Controversies behind Sri Lanka’s IDPs

by Shenali WADUGE

It is amazing how people who do not know any of these “IDPs”, people who have not even come to Sri Lanka, people who have so far not even sent a cent or contributed any aid are demanding that Sri Lanka’s IDPs be allowed “freedom of movement”.

As of May, there were 288,938 IDPs, but only 2,000 people came forward to claim their relatives. For those who have not even seen these camps, it is baffling how they can so authoritatively describe these camps as “concentration camps” and demand freedom of movement.

Making these accusations are the very nations who are directly responsible for displacing millions of innocents and have yet to resettle these people in their “homes”.

Let the IDPs decide whether they wish to rally behind these “freedom of movement” slogans that the international community offers or wait till demining work is completed and take Rs. 25,000, free seed paddy and free food for six months that the Government is allocating, while being presently fed three meals a day. Given the intensity of accusations against Sri Lanka and its Government, is it just possible to think that the Eelaam struggle could have been just a facade to use Sri Lanka as a base to train Jihad type fighters the LTTE was notorious for?

Let us take the accusations one by one:

Given the argument that the Government has placed these people in concentration camps, perhaps similar to how the Jews were treated by the Germans...then shouldn’t the 288,938 be down by half by now perhaps, or no one left at all, because it makes no sense to have a Government maintain “concentration camps” not “killing” any of these IDPs, but looking after their welfare by spending nine million rupees a day as well as allocating Government servants, private contractors, private teachers, social service organisations, and armed personnel, utilising their time and spending colossal amounts everyday for the “welfare” of these people. But, of the 26 million global IDPs, what nation can boast of resettling almost 50,000 IDPs within just three months of annihilating a terror outfit that prevailed for almost three decades?.

Why would a government arrange for artificial limbs to be customised to fit these people? Why would teachers be tasked with additional teaching to prepare these children for their first O/L and A/L examinations? Why would the Government order Braille machines for the blind, provide vocational training, attempt to rehabilitate former child soldiers and reintroduce them to society? Why would the public also have the same mentality as the Government that they should collect in masses clothing, food, medicines and toys to be sent to these people? All those who are bringing in these far-fetched notions about “concentration camps” should not blindly accept what is being told, but think a little and seriously look at things from a proper perspective.

Media agencies themselves, while desiring to be in the thick of things, should really evaluate what they are saying and objectively view the manner in which they attempt to humiliate Government officials invited for television interviews, while visibly exonerating the LTTE. International media agencies cannot deny the role they played to almost eulogise Prabhakaran and his movement, showcasing it as an entity fighting for rights denied to their people.

How many of these “journalists” actually cared to see things in their proper perspective? How can there be denial of rights when Tamils enjoy equal status with the Sinhalese in the public and private sector? All these journalists had to ask were some simple questions to which anyone would have given immediate answers. Do Tamils own property in Colombo? - Yes. Have Tamils served in key Government posts such as Inspector General of Police, Governor Central Bank, Foreign Minister, Cabinet portfolios, association presidents or judges? - Yes. Are Tamils denied the right of coming to Colombo and the outskirts and taking up residence, renting homes, starting businesses? - No. Can Tamil children study in international schools, private schools, semi-government schools and government schools? - Yes. Do education systems deny Tamil students any right - No, Tamil children have even topped their batches in Medicine and Engineering. Where is the problem then? Yet, could the Sinhalese travel in these past few decades anywhere near the North or East? - No. Could the Sinhalese purchase property in Jaffna? - No....Ask a few more questions and the fact will emerge that realistically, it had been the Sinhalese that were more marginalised than the minorities.

A Third World nation, a country that had the world’s worst terror outfit terrorise the country and even its neighbour is also the only country that has been able to eliminate terrorism, vis-a-vis destroying the three main tiers of its leadership. The US, nine years after 9/11, couldn’t still locate Osama bin Laden.

On the topic of hardcore LTTE cadres, the Government has announced that they have completed profiling 10,000 hardcore cadres and are looking at trying them in Court for their role in terror activities.

We cannot rule out that foreign countries must also be eyeing these former combatants as they are all well aware of how lethal their training is. After all, the LTTE introduced the suicide bomber! It is amidst this argument that the extraordinary concern for Sri Lanka’s IDPs by key nations rings alarm bells. One wonders whether Sri Lanka was actually being used as a ground to train Jihad type fighters while keeping alive the LTTE struggle through on-and-off bomb attacks?

Preferred destination

Sri Lanka would have been a preferred destination even for these trainers who are likely to prefer the scenic beauty of the country over the desert terrains in countries where training currently takes place. This possibility requires further examination since it is baffling why powerful nations which all have IDPs and refugees in their own nations are so distraught over the relatively few numbers of IDPs in Sri Lanka.

The pressure being exerted by these countries has to be more than embarrassing the present Government because the Government has been extremely successful in steering negative international pressure to further gain popularity within Sri Lanka, even amongst moderate Opposition members.

Therefore, rehabilitating and sending former cadres overseas for employment needs to be further scrutinised - especially when former LTTE sympathisers are now appearing as peace doves and offering to sponsor their rehabilitation.

All those who cry foul from foreign countries must remember that it is Sri Lanka that had to face almost 30 years of terror - not just bombs going off, but suicide bombings and assassinations and none of these people can imagine how elated the people of the country are that in over a year, no bomb has gone off. Yes, there are security blockades and yes, at one time the security personnel manning these posts did not have proper training to question the public, but today despite the blocks, the security personnel are extremely courteous. Even in security posts in foreign countries, one would not find security personnel indulging in light conversation. They would only do what they are tasked to do.

Anyone travelling to the US would feel uncomfortable by the looks given by the border security men who have all rights to suddenly whisk anyone off for questioning if they have any doubts about them - ask Shah Rukh Khan who will give a first hand account of his experience.

In Japan everyone is fingerprinted - perhaps the exercise in Japan doesn’t violate anyone’s human rights, but it would be interesting to know how people here are likely to react if the Government was ever to announce fingerprinting.

At present there are over 200,000 IDPs located in several zones. Based on the demands of people overseas, if these IDPs are given “freedom of movement’ and asked to go wherever they liked, where are they to go? The areas of the North are no British Midlands; these people are no backpackers or wondering gypsies! These areas are heavily mined, most areas are jungle.

Have those people abroad, championing freedom of movement, thought about how these people are to get to where they came from, how they are to start a living or build a house? The glorious words “freedom of movement” will not house them, feed them or sustain their livelihood.

Those who are shouting for “freedom” must remember that these people did not come from one location - they are strangers among each other and given that these areas are highly mined, what would be their fate?

Would the international community and those attempting to resurrect the LTTE be accountable for lives and limbs lost?

Would they not be just a statistic to again humiliate the Government? People need to be mindful that there are dogs, military personnel, foreign NGOs and now the latest demining equipment, all spending hours in the scorching sun, just to demine these areas to allow these people to resettle - and not just to resettle, but to start a proper livelihood.

Perhaps they are not aware that the Government is providing each family Rs.25,000 along with free food for six months and free seed paddy to start their livelihood. It is also poignant to reiterate that most of these people were living practically under trees and did not have any “home” whilst being held as “human shields” by the LTTE. It would have been welcome to hear the same outbursts from these concerned parties during the times the people including the representatives of the Catholic Church were held forcibly by the LTTE. Furthermore, only 6003 of the 19,226 elders in welfare camps actually went to live amongst relatives - most others are now in elders’ homes. Have those, who cry “let them go”, thought of whether they have a home to go to - whether it is ruined? A government cannot just give handouts when a person or family suddenly desires to leave.

Government apprehension

There are accounting measures to be considered and therefore no government or even the private sector will allow emotions to get the better of them. If the Government is apprehensive about who is giving aid or coming to help, it has every right to be - how did the LTTE build seven airstrips, three of them big enough to land cargo planes? How did the LTTE build air-conditioned bunkers and sophisticated training units in the thick jungles? How did the LTTE manage to build 8ft high bunds and garrisons to delay Army advances? All these were done with the assistance given by some people who have put to shame the United Nations, NGOs and INGOs.

For most of us, the figures that the UN and other agencies were projecting prior to the complete annihilation of the LTTE was beyond belief, simply because the numbers - when considering the total population of the Tamil people and that 800,000 are resident overseas and half of the total population actually live outside of the North and East. It is pertinent to explore the actual numbers that Prabhakaran was herding from Kilinochchi to Mullaitivu and to ascertain if they are illicit migrants or mercenaries from India. What is certain though is that population figures just do not add up to meet the 12 per cent Tamil population in Sri Lanka.

A look at the Internal Displacement Monitoring Center which declares that there are 26m IDPs globally is not without errors. Immediately moving to Sri Lanka’s statistics, it declares upon UN estimates Sri Lanka’s IDP figure to be 495,000, totally ignoring the SL Government statistics that were given (we all know that this figure was purposely inflated as a means to delay the inevitable collapse and demise of the Tiger outfit and its leadership). Nevertheless, since this is the official data that we must go by, let us take examples of some realistic situations.

In Cyprus 200,000 Greek and Turkish Cypriots were displaced in 1974 - UN figures of 2003 kept these IDP figures at 210,000 - not much resettlement has happened.

The UN-Allied attack on Yugoslavia has left 226,079 displaced (Estimate includes some 207,000 registered IDPs in Serbia plus an estimated 20,000 unregistered Roma displaced in Serbia and 20,000 IDPs in Kosovo.) US, UK or EU are not too concerned about these people who are displaced directly as a result of them. Over 230,000 Afghans are still homeless since 2002 despite an increasing number of foreign forces in Afghanistan. In Iraq, which the US invaded not once but twice, they could not even find the weapons of mass destruction which was given as the reason to invade Iraq; it has left 4.2m as refugees and IDPs.

What many of these critics of Sri Lanka have not factored in is that Sri Lanka’s IDPs were worse off before they were brought in to these camps. For three months they have been fed, clothed and treated as human beings with a Third-World Government spending 9m per month on their welfare.

All those who did not care bring to world attention the plight of these people while they were held forcibly by the LTTE may like to respond to how the LTTE looked after these people.

We know the EU was fooled into tagging with US’s move to divide Yugoslavia which has ultimately resulted in a free flow of Jihadist militants in Europe and Osama now sending death threats to EU nations.

It was a perfect ploy to undermine the surge in the Euro against the dollar. Similarly, could India have also been fooled into tagging along with the anti-Sri Lanka program, failing to see that powerful nations may have been siding with the LTTE purely to use Sri Lanka as a base to carry out their agendas (with or without Eelaam)? Prabhakaran and his trusted lieutenants had no care for Eelaam or the Tamil people - they were merely interested in money, thus the massive wealth they had acquired through international rackets of which all these powerful nations are aware of and could stop if they wanted to. This notion does make sense in understanding and connecting the weird combination of people that formed an alliance to ensure that the LTTE prevailed in Sri Lanka.

(Courtesy: Asian Tribune)