Sri Lanka Accused of Ethnic Cleansing of Tamils

by Ramesh Randeep, Guardian Unlimited, June 7, 2007

A Sri Lankan Tamil woman packs her bags after being evicted from her low-budget hostel in Colombo. Photograph: Sanka Vidanagama/AFP/Getty Images

In a series of night-time raids, police stormed Tamil areas of Colombo and forced people staying in cheap guesthouses to leave at gun point. In all, 291 men and 85 women were sent off in seven buses to districts that are on the frontline of fierce fighting between Tamil separatists and the Sri Lankan army. Human rights groups described the police action as tantamount to "ethnic cleansing".

The move caused uproar in the country's parliament, which was adjourned after the government first denied the raids had taken place. Mano Ganesan, a Tamil MP who represents Colombo, told the Guardian "people have been taken forcibly from their beds and dumped in buses. It may unwittingly strengthen the hand of the Tamil Tigers who want to split Sri Lanka because the police are saying 'go back to the north and east that is your home'."

Human rights groups said that police action would "horrify the local Tamil population". Jehan Pereira of Sri Lanka's National Peace Council said there was a "sense that any Tamil can be targeted. So we enter a cycle where there is another attack [by the Tigers] and the police respond by picking up anybody Tamil. This could escalate out of control".

Sri Lankan television showed rows of civilians aboard one of the red buses being used to evict the Tamils, with armed guards acting as escorts. One man told a local radio station that "the police came and took us and put everyone on the bus," adding that the bus was about 20 miles (32km) outside the capital, heading north-east. "We don't know where we are being taken."

Police in Colombo said Tamils were being sent back to their villages for their own safety after a rash of mysterious abductions and disappearances had spread a wave of fear through the community.

It was also a move designed to root out insurgents who had recently infiltrated Colombo. Tamil Tiger guerrillas, who have been fighting for a separate homeland since 1983, were blamed for two bomb attacks that killed nine people and wounded 44 in and around the capital last month.

Rohan Abeywardene, inspector general of police for Colombo, told Reuters news agency many of those bussed back had "no valid reasons to be in Colombo and are just hanging around, they have been requested to leave and told they had better get back to their own villages ... There is also a possibility that LTTE cadres are among them".

Almost 40% of Colombo's 600,000 inhabitants are Tamil, a population that has swollen by those fleeing revolt-hit areas. Hundreds arrive every month in the hope of obtaining passports to travel abroad for employment or secure political asylum overseas.

Tamils from the north and east are now required to obtain permits from the police to travel to the rest of the country. Tamils, who are mostly Hindu, comprise 13% of Sri Lanka's 19 million people, the majority of whom are Buddhist Sinhalese.