Two Views on Sri Lankan IDP Resettlement

by Daniel J Gerstle · 2009-11-04 11:18:00 UTC
Topics:

The Sri Lankan government has announced it is nearing the halfway point for resettling the country's 280,000 predominantly ethnic Tamil families who were displaced in last year's fighting. The civil war reached it's climax this past year with the government surrounding and virtually destroying the rebel Tamil Tigers. When large numbers of Tamils were displaced, the government interned many of them in controlled camps. Many aid agencies were not permitted entrance and if they were could only bring certain kinds of supplies. Here are two views on the displacement and the new resettlement:

The predominantly Buddhist and ethnic Sinhalese Sri Lankan government considers the number of displaced to have been closer to 186,000. It claims that a military campaign against the Tamil Tigers was vital to bring back stability to the country, claiming that the Tamils were an extreme fighting force unwilling to compromise. When the Sri Lankan government forcibly displaced Tamils into unusually restrictive camps last year, it did so to limit the Tiger's access to support from that population. Now it is celebrating success in returning tens of thousands of people back to their home villages, claiming delays are mostly due to landmine risks which are being addressed.

Meanwhile, many of the region's Tamils feel that the government not only doesn't represent their interests but actively discriminates against them, which is why many rallied behind the Tigers despite the rebel's periodic lapses into extremism, which they see as less so than the government's repression. Tamils living in the West argue that even though there is one set of ethnic Tamils participating in the government that the northeastern Tamils are marked, required to show IDs to travel anywhere, are repeatedly stopped and questioned by police, and more. They claim that the IDP camps were more like internment camps. Foreign aid agencies back this up, claiming that many were not permitted entrance even to provide lifesaving aid. The resettlements are partly welcome, but also present a whole new set of questions about the future of the northeastern Tamils without substantial political representation. Here are viewpoints from Operation USA's Nimmi Gowrinathan and a political researcher named S L Neelavan who are both Tamils living in the US.

[Photo: Tamils in northeast Sri Lanka, Tro Kilinochchi.]

Daniel J Gerstle is a journalist, human rights researcher, and humanitarian aid consultant. He is Editor and Chief Correspondent for HELO: The Crisis Story Magazine.
PREVIOUS STORY:
New Darfur Film Knows No Shame
NEXT STORY:
Campaign about Apple Factories in China Gains Wide and Diverse Support

COMMENTS (0)

    Comment Policy

    · All fields are required to comment.

    [X]

    Comments on Change.org are meant for further exploration and evaluation of the campaign on Change.org. To that end, we welcome constructive comments. However, we reserve the right to delete comments which, as determined solely in our discretion: (1) are offensive, abusive, or off-topic; (2) include content solely intended to personally attack the campaign creator, (3) are designed to subvert or hijack comment threads rather than contribute to them; and/or (4) violate our terms of service and/or privacy policy. Repeat offenders may be permanently removed from the site at our discretion. Please also be advised that: (A) we do not actively curate and/or monitor in any manner whatsoever the comments made on the Change.org platform, and (B) the creator of each campaign on Change.org may remove any comment at her/his/its discretion.