by Nirmala Carvalho

A seminar promoted by the Ecumenical Christian Forum For Human Rights on the “situation of the Tamil population in Sri Lanka”. Interventions tell the story of a people that has “become a minority” in its own homeland; the dramatic conditions of the refugees in the “death camps”; the appeals to India, the UN and the international community.

Madurai (AsiaNews) - “There is a serious risk that the crimes committed by the government in Sri Lanka will be forgotten”, Fr. Jeuist Santhanam warns AsiaNews, as he reveals the reasons behind a seminar held yesterday in Madurai in the Indian State Tamil Nadu, on the “situation of the Tamil population in Sri Lanka”.

Over 300 people took part in the seminar promoted by the Christian Forum For Human Rights (Ecfhr). Priests and religious, protestant pastors and human rights activists discussed the situation of the Tamil people in Sri Lanka, the current reality and the historic reasons that led to the group becoming the minority on the Island nation.

A. Mariadoss, a Tamil refugee and coordinator of the Jesuit refugee service (Jrs), opened proceedings, speaking in his intervention about the past ten years in the history of the Tamils of Sri Lanka.  He explained how the Sinhala government systematically enacted laws to curb the rights of Tamils; such as housing Sinhalese on Tamil land in the name of development thus reducing the ethnic group to a minority in the own homeland.  The JRS coordinator also described how “Tamil leaders first chose the path of the satyagraha or non-violent, democratic struggle” and that because “there was no positive development from the side of the Sinhalese government, the Tamil youth were left with no other option but the armed struggle for liberation”.

Then S.V.L. Michael, professor of economics from St. Xavier’s college, Palayamkottais in Tamil Nadu spoke on the current situation for Tamils in Sri Lanka.  The professor described how various countries are attempting to strengthen their influence in the region at the expense of Tamils. He also criticised the indifferent attitude of the Indian government. A lot of attention was paid to the plight of the refugees.  Michael commented that that the special camps are 'death camps', where the Tamils are left with no food, water, clothing, hygiene facilities or privacy.  He compared them to the concentration camps of Hitler. Professor Michael told of how the young people especially are lined up every day for identification parade. One will be taken to identify the tiger in the lined up youth. if he points out any one they are taken away from the camp and tortured ruthlessly.

The seminar concluded with an intervention from mediator Jesuit Fr. Jebamalai Raja, who concluded announcing that Ecumenical Christian Forum For Human Rights will continue their campaigning in favour of the Tamil population of Sri Lanka and would meet soon  to design the next course of action to pressurise the Indian government, international community and UN to intervene.

• sri
• lanka
• tamil
• population
• human
• rights
• torture
• refugee
• camps
• india