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Thousands of Tamil Sri Lankans are fleeing their country fearing government persecution after the Tamil Tiger rebels lost a 30-year battle for an independent homeland earlier this year. But the government says they have nothing to fear. Rebecca Henschke reports.Download MP3

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MARCO WERMAN: The civil war in Sri Lanka is over, but the work of reconciliation has barely begun.  For 25 years, Tamil Tiger rebels fought for an independent homeland for Sri Lanka’s minority Tamils.  Eighty to a hundred thousand people were killed.  Then, in May, Sri Lankan government troops routed the rebels. The war had ended and the government promised that the Tamils would be accorded equal rights as citizens. But many Tamils say they are being persecuted. Rebecca Henschke spoke with some of them in Colombo.

REBECCA HENSCHKE: Vijayan opens the door to his family’s two room apartment in Colombo.  He peers down the alleyway to see if anyone is following us.

VIJAYAN:  There is no safe place in Sri Lanka for Tamils.  Now the government is dominating and Sinhalese are the dominating force in Sri Lanka and the government has a very active military machine.  There are attacking, still abductions going on, disappearance going on.  So most of the people are Tamils, the disappeared people are Tamils. No more safe places to escape. That’s our fate.

HENSCHKE: Vijayan and his family fled the northern city of Jaffna two years ago when he saw his name on a poster under the heading “enemies of the state.”  Men in uniform later came to his house asking for him.

VIJAYAN: I thought I was finished and no more. That’s the final thoughts that I didn’t think I’ll be with my parents.

HENSCHKE: Vijayan insists he was never involved with Tamil Tiger rebels, but was a student activist for human rights.  Months after the end of the war, his mother Saratha still fears for her son’s life.

SARATHA:  [Translated] I want him to study and finish his degree, but if he goes back he may have to face some of the problem. So I don’t want him to face that, but I’m very worried about him.

HENSCHKE: Vijayan says he wants to go back north to finish his degree and then leave Sri Lanka.

VIJAYAN: Otherwise we don’t have an opportunity to find our future.  That’s our one and only opportunity to find our future.

HENSCHKE: Tamils like Vijayan are particularly worried about the continued military detention of over 100,000 Tamils in former rebel controlled areas up north.  The Sinhalese dominated government suspects Tamil Tigers are hiding among the displaced civilians or IDPS in the camps.  Mahinda Samarasinghe is the Human Rights Minister.

MAHINDA: The IDPs can and will be permitted to leave the relief villages and welfare centers once they are screened. Many thousands of applications have been received, requesting the release of these IDPs to the custody of host families. It is our responsibility to ensure that these checks are stringent.

HENSCHKE: But Opposition Tamil politician Mano Genesha says this process amounts to collective punishment.

MANO GENESHA: The people are being kept against their will in the barbed wired fence.  It’s built for security with military guard.  So people are kept against their will.  What is that? What do you call that? It is sheer terrorism.

HENSCHKE: Journalists and rights groups have been barred from entering the camps.  Mano Genesha has filed a law suit demanding access.

GANESHA: We need to know what’s really happening there.  We need our government as a transparency. Now, government is giving only head counts. They say 300,000 [INDISCERNIBLE]. Then later they said 290,000, 280,000.  There are some differences from their last head count and the current head count, at least about 10,000 people. They said 10,000 people have gone missing.  I wish to ask the government where is this large scale hole through which people go away?

HENSCHKE: The government has promised that those inside will be given greater freedom of movement starting next month, and President Mahinda Rajapaksa says the largest camp will be closed early next year.  His administration claims it’s liberated the Tamil people and they can now live in peace and prosperity.

PRESIDENT MAHINDA RAJAPAKSA: [In Tamil Language]

HENSCHKE: Addressing the Sri Lankan Parliament last May, President Rajapaksa announced, “We have removed the word ‘minorities’ from our vocabulary.”  But Tamils say they still feel they are being singled out in the capital.  On a recent evening, my Tamil pedi-cab driver was stopped twice in the space of less than a half mile.  Young armed soldiers kept asking lots of questions.

Regina Ramalingam of the Sri Lankan Institute for Peace says for Tamils like her this kind of questioning happens almost daily.

REGINA RAMALINGAM: You are made to understand that you are, you are a different person because you are from a different community.  The Tamil person, as a Tamil person I know I am being harassed.

HENSCHKE: Authorities maintain these security checks are preventing attacks from remaining Tamil Tigers rebels.  They recently approved a 50% increase for military spending, and plan to build two large military bases in former rebel-held territory. But Jehran Perera says the government needs to change its wartime mentality if it wants to create a lasting peace.  He’s director of the Sri Lankan Institute for Peace and an ethnic Sinhalese.

JEHRAN PERERA: There is always the possibility of guerilla attacks. I am quite sure that not all the Tigers have been eliminated.  I think that sleeper cells would still be there, but that is not a reason to have the type of enormous security precautions we are continuing to have, which has denied us the fruits of the end of the war.  The war has ended but it appears that all the institutions of war are still in place

HENSCHKE: He says Sri Lanka’s government needs to realize that in a democratic society you have to take risks.  Even though there may be a danger of lingering terrorist cells, he adds, you can’t turn the capital into a military state.  For the World this is Rebecca Henschke, Colombo, Sri Lanka.

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