Tamil refugees beg to learn fate of relatives held as terrorists
May 27, 2009
Catherine Philp in Manik Farm camp, Vavuniya
The Tamil Tigers came for Rajibalan in February during a rare pause in the shelling. Every family in his village, Palamattalan, inside the besieged no-fire zone, was to give a son or daughter for the fight — taken by force, if necessary. There would be three more months of fighting until the war was over and 18-year-old Rajibalan and his family would wade together across the Nanthikadal lagoon in surrender.
When they did, they were met by government troops at the Omanthai checkpoint. “The soldiers announced that all the LTTE people would have to register separately from the civilians,” his sister, Sentura, recalled. “They said if they did so, they would be released, but if they did not, they would get 15 years in jail.”
That was more than a week ago. Sentura has not seen her brother since. He is just one of the 9,100 “terrorists” that the Sri Lankan Government is holding in special detention centres separate from the 270,000 sent to civilian camps. Yesterday Sentura wept as she recounted her struggle to find out where her little brother had gone. “Those who went on their own and those who were forced by the Tigers are treated just the same,” she cried. “What will happen to my brother now?”
Hundreds of Tamil civilians pressed up against barbed-wire fences at the 1,400-acre (570-hectare) Manik Farm camp yesterday, clamouring to speak to the crowds outside desperately searching for missing relatives. Some spoke of children lost in the chaos of the flight, others of brothers, like Rajibalan, taken away by the army. A Roman Catholic nun who came looking for her sister’s family when she received a note that they were in the camp left despondent after four hours of searching in the sticky heat.
The task of tracking down lost relatives is complicated by the fact that inmates are forbidden to leave the camp just as foreign aid vehicles are forbidden to enter — because of the risk, the Government says, that fighters inside may escape. When the UN pressed for unfettered access, Sri Lanka said that it would be given as soon as it had finished screening the camps for remaining fighters — in three to four weeks.
However, on a rare military-led visit to the camp yesterday, officials admitted that no such screening was taking place, raising questions over the purpose of the continued detentions. “No formal screening at the camps, no,” Brigadier Udaya Nanayakkara, the military spokesman, said.
The only screening for those fleeing the conflict zone has already taken place, at the checkpoints where young men and women were separated from their families. The military calls the process “voluntary” and denies using the threat of prison sentences to encourage confessions.
The Sri Lankan Government originally expressed its intention to keep civilians in the camps for up to a year but promised, under Indian pressure, to resettle 80 per cent within six months. Statements made by military officials at the camp yesterday suggest that the Government is in no hurry to allow the civilians to walk free.
The whiff of collective guilt hangs over the camps. “You are talking about a population who were forcibly conscripted over three decades of war,” one high-ranking official said. “Most of them would have been involved in terrorist activities at some point. There are still some segments that remain.”
Other officials gave different and conflicting explanations for the continued detentions behind the barbed-wire fences of the “welfare camps”.
“We are holding them here for their own safety,” Brigadier Nanayakkara said. “We don’t want anyone to come here and set off a bomb.”
Sri Lanka’s refusal to allow humanitarian workers unrestricted access to its camps and screening procedures was the subject of a bitter showdown at the UN Human Rights Council in Geneva yesterday as it battled with Asian allies to fend off Western censure.
Navi Pillay, the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights, renewed calls for an international inquiry into alleged war crimes committed by both the Tamil Tigers and government troops, although a Western-backed draft resolution stops short of that, pressing only for an internal inquiry.
The Sri Lankan Ambassador to the UN, Dayan Jayatilleka, said it was “outrageous” to suggest that the Government should be investigated, comparing it to forcing the victorious allies of the Second World War to accept a war crimes tribunal for the bombing of Hiroshima.
When they did, they were met by government troops at the Omanthai checkpoint. “The soldiers announced that all the LTTE people would have to register separately from the civilians,” his sister, Sentura, recalled. “They said if they did so, they would be released, but if they did not, they would get 15 years in jail.”
That was more than a week ago. Sentura has not seen her brother since. He is just one of the 9,100 “terrorists” that the Sri Lankan Government is holding in special detention centres separate from the 270,000 sent to civilian camps. Yesterday Sentura wept as she recounted her struggle to find out where her little brother had gone. “Those who went on their own and those who were forced by the Tigers are treated just the same,” she cried. “What will happen to my brother now?”
Hundreds of Tamil civilians pressed up against barbed-wire fences at the 1,400-acre (570-hectare) Manik Farm camp yesterday, clamouring to speak to the crowds outside desperately searching for missing relatives. Some spoke of children lost in the chaos of the flight, others of brothers, like Rajibalan, taken away by the army. A Roman Catholic nun who came looking for her sister’s family when she received a note that they were in the camp left despondent after four hours of searching in the sticky heat.
The task of tracking down lost relatives is complicated by the fact that inmates are forbidden to leave the camp just as foreign aid vehicles are forbidden to enter — because of the risk, the Government says, that fighters inside may escape. When the UN pressed for unfettered access, Sri Lanka said that it would be given as soon as it had finished screening the camps for remaining fighters — in three to four weeks.
However, on a rare military-led visit to the camp yesterday, officials admitted that no such screening was taking place, raising questions over the purpose of the continued detentions. “No formal screening at the camps, no,” Brigadier Udaya Nanayakkara, the military spokesman, said.
The only screening for those fleeing the conflict zone has already taken place, at the checkpoints where young men and women were separated from their families. The military calls the process “voluntary” and denies using the threat of prison sentences to encourage confessions.
The Sri Lankan Government originally expressed its intention to keep civilians in the camps for up to a year but promised, under Indian pressure, to resettle 80 per cent within six months. Statements made by military officials at the camp yesterday suggest that the Government is in no hurry to allow the civilians to walk free.
The whiff of collective guilt hangs over the camps. “You are talking about a population who were forcibly conscripted over three decades of war,” one high-ranking official said. “Most of them would have been involved in terrorist activities at some point. There are still some segments that remain.”
Other officials gave different and conflicting explanations for the continued detentions behind the barbed-wire fences of the “welfare camps”.
“We are holding them here for their own safety,” Brigadier Nanayakkara said. “We don’t want anyone to come here and set off a bomb.”
Sri Lanka’s refusal to allow humanitarian workers unrestricted access to its camps and screening procedures was the subject of a bitter showdown at the UN Human Rights Council in Geneva yesterday as it battled with Asian allies to fend off Western censure.
Navi Pillay, the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights, renewed calls for an international inquiry into alleged war crimes committed by both the Tamil Tigers and government troops, although a Western-backed draft resolution stops short of that, pressing only for an internal inquiry.
The Sri Lankan Ambassador to the UN, Dayan Jayatilleka, said it was “outrageous” to suggest that the Government should be investigated, comparing it to forcing the victorious allies of the Second World War to accept a war crimes tribunal for the bombing of Hiroshima.
at 06:49
Labels: Genocide, Human Rights, Sri Lanka, Tamil Eelam, Vanni Massacre, War Crimes
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