Comments on: Setting the record straight: Challenges of internment for IDPs http://groundviews.org/2009/07/07/setting-the-record-straight-challenges-of-internment-for-idps/ Groundviews is an award winning Sri Lankan citizen journalism initiative Mon, 13 Feb 2012 00:23:22 +0000 hourly 1 http://wordpress.org/?v=3.3.1 By: Rohini Hensman http://groundviews.org/2009/07/07/setting-the-record-straight-challenges-of-internment-for-idps/#comment-7502 Rohini Hensman Mon, 13 Jul 2009 13:34:00 +0000 http://www.groundviews.org/?p=1292#comment-7502 I will not waste anyone's time taking up all the trivial issues raised by Malinda, but just stick to the central question: Why are the Vanni IDPs being detained? According to Malinda, releasing them constitutes a security threat; in his earlier comment, he had suggested that a brainwashed LTTE cadre might blow up a bus if released, and he suggests that I underestimate the time required for screening. Well, let us take the case cited in Anandasangaree's letter to the President, that of a 61-year-old grandmother looking after her one-year-old grandchild in a camp. Her son, the child's father, had had his left leg amputated and was in Pulmoddai, and the child's mother had had her right leg amputated with multiple fractures of her left leg and was in Vavuniya. The grandmother was presumably free to leave the camp as a senior citizen, but could not do so because the authorities refused to release the baby, who would therefore have been without care if she left the camp. Now, I don't know how long it would take the authorities - or Malinda for that matter - to screen the one-year-old infant for involvement in the LTTE, but I, for one, would be able to decide in a split second that a tiny child of that age would not be blowing up a bus in the near future. And there are many such cases, according to Anandasangaree. Isn't the government making Sri Lanka the laughing-stock of the world by detaining babies as terrorist suspects? DO they seriously think that this baby is a terrorist? And if not, why are they keeping it in the camp and preventing this traumatised and badly injured family from seeking the solace of being reunited? I will not waste anyone’s time taking up all the trivial issues raised by Malinda, but just stick to the central question: Why are the Vanni IDPs being detained? According to Malinda, releasing them constitutes a security threat; in his earlier comment, he had suggested that a brainwashed LTTE cadre might blow up a bus if released, and he suggests that I underestimate the time required for screening. Well, let us take the case cited in Anandasangaree’s letter to the President, that of a 61-year-old grandmother looking after her one-year-old grandchild in a camp. Her son, the child’s father, had had his left leg amputated and was in Pulmoddai, and the child’s mother had had her right leg amputated with multiple fractures of her left leg and was in Vavuniya. The grandmother was presumably free to leave the camp as a senior citizen, but could not do so because the authorities refused to release the baby, who would therefore have been without care if she left the camp. Now, I don’t know how long it would take the authorities – or Malinda for that matter – to screen the one-year-old infant for involvement in the LTTE, but I, for one, would be able to decide in a split second that a tiny child of that age would not be blowing up a bus in the near future. And there are many such cases, according to Anandasangaree. Isn’t the government making Sri Lanka the laughing-stock of the world by detaining babies as terrorist suspects? DO they seriously think that this baby is a terrorist? And if not, why are they keeping it in the camp and preventing this traumatised and badly injured family from seeking the solace of being reunited?

]]> By: malinda seneviratne http://groundviews.org/2009/07/07/setting-the-record-straight-challenges-of-internment-for-idps/#comment-7457 malinda seneviratne Sat, 11 Jul 2009 09:22:35 +0000 http://www.groundviews.org/?p=1292#comment-7457 i agree with your hari. i agree with your hari.

]]> By: des http://groundviews.org/2009/07/07/setting-the-record-straight-challenges-of-internment-for-idps/#comment-7398 des Thu, 09 Jul 2009 09:21:05 +0000 http://www.groundviews.org/?p=1292#comment-7398 7,472 civilians reached government areas in the first week of February, according to info from the Media Centre for National Security (MCNS). There were also a few thousand IDPs in December and January, but I need to get the exact figures. By March 20 - 48,611 had reached government areas in total By April 21 - 111,520 By April 22 - 150,000 This means at least 7,472 have been in the camps for five months. Adding the inflows in Dec and Jan it would be closer to 10,000. This also means over three and a half months for around 41,000 and over two and a half months for 100,000 civilians. Around 2500 have been resettled in Mannar so far. 7,472 civilians reached government areas in the first week of February, according to info from the Media Centre for National Security (MCNS). There were also a few thousand IDPs in December and January, but I need to get the exact figures.

By March 20 – 48,611 had reached government areas in total
By April 21 – 111,520
By April 22 – 150,000

This means at least 7,472 have been in the camps for five months. Adding the inflows in Dec and Jan it would be closer to 10,000.

This also means over three and a half months for around 41,000 and over two and a half months for 100,000 civilians.

Around 2500 have been resettled in Mannar so far.

]]> By: Hari Narendran http://groundviews.org/2009/07/07/setting-the-record-straight-challenges-of-internment-for-idps/#comment-7381 Hari Narendran Wed, 08 Jul 2009 14:01:46 +0000 http://www.groundviews.org/?p=1292#comment-7381 Malinda, While many Tamils disliked the LTTE and their methods that does in no way mean that they were enamoured of the government. Many of those who followed the LTTE willingly did so because they feared worse at the hands of the government - some of it with justification. There is also a very significant proportion of the population that is truly supportive of the LTTE - based on a variety of factors, some of them being their own and the experiences of family members at the hands of extreme elements in the security forces and some if it in the belief that the government of Sri Lanka will never do right by its Tamil civilians. If the government intends on holding everyone that had sympathies (and i am not referring to cadres) for the Tigers then that is a completely unproductive exercise. It is these civilians that a 'hearts & minds' campaign must be targeted at. Holding them indefinitely in camps with less than ideal conditions, that limit their freedom of movement, expression and ability to draw upon family/friends to rebuild their lives is no way to win that battle. Malinda,

While many Tamils disliked the LTTE and their methods that does in no way mean that they were enamoured of the government. Many of those who followed the LTTE willingly did so because they feared worse at the hands of the government – some of it with justification.

There is also a very significant proportion of the population that is truly supportive of the LTTE – based on a variety of factors, some of them being their own and the experiences of family members at the hands of extreme elements in the security forces and some if it in the belief that the government of Sri Lanka will never do right by its Tamil civilians.

If the government intends on holding everyone that had sympathies (and i am not referring to cadres) for the Tigers then that is a completely unproductive exercise.

It is these civilians that a ‘hearts & minds’ campaign must be targeted at. Holding them indefinitely in camps with less than ideal conditions, that limit their freedom of movement, expression and ability to draw upon family/friends to rebuild their lives is no way to win that battle.

