EXPOSED - INGOs and Sinhala refugees: The hidden agenda

By Lt. Col. A.S. Amarasekara

Lalith Athulathmudali was appointed as the Minister of National Security after the ethnic riots of 1983. I joined the minister and his brother Dayantha for breakfast at their Polhengoda residence one day. While at breakfast, the minister related to me an interesting story, which would prove beyond reasonable doubt that the Norwegians were even then surreptitiously helping the LTTE to settle Tamil families of Indian origin in the strategic area of Weli Oya, in order to link the Northern Province to the Eastern Province with a continuous land mass inhabited by Tamils.

People leaving Kebithigollewa villages in the aftermath of the LTTE attack in June this year.

Mr. Athulathmudali informed me that one or two families of estate Tamils were off loaded at the Madu Road Railway Station each time the train made its journey to repatriate Indian Tamils from the upcountry to Mannar from where they were taken by ferry to India. The off loaded Indian Tamil families were smuggled to the Manik Farm in Cheddikulam and remained there for a week or two. If the police failed to locate the missing families, they were next transported to Weli Oya, where many Tamil entrepreneurs had taken a massive stretch of land on lease, under the pretext of helping the government in its food production drive.

The Dollar, Kent, Ceylon Theatre and other farms owned by Tamil entrepreneurs were on this massive stretch of land in Weli Oya. The funding for this surreptitious effort I was told by the minister was made available through Redd Barna and its chief executive officer was none other than Jon Westborg, who later became Norway's ambassador in Sri Lanka.

Mr. Athulathmudali was subsequently responsible for getting these special leases cancelled. The farms owned by these Tamil entrepreneurs were taken over by the state and handed over to the Prisons Department to run open prison camps. The minister's intention was to alienate land to prisoners of good behaviour in a bid not only to rehabilitate them, but also to utilize them as a buffer to prevent separatist terrorists from occupying this strategic area.

When the LTTE realized that its effort at gaining control of this strategic area, by settling Tamil families with the assistance of Norwegian funding through Redd Barna had been effectively neutralized by the Minister of National Security, they attacked the Dollar and Kent Farm camps in 1984, massacring more than a hundred inmates. After this brutal attack, the then government was compelled to stabilize this area by bringing it under Army control. With the presence of the Army, it was made possible for the government to develop this area under the Mahawali E System, with the establishment of many farmer settlements.

Since the establishment of these farmer settlements in Weli Oya, they had been subjected to several LTTE attacks from the jungles of Mullaitivu. However, the Army had succeeded in repulsing these attacks. The LTTE failed to regain control of this strategic area although it was successful in occupying the village of Gajabapura in Weli Oya on or about 1997, with the fall of the Army forward defence line from Kanagarayankulam to Nedunkeni.

The only access route to this strategic area of Weli Oya from the predominantly Sinhala populated North Central Province is through Kebithigollewa and Padaviya in the Anuradhapura district. Having failed to achieve its objectives in Weli Oya, the LTTE is probably trying a flanking attack on the Sinhala villages in the Kebithigollewa Divisional Secretariat area to drive away the people and thus destabilize Weli Oya. The claymore mine explosion that killed 64 innocent Sinhala villagers on June 15 at Halmillawatiya and the subsequent claymore mine attack at Kalepuliyankulama that killed two home guards, may be a well-planned effort to drive away the Sinhala people in villages situated along the only approach road to Weli Oya.

I made a visit to these threatened villages in the Kebithigollewa area with lawyer S. L. Gunasekara, Wing Commander Ranjith Ratnapala and Gamini Amarasekera recently and found that most of the Sinhala villages situated on the only approach to Weli Oya have been abandoned and that most of the families that were living in these villages have shifted to camps set up near the Kebithigollewa town by the UNHCR and the ICRC and other international NGOs.

The efforts made by the Divisional Secretary to resettle the people in the abandoned villages are proving to be futile because not only food, clothing and shelter, but also other gifts such as agricultural implements are being issued to inmates in these camps. The people are told by these INGOs that all these facilities and more will only be provided to those who are resident in the IDP camps and not to those who go back to their villages.

It is a well-known fact that a majority of the local staff in both the UNHCR and the ICRC are Tamils. Therefore, there is always the possibility that the LTTE is influencing them to facilitate the exodus of Sinhala families from the threatened villages into IDP camps.

If these IDP camps are allowed to continue, firstly it will benefit the INGOs to collect funds abroad. Much of these funds will be utilized for administrative purposes with the staff utilizing the donations for accommodation in the best of hotels and for transport in the best of four-wheel-drive vehicles, while the internally displaced will receive a pittance. Secondly, as mentioned before, the exodus of the people from the Sinhala villages on the approach road to Weli Oya will destabilize the Weli Oya settlements that were established by the government with much time, effort and money.

The IDP camps, if allowed to continue, will contribute towards destroying the agricultural-based village life in the Kebithigollewa area. Much of the agricultural land owned by those who have left the villages has already been destroyed by wild elephants. These IDP families are being issued with dry rations over and above what they actually need. The storage space in the tents issued to the displaced families is limited. Therefore much of what they receive in excess is stolen by others and this has led to much disunity within the camps. The camp dwellers who were once hard working cultivators are now getting used to living off the dole and are becoming lazy and lethargic. During our visit to these camps, we found that agricultural implements such as mammoties, pick axes and axes had been issued to refugees. These are of little or no use to them as they have already abandoned their agricultural land. The men would, we were told, sell these items to town shops at whatever price that was offered. The money is invariably used to purchase liquor. Most men in IDP camps return to their family tents in the evenings drunk. When their wives protest, they beat up their wives. The family unity is thus shattered and an environment is naturally created where it is difficult to bring up children. The privacy that women enjoyed in their village homes is also not available in IDP camps and this brings many social problems in its wake.

Considering all the ill effects in continuing with IDP camps at Kebithigollewa, it is suggested that the President instructs the Divisional Secretary to draw up a master plