INTERNALLY DISPLACED PERSONS--------------------------------------------
Strangers in their own land
There is no policy, no inclination, and no serious attempt on the part of the Sri Lankan government to deal with the country’s 800,000 internally displaced people
Caught in the brutal war between the Sri Lankan army (SLA) and the rebel Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE), the civilians in the northern and eastern district of Sri Lanka have had to pay a high price. The seemingly endless war has spawned large-scale displacement, resulting in large numbers of internally displaced persons (IDPs), and a smaller number of refugees. An estimated 600,000 people have lost their lives, 300,000 children have been orphaned and approximately 800,000 are internally displaced.
Disagreements over the definition of IDPs and the lack of institutional resources have made the IDPs victims of injustices from all sides.
While different displaced communities experience different types of deprivations, IDPs in general continue to be deprived of some of their most basic needs such as food, shelter, adequate standards of living, right to work and right to information. At best, IDPs have been ignored and left to fend for themselves. At worst they are victims of arbitrary arrest, abduction, rape, torture, execution, disappearances and harassment from the Sri Lankan military, paramilitary troops and the LTTE.
Forty percent of the total number of displaced persons live in the Tamil dominated Jaffna peninsula, several hundreds of whom have been displaced by a series of military offensives following the anti-Tamil riots in 1956, 1958, 1977, 1981 and 1983. International aid workers have frequently described the displaced people, particularly those in Jaffna as one of the most “professional” refugees ever seen. Every family is known to keep a bag packed with the bare essentials - ready to flee when the bombers screech overhead. The international community however has ignored the plight of these people.
Although Sri Lanka's human rights record has worsened, development aid from donor countries has continued to flow in. However, despite huge humanitarian assistance in the form of grants and loans for the displaced in the north-east, the condition of the displaced has remained unchanged.
The assured supply of funds has only abetted the government's policy of State repression and tyranny as a substantial portion of this aid has been used to finance military operations that have intensified the violence against the Tamils in the northern region. The government has made a few cosmetic reforms by appointing a human rights task force and several commissions of inquiry.
These measures can hardly be considered credible in a country frequently mired in Emergency and “anti-terrorism” legislation, and military and police tyranny.
The government has furthermore enacted several laws and regulations that inhibit the investigation and documentation of the conditions of displaced civilians. The laws also provide impunity to those military and government officials who commit human rights violations against the displaced population. The present policy of the government on resettlement of displaced persons does not allow the displaced to settle outside their districts of origin, which in most cases are too unsafe for return and resettlement. (see box below)
Efforts by the Sri Lankan government have been ad-hoc and inconsistent. An indeterminate number of displaced families live in severe deprivation; many displaced families, especially in LTTE controlled areas, receive no assistance. The condition of displaced persons living in refugee camps - referred to as Restricted Welfare Centres (WCS) in government documents - continues to deteriorate. These so-called Restricted Welfare Centres more often than not function as abduction and torture camps. Prostitution, domestic violence, rape, incest and child abuse are rampant in most centres. The usual perpetrators are the homeguards, and the victims Tamils. The official terminology for displaced persons residing in Vavuniya's restricted Welfare Centres is indicative of the status of the IDPs - residents are referred to as “inmates”. They may or may not be released from camps and are in the custody of the State.
According to statistics provided by the Commissioner General of Essential Services (CGES), as of March 2001, there were approximately 175,907 people in 348 government welfare centres in the districts of Jaffna, Kilinochchi, Mullaitivu, Mannar, Vavuniya, Trincomalee, Batticaloa, Ampara, Puttalam, Anuradhapura, Kurunegala, Polonnaruwa, Colombo and Matale. Clearly, this is grossly inadequate for the roughly 800,000 displaced Tamils.
The UNHCR has set up a number of camps for IDPs, but due to government-imposed restrictions on the movement of civilians, many IDPs cannot reach them. Many people have moved into churches, temples and mosques with little food and the cold cement floor for bedding. Moreover, the makeshift shelters have few toilets and insufficient water and electricity to support all of the IDPs. While major epidemics have been avoided in camps, this has, in the judgement of one government official, been “entirely a matter of luck.”
The Sri Lankan government has continued to hold the civilians/IDPs to ransom. Since 1997 there have been numerous instances when the Government and military have restricted relief activities of international and local NGOs. The Sri Lankan government has always suspected that part of the food sent to refugee camps is expropriated by the LTTE. Food and medicines are often subjected to embargoes and manipulation, especially during active operations.
Thousands of displaced families, such as Muslim IDPs, have lived in temporary conditions for more than a decade. Forcibly evicted by the LTTE solely for the reason that they belonged to another religious-ethnic group, the entire Muslim population in the northern provinces of Jaffna and Mannar continues to live, more than ten years later, as outcasts in Puttalam, Anuradhapura and Kurunegala.
Censorship and a lack of access to the North and east have allowed human rights violations to take place behind closed doors. One of the most alarming patterns of violence is the involuntary disappearance of Tamils that usually follows instances of insurrection in the northern and eastern provinces. According to the Forum for Human Dignity, a local NGO based in Colombo, police and security officers have full freedom to stop any Tamil at checkpoints located in public areas, or even to enter and search their house, out of suspicion that the person may be affiliated with the LTTE. In some instances it has been noted that entire populations of Tamils residing in a particular area are moved by public transportation to a larger security checkpoint where each member is screened and, at random, some Tamils are taken for "further questioning", often never to be seen again. Nearly 700 disappearances have taken place since 1995 when government forces took control of Jaffna.
Despite the government's decision to close all secret detention centres and the requirement of the May 2000 Emergency Regulations for disclosure of such facilities, clandestine centres such as the Army's Joseph camp in Vavuniya continue to be in operation.
Tamils, including those displaced, continue to face arrest and detention for failure to carry registration documents when travelling. Tamils with a northern address are more likely to face harassment at checkpoints.
This practice has continued despite the Attorney General's advice that people need not carry registration documents. Tamil civilians from the North seeking safety have been frequently stopped at Vavuniya and are often unable to proceed south. The Government's migration policy has thus made it exceedingly difficult if not impossible to settle or travel south of Vavuniya or, once in Vavuniya, to freely relocate in any of the five northern districts.
The embargo on essential items was lifted and restrictions on travel to and from LTTE-held areas were eased following the recent announcement of a ceasefire by the new government.
There is nevertheless no comprehensive policy pertaining to, nor a ministry that has overall responsibility for, IDPs. While the Sri Lankan authorities at the central government level have assumed some responsibility toward providing basic humanitarian assistance to IDPs, there is indifference at the provincial and local governmental level. Discriminated against on grounds of ethnic and religious identity, several IDPs are arbitrarily disentitled to assistance. Government efforts have largely been motivated politically rather than out of genuine concern for those displaced.
The Government has also reportedly hindered the efforts of the international community to provide relief to displaced families. In several instances, Government estimates of the IDPs have been woefully inadequate. The total number of displaced people in LTTE-held areas is often underestimated, the motive being to reduce aid levels.
By the same token, the LTTE has been known to overestimate this figure. Evidently a principal motive behind aiding the displaced is to score political points with the international community.
Diplomatic interventions made by the UN and other international parties have failed to highlight the nature of the human rights problem involved. Humanitarian agencies often function within the framework dictated by the Government and the security forces, with little critical input. Also, the scope and mandate of the various aid agencies is unclear.
The continuing rise in the number of IDPs is evidence that financial aid is no substitute for political action or for disarming aggressors. It is imperative that relief to the internally displaced match these individuals’ needs and not the needs of a political and public relations apparatus.
Moving plight
According to 2001 report by the Centre for Policy Alternatives (CPA), the ‘crash’ relocation programmes started in the districts of Vavuniya and Vengalacheddikulam are being conducted in blatant violation of the Guiding Principles of Internal Displacement.
The relocation programme has raised serious security concerns among IDPs.
The “locations identified by the civil and military administration are unsafe
as they are very close to the Front Defence Lines (FDLs). Some displaced persons
suspect that the villages have been built to act as buffers and shield army
camps, such as one near the vicinity of Tharanikulam and Maravankulam
village”.
The alleged involvement of the UNHCR in such programmes has also raised
several questions. The CPA alleges that the UNHCR played a key role in this
project and is therefore culpable. The UNHCR however is on record of having
advised the government against resettling the IDPs in villages in Vavuniya.
However it excludes the three villages of Tharanikulam, Maravankulam and Sudanthipuram on the account that if “hard and fast rules on resettlement are adhered to, no place will be safe for resettlement”.
