "safe transportation to 376 people out of over 20,000 Tamil lodgers" living in Colombo to their homes in North and East. The IGP said that these people had expressed "consent" to go home if free transportation was provided.

"Innocent people"

According to him some lodgers had indicated that they would have to pocket out at least Sri Lanka Rs. 15,000 as transport cost for them and for their belongings. He said the government had to take this decision for the safety of millions of "innocent people" living in Colombo and its suburbs.

The IGP said that the Island Capital has been targeted for terrorist attacks since the LTTE began its bloody campaign in 1983. IGP Victor Perera said that recent events had shown that the LTTE terrorists were operating "without much difficulty" within Colombo.

The IGP claimed that the on going police investigations into many terrorist activities also showed that the perpetrators of such attacks had been operating from lodges.

"Thus, the growing security concerns have compelled the police to focus its attention on lodgers who are having extended stay for no valid reason and those who could not prove their identity."

A report posted by on the Defence Ministry website said that Police taking similar security measures to reduce potential terrorist threats to a country's capital is nothing "uncommon or unusual" for any country.

"Particularly, after the two bomb attacks at Pettah and Rathmalana that killed seven innocent civilians and three security forces' personnel, no government can be expected to further delay stringent defensive action against terrorism.

"The shocking discovery of the lorry bomb carrying over 1,000 kg of high explosive at Nikaweratiya last week shown the extent of brutality that the LTTE was planning to bring in to the South", it said.

The IGP said the police had the authority to arrest any person under the Public Security Ordnance who cannot prove his /her identity. Earlier, the police have conducted "many search and arrest operations" without harassing any of the Tamil civilians permanently living in the Colombo city. "The suspects were detained and questioned at Boossa camp and those who found innocent were later released."

Separately, Sri Lanka Democracy Forum (SLDF), a voluntary organisation, unreservedly condemned what it termed as "indiscriminate rounding up and forcible mass expulsion" of members of the Tamil community from Colombo and their transport against their consent to the north and east of the country.

"Insensitive manner"

Calling for the immediate return of the evicted Tamil citizens to Colombo, the SLDF said: "This internal deportation represents a collective punishment upon the Tamil community and manifests the insensitive and inconsiderate manner in which the present regime has been conducting itself under the dubious claim of national security".

It said unlike those Tamils who are able to afford setting up permanent homes in flats or houses, most of the Tamils who live in the lodges and guesthouses in Colombo are relatively poor and do so having fled from the North and East in order to escape from the intolerable conditions there.

The SLDF said military operations in the North and East for the last several months resulted in the displacement of over 300,000 people. "But now the government is manifesting its hypocrisy by seeking to drive the Tamils living in Colombo back into the arms of the Tigers".

It said while the LTTE continued to cynically use the presence of the Tamil community in escalating tensions and violence in Colombo, the government had been abominable in its response and its military solution approach continued to alienate Tamils from the Sri Lankan State.

LTTE in a statement said the "forced eviction" is yet another human rights violation against the Tamils in the on going `program of ethnic genocide' of Tamils. Tamil Tigers said the instance should demonstrate to the international community the Sri Lankan Government's "true stance on the issue of the human rights of Tamils."

`Hope and optimism'

Winding up his five-day visit to the island the Japanese envoy, Yasushi Akashi told a news conference, "I am going back with a certain amount of hope and optimism for the future of this country."

Describing the prevailing situation as "rather heavy, depressed, with a serious crisis and tension in the country," Mr. Akashi said Japan had no immediate plans to slash aid to Sri Lanka or freeze assets of Tamil Tigers although international human rights groups have been lobbying Tokyo to exert pressure to stem spiralling violence.