]]> By: malinda seneviratne http://groundviews.org/2009/07/07/setting-the-record-straight-challenges-of-internment-for-idps/#comment-7375 malinda seneviratne Wed, 08 Jul 2009 09:29:06 +0000 http://www.groundviews.org/?p=1292#comment-7375 I think Rohini is smart; so smart that she is quite adept at intellectual sleight of hand. In her piece titled ‘Why are the Vanni civilians still being held hostage?' she paints a bleak picture of IDP camps to begin with. In my response I called her out for misrepresentation and she responds here saying that she inserted the qualifier ‘in many cases'. Yes, she did. ‘In many cases abysmal' means ‘only in a few cases not-abysmal'. In her response, posted above, she paints a different picture: ‘it would be naïve in the extreme to think that these conditions (water, medical services, toilets, schools etc etc) obtain in all camps', meaning that some-not-all camps are ‘abysmal'. She adds that a court of law has determined ‘the existence of abysmal conditions in some camps'. It would be good if Rohini figures out what she really wants to say without being ambiguous. Rohini says she was not criticizing the government for conditions in the camps. Why not, by the way? Conditions are not perfect, and in some cases, wanting. But is she not criticizing the government when she asks, ‘why then, are these unfortunate people being penalised like this?' Some is doing the ‘penalizing' here, and if it is not ‘The Government', then who? She is clearly being mischievous when she compares and contrasts the IDP situation post-LTTE to that of the post-tsunami scenario. There is a huge difference because the tsunami displaced were spread out all along the coast line and where it was possible to house much smaller numbers in many, many facilities. She downplays the security concerns. In her first piece she said that screening could be done ‘in a few hours' and stretches the acceptable timeframe to ‘one month'. She believes that all it takes is to interview IDPs and based on what they say register and let them go. Now that's being super naïve. Few are putting up their hands and saying ‘I was with the LTTE' or ‘I helped the LTTE'. All those who are found to have connections with the LTTE are being transferred to different facilities. Rohini has some gumption to speak on behalf of all LTTE cadres and the IDPs: ‘low-level cadres and conscripts have more reason to hate the LTTE than to love it', ‘the IDPs hate the LTTE so much….' I am pleased that she is not part of the defence establishment because it is this kind of naivete that gave us the CFA and which let the whole business of taking the LTTE leadership out drag for years and years. She cites the International Centre for Strategic Defence which offers that IDP Centres are ideal places for the LTTE to re-group and re-organize'. She jumps from this warning to a ‘solution': free the IDPs'. She throws in the ‘win-heart-and-mind' caveat like so much icing. What a flourish! Does she not know that the heart-and-mind thing as per her ideals has seen LTTE cadres slipping out, that LTTE cadres suspected of carrying out or helping carry out suicide attacks are even as we speak being found in IDP centres, and does she forget that it is likely that some if not many of these IDPs willingly followed the LTTE as Prabhakaran retreated to the vicinity of the Nandikadal Lagoon? She admits that she was ‘talking about what various governments did to contribute to the war' and ‘not claiming there were no other contributors to it'. Well, she's written as though there were no other contributors; we can't imagine what she's got in her mind, can we? She does it again in this piece. ‘I am a critic of all varieties of Tamil nationalism,' she says and then ‘retraces the steps leading to the war'. Then she talks of ‘history', beginning with the disfranchisement of ‘Hill-country Tamils'. Is that where it all began, though? Where did Chelvanayagam come from and where from, Ramanathan? The excesses of successive Governments (by omission and commission) are very well document and most certainly have contributed to what we had to live through but historical process is not linear. Outcomes can be sourced to multiple factors and to pretend (as she has done) that Tamil chauvinism and militancy were products of Sinhala chauvinism alone is being intellectually fraudulent. And she just can't resist exaggeration: ‘…..massacre of thousands of Tamils in July 1983'! Where did she get ‘thousands of Tamils'? From www.tamilnet.com? I suppose she