anti-caste

SRI LANKA: 300,000 "LIBERATED" TAMILS TRAPPED IN GOVERNMENT CONCENTRATION CAMPS

Tamils Now Languish in Sri Lanka Camps (The New York Times)

"Hundreds of thousands of Tamils remain locked in camps almost entirely off limits to journalists, human rights investigators and political leaders.

[...]

"The Sri Lankan government has portrayed its final battle against the 26-year insurgency by the Tamil Tigers, which ended in late May with the killing of the group’s leader, Velupillai Prabhakaran, as a rescue mission to liberate civilians held hostage by one of the world’s richest and most ruthless armed groups, branded terrorists by governments across the globe.

"[Sri Lankan president Mahinda] Rajapaksa said that the residents of the camps, which the government refers to as 'welfare villages,' must be confined, because anyone could be a hidden rebel."

See also:

Tamil death toll ‘is 1,400 a week’ at Manik Farm camp in Sri Lanka (Times Online (UK), July 10, 2009)

"The death toll will add to concerns that the Sri Lankan Government has failed to halt a humanitarian catastrophe after announcing victory over the Tamil Tiger terrorist organisation in May. It may also lend credence to allegations that the Government, which has termed the internment sites 'welfare villages', has actually constructed concentration camps to house 300,000 people.

[...]

"Most of the deaths are the result of water-borne diseases, particularly diarrhoea, a senior relief worker said on condition of anonymity.

"Witness testimonies obtained by The Times in May described long queues for food and inadequate water supplies inside Manik Farm. Women, children and the elderly were shoved aside in the scramble for supplies. Aid agencies are being given only intermittent access to the camp."

And see:

Tamil refugees may end up in permanent camps, say aid workers (Times Online, July 3, 2009)

And see also anti-caste: "NO-FIRE ZONE" A MASS GRAVEYARD FOR SRI LANKAN TAMILS (May 29, 2009) and DEADLY OFFENSIVE MAY SEAL NATIONAL OPPRESSION OF TAMILS IN SRI LANKA (February 15, 2009)

"NO-FIRE ZONE" A MASS GRAVEYARD FOR SRI LANKAN TAMILS

The hidden massacre: Sri Lanka’s final offensive against Tamil Tigers (The Times (London))

"The Sri Lankan authorities have insisted that their forces stopped using heavy weapons on April 27 and observed the no-fire zone where 100,000 Tamil men, women and children were sheltering. They have blamed all civilian casualties on Tamil Tiger rebels concealed among the civilians.

"Aerial photographs, official documents, witness accounts and expert testimony tell a different story. With the world’s media and aid organisations kept well away from the fighting, the army launched a fierce barrage that began at the end of April and lasted about three weeks. The offensive ended Sri Lanka’s 26-year civil war with the Tamil Tigers, but innocent civilians paid the price.

"Confidential United Nations documents acquired by The Times record nearly 7,000 civilian deaths in the no-fire zone up to the end of April. UN sources said that the toll then surged, with an average of 1,000 civilians killed each day until May 19, the day after Velupillai Prabhakaran, the leader of the Tamil Tigers, was killed. That figure concurs with the estimate made to The Times by Father Amalraj, a Roman Catholic priest who fled the no-fire zone on May 16 and is now interned with 200,000 other survivors in Manik Farm refugee camp. It would take the final toll above 20,000. 'Higher,' a UN source told The Times. 'Keep going.'"

See also Asylum Now for Tamil Refugees! Massacre in Sri Lanka: Defend the Tamil People!, Workers Vanguard No. 938 (5 June 2009)

DEADLY OFFENSIVE MAY SEAL NATIONAL OPPRESSION OF TAMILS IN SRI LANKA

[See also Defend the Tamil People! Army Bloodbath in Sri Lanka, Workers Vanguard No. 903 (13 February 2009)]

Sri Lanka: The war the world forgot (The Independent (UK))

"In what may be the final chapters of one of the world's longest-running civil wars, Sri Lankan troops say they are close to crushing the remnants of the once-potent Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE). Yet the military operation comes at a high price for civilians.

"Aid groups and officials say that dozens of civilians trapped in the war zone are being killed and wounded every day. Determined to press ahead with its operation against a guerrilla force that has in the past ruthlessly attacked both military and civilian targets, the Sri Lankan government refuses to effect a ceasefire that would allow the evacuation of wounded people. It has also shut off the area from the outside world."

See also:

'How can people say this is peace?' by Stephanie Nolen (Toronto Globe and Mail, January 27, 2009)

"Yet as frightening as the disappearances, and perhaps more likely to cause further conflict over time, is the government's unabashed campaign of 'Sinhalization.' Historic sites commemorating ancient Tamil kingdoms have, in the months since the government took control of the area, suddenly become memorials to Sinhalese kingdoms. Some Tamils stopped at checkpoints can no longer give the names of their home villages, because those places have new Sinhala names, local and international human-rights monitors say."

And see:

Sri Lanka: End 'War' on Civilians (Human Rights Watch, February 19, 2009)