will take refuge once again in something like, ‘I didn't say that what I gave was a comprehensive list of steps that led to the war'. She is selective and therefore intellectually dishonest. In her first article she chooses statements made by various high-ranking officials and politicians and recommends that we take these as ‘official policy'. Now ignores statements made by other politicians that are antithetical to these statements. I suggested that it would be better to go by what the President says. Now she says ‘let's go by deed, and not word'! She brought ‘word' and when she slips on ‘word' she shifts to the deed-gear. From what I understand of how ‘civil administration' works and from what I know of INGOs, NGOs and UN Agencies, I am convinced that the situations in IDP camps and the whole process of reunifying families, registration, relief measures, solving day-to-day problems right up to the point of resettlement, rehabilitation and rebuilding would be far worse if it was not overseen by the security forces. Things were far from great at the beginning, but they are far from dismal now. And they can be much better too. They are getting better in fact. But I am not happy with a ‘perfect' IDP facility, don't get me wrong. I too want all these people out of these camps as quickly as possible. The President says ‘180 days' and frankly, I think this is a bit ambitious, but I am willing to go with that figure. I think everything should be done to expedite the process. And until it is completed I also want all facilities provided and improved. It is good to point out deficiencies as some have; I don't think those in charge are deaf to suggestions. It is good to give, too. I do my bit and I am sure Rohini and others do theirs. But I reiterate that we should have a sense of proportion. That is just rabble-rousing, not useful discourse. As for the issue of good governance, democracy and securing of equal rights to all citizens…I think it is not useful to confuse it with the IDP issue. While it is possible to argue that democratic intent of the Government is reflected in the democratic values championed in the whole process, I think it is best to keep in mind that this is a special situation and therefore to be less utopian about it. That struggle needs to take place and again, in this, I do my bit and I am sure Rohini and others do theirs. Cheers Malinda I think Rohini is smart; so smart that she is quite adept at intellectual sleight of hand.
In her piece titled ‘Why are the Vanni civilians still being held hostage?’ she paints a bleak picture of IDP camps to begin with. In my response I called her out for misrepresentation and she responds here saying that she inserted the qualifier ‘in many cases’. Yes, she did. ‘In many cases abysmal’ means ‘only in a few cases not-abysmal’. In her response, posted above, she paints a different picture: ‘it would be naïve in the extreme to think that these conditions (water, medical services, toilets, schools etc etc) obtain in all camps’, meaning that some-not-all camps are ‘abysmal’. She adds that a court of law has determined ‘the existence of abysmal conditions in some camps’. It would be good if Rohini figures out what she really wants to say without being ambiguous.
Rohini says she was not criticizing the government for conditions in the camps. Why not, by the way? Conditions are not perfect, and in some cases, wanting. But is she not criticizing the government when she asks, ‘why then, are these unfortunate people being penalised like this?’ Some is doing the ‘penalizing’ here, and if it is not ‘The Government’, then who?
She is clearly being mischievous when she compares and contrasts the IDP situation post-LTTE to that of the post-tsunami scenario. There is a huge difference because the tsunami displaced were spread out all along the coast line and where it was possible to house much smaller numbers in many, many facilities.
She downplays the security concerns. In her first piece she said that screening could be done ‘in a few hours’ and stretches the acceptable timeframe to ‘one month’. She believes that all it takes is to interview IDPs and based on what they say register and let them go. Now that’s being super naïve. Few are putting up their hands and saying ‘I was with the LTTE’ or ‘I helped the LTTE’. All those who are found to have connections with the LTTE are being transferred to different facilities.
Rohini has some gumption to speak on behalf of all LTTE cadres and the IDPs: ‘low-level cadres and conscripts have more reason to hate the LTTE than to love it’, ‘the IDPs hate the LTTE so much….’ I am pleased that she is not part of the defence establishment because it is this kind of naivete that gave us the CFA and which let the whole business of taking the LTTE leadership out drag for years and years.
She cites the International Centre for Strategic Defence which offers that IDP Centres are ideal places for the LTTE to re-group and re-organize’. She jumps from this warning to a ‘solution’: free the IDPs’. She throws in the ‘win-heart-and-mind’ caveat like so much icing. What a flourish! Does she not know that the heart-and-mind thing as per her ideals has seen LTTE cadres slipping out, that LTTE cadres suspected of carrying out or helping carry out suicide attacks are even as we speak being found in IDP centres, and does she forget that it is likely that some if not many of these IDPs willingly followed the LTTE as Prabhakaran retreated to the vicinity of the Nandikadal Lagoon?
She admits that she was ‘talking about what various governments did to contribute to the war’ and ‘not claiming there were no other contributors to it’. Well, she’s written as though there were no other contributors; we can’t imagine what she’s got in her mind, can we? She does it again in this piece. ‘I am a critic of all varieties of Tamil nationalism,’ she says and then ‘retraces the steps leading to the war’.
Then she talks of ‘history’, beginning with the disfranchisement of ‘Hill-country Tamils’. Is that where it all began, though? Where did Chelvanayagam come from and where from, Ramanathan? The excesses of successive Governments (by omission and commission) are very well document and most certainly have contributed to what we had to live through but historical process is not linear. Outcomes can be sourced to multiple factors and to pretend (as she has done) that Tamil chauvinism and militancy were products of Sinhala chauvinism alone is being intellectually fraudulent. And she just can’t resist exaggeration: ‘…..massacre of thousands of Tamils in July 1983′! Where did she get ‘thousands of Tamils’? From http://www.tamilnet.com? I suppose she will take refuge once again in something like, ‘I didn’t say that what I gave was a comprehensive list of steps that led to the war’. She is selective and therefore intellectually dishonest.
In her first article she chooses statements made by various high-ranking officials and politicians and recommends that we take these as ‘official policy’. Now ignores statements made by other politicians that are antithetical to these statements. I suggested that it would be better to go by what the President says. Now she says ‘let’s go by deed, and not word’! She brought ‘word’ and when she slips on ‘word’ she shifts to the deed-gear.
From what I understand of how ‘civil administration’ works and from what I know of INGOs, NGOs and UN Agencies, I am convinced that the situations in IDP camps and the whole process of reunifying families, registration, relief measures, solving day-to-day problems right up to the point of resettlement, rehabilitation and rebuilding would be far worse if it was not overseen by the security forces.
Things were far from great at the beginning, but they are far from dismal now. And they can be much better too. They are getting better in fact. But I am not happy with a ‘perfect’ IDP facility, don’t get me wrong. I too want all these people out of these camps as quickly as possible. The President says ‘180 days’ and frankly, I think this is a bit ambitious, but I am willing to go with that figure. I think everything should be done to expedite the process. And until it is completed I also want all facilities provided and improved. It is good to point out deficiencies as some have; I don’t think those in charge are deaf to suggestions. It is good to give, too. I do my bit and I am sure Rohini and others do theirs. But I reiterate that we should have a sense of proportion. That is just rabble-rousing, not useful discourse.
As for the issue of good governance, democracy and securing of equal rights to all citizens…I think it is not useful to confuse it with the IDP issue. While it is possible to argue that democratic intent of the Government is reflected in the democratic values championed in the whole process, I think it is best to keep in mind that this is a special situation and therefore to be less utopian about it. That struggle needs to take place and again, in this, I do my bit and I am sure Rohini and others do theirs.

Cheers
Malinda

]]> By: Manushi http://groundviews.org/2009/07/07/setting-the-record-straight-challenges-of-internment-for-idps/#comment-7370 Manushi Tue, 07 Jul 2009 18:31:44 +0000 http://www.groundviews.org/?p=1292#comment-7370 I don't think Malinda Seneviratne and Rohini Hensman are in opposite camps when it comes to the overall betterment of Sri-Lanka. There is no contradiction when the goal is to draw from our common humanity. I don’t think Malinda Seneviratne and Rohini Hensman are in opposite camps when it comes to the overall betterment of Sri-Lanka. There is no contradiction when the goal is to draw from our common humanity.

]]> By: Hari Narendran http://groundviews.org/2009/07/07/setting-the-record-straight-challenges-of-internment-for-idps/#comment-7366 Hari Narendran Tue, 07 Jul 2009 13:57:58 +0000 http://www.groundviews.org/?p=1292#comment-7366 Well said. Your point on totalitarianism vs democracy is bang on. The biggest failing of the Tamil cause was in making the struggle one of Tamil vs Sinhalese instead of one for the fundamental rights to life, liberty and pursuit of happiness, all of which have been progressively eroded by successive Sri Lankan governments. Refusing to distinguish between a corrupt, perverse State and the Sinhalese citizen has made it difficult to find the common ground necessary between the communities to drive the constitutional reform the country so badly needs. The true enemy of the country from the time of independence has been the state structure itself - stoking ethnic/tribal fears for political gain, violently repressing democratic political thought that it did not agree with, murder, torture, subverting the constitution and the rule of law, politicizing the police, judiciary, educational system. And this process continues today to the detriment of all citizens, not only the Tamils. Instead of continuing to detain the IDPs for a number of spurious reasons, the government should allow them the choice of deciding whether their homes or the camps are safer. Let them vote with their feet. If they choose to return to their homes there a plenty of NGOs - Sinhalese, Tamil and foreign willing and able to help them rebuild and resettle. Let commerce flow freely from North to South and vice versa without bogus security restraints. Disarm the pro-government militias of the EPDP and TVMP so that they can not suppress the political voices that will emerge as the citizens of the north and east regain their livelihoods and find their political voices. Surely we can all agree on that? Well said. Your point on totalitarianism vs democracy is bang on. The biggest failing of the Tamil cause was in making the struggle one of Tamil vs Sinhalese instead of one for the fundamental rights to life, liberty and pursuit of happiness, all of which have been progressively eroded by successive Sri Lankan governments. Refusing to distinguish between a corrupt, perverse State and the Sinhalese citizen has made it difficult to find the common ground necessary between the communities to drive the constitutional reform the country so badly needs. The true enemy of the country from the time of independence has been the state structure itself – stoking ethnic/tribal fears for political gain, violently repressing democratic political thought that it did not agree with, murder, torture, subverting the constitution and the rule of law, politicizing the police, judiciary, educational system. And this process continues today to the detriment of all citizens, not only the Tamils.
Instead of continuing to detain the IDPs for a number of spurious reasons, the government should allow them the choice of deciding whether their homes or the camps are safer. Let them vote with their feet. If they choose to return to their homes there a plenty of NGOs – Sinhalese, Tamil and foreign willing and able to help them rebuild and resettle. Let commerce flow freely from North to South and vice versa without bogus security restraints. Disarm the pro-government militias of the EPDP and TVMP so that they can not suppress the political voices that will emerge as the citizens of the north and east regain their livelihoods and find their political voices. Surely we can all agree on that?

]]> By: punitham http://groundviews.org/2009/07/07/setting-the-record-straight-challenges-of-internment-for-idps/#comment-7364 punitham Tue, 07 Jul 2009 08:54:13 +0000 http://www.groundviews.org/?p=1292#comment-7364 Rohini and Heshan, thank you. All over the island and all over the world, criticising the Sri Lankan government is interpreted as pro-LTTE by Sinhalese!! Even those foreign parliamentarians who criticise the Sri Lankan government are termed white tigers or tiger sympathisers even if they condemn the violent methods of the LTTE. Isn't it because they point out the injustice done to the Tamils by successive governments? There is a lot of evidence to show that running these camps is a second income for many in the armed forces - running the shops and taking bribery for release. But then many in the checkpoints in the Northeast have been having a second income for 2/3 decades. This continues because it's financial gain for the Sinhalese and financial loss for the Tamils. The major reason of Sinhalisation has been frantically going on in the East in the last few years and has begun in the North. Why the media has been kept out of the whole of Northeast can be understood even by children. The blatant drama the EU parliamentarian team had to endure in June 2008 at Ratmalana airport gives away the intent too easily. But then the Eleventh Special Session of UNHRC 6/7 weeks ago tells us that the UN is incapable of standing up for justice of the downtrodden. Rohini and Heshan, thank you.

All over the island and all over the world, criticising the Sri Lankan government is interpreted as pro-LTTE by Sinhalese!!

Even those foreign parliamentarians who criticise the Sri Lankan government are termed white tigers or tiger sympathisers even if they condemn the violent methods of the LTTE. Isn’t it because they point out the injustice done to the Tamils by successive governments?

There is a lot of evidence to show that running these camps is a second income for many in the armed forces – running the shops and taking bribery for release. But then many in the checkpoints in the Northeast have been having a second income for 2/3 decades.

This continues because it’s financial gain for the Sinhalese and financial loss for the Tamils. The major reason of Sinhalisation has been frantically going on in the East in the last few years and has begun in the North.

Why the media has been kept out of the whole of Northeast can be understood even by children. The blatant drama the EU parliamentarian team had to endure in June 2008 at Ratmalana airport gives away the intent too easily.

But then the Eleventh Special Session of UNHRC 6/7 weeks ago tells us that the UN is incapable of standing up for justice of the downtrodden.

]]> By: Heshan http://groundviews.org/2009/07/07/setting-the-record-straight-challenges-of-internment-for-idps/#comment-7358 Heshan Tue, 07 Jul 2009 03:40:12 +0000 http://www.groundviews.org/?p=1292#comment-7358 Excellent rejoinder on the part of Rohini Hensmen. The fact that the release of IDPs can be secured for 1-3 lakhs shows the hypocrisy and bogus nature of claims about "security threats", "brainwashing", and "landmines." It is time that people accept these camps for what they are: a form of COLLECTIVE PUNISHMENT. It has been noted elsewhere that the Government would never ever lock up vast numbers of innocent Sinhalese civilians in such camps. I myself have pointed out how this did not occur in the South despite the ferocity of three JVP rebellions. It is also worthwhile to note that the JVP did not fade away after being "defeated." The movement simply took a new direction. Therefore, it is foolhardy to think that the ideals of homeland & self-determination, espoused by Tamils from all walks of life, can be confined to barbed wire enclosures and weeded out through as yet unclear mechanisms. It is difficult to assess the motivations of the Government at this point, other than to state that they border on racism, paranoia, and xenophobia. Racism - it chose to lock up Tamils exclusively and reduce their mobility to zero. Paranoia and xenophobia - this we can we see in the enactment of draconian legislation to curb civil liberties and uphold the structure of a dictatorial state. The "international conspiracy" hysteria is further evidence. Underlying all of this, I believe, is a deep-rooted desire to hold on to the vote of confidence from the Southern voter, which came with the unprecedented military successes. What is becoming more and more clear is that there never was a post-war rehab plan. Those who reign from up on high are simply devising newer and bolder ways to hold on to their power. The unholy alliance with the military is facilitating this splendidly. Excellent rejoinder on the part of Rohini Hensmen. The fact that the release of IDPs can be secured for 1-3 lakhs shows the hypocrisy and bogus nature of claims about “security threats”, “brainwashing”, and “landmines.” It is time that people accept these camps for what they are: a form of COLLECTIVE PUNISHMENT. It has been noted elsewhere that the Government would never ever lock up vast numbers of innocent Sinhalese civilians in such camps. I myself have pointed out how this did not occur in the South despite the ferocity of three JVP rebellions. It is also worthwhile to note that the JVP did not fade away after being “defeated.” The movement simply took a new direction. Therefore, it is foolhardy to think that the ideals of homeland & self-determination, espoused by Tamils from all walks of life, can be confined to barbed wire enclosures and weeded out through as yet unclear mechanisms.

It is difficult to assess the motivations of the Government at this point, other than to state that they border on racism, paranoia, and xenophobia. Racism – it chose to lock up Tamils exclusively and reduce their mobility to zero. Paranoia and xenophobia – this we can we see in the enactment of draconian legislation to curb civil liberties and uphold the structure of a dictatorial state. The “international conspiracy” hysteria is further evidence. Underlying all of this, I believe, is a deep-rooted desire to hold on to the vote of confidence from the Southern voter, which came with the unprecedented military successes. What is becoming more and more clear is that there never was a post-war rehab plan. Those who reign from up on high are simply devising newer and bolder ways to hold on to their power. The unholy alliance with the military is facilitating this splendidly.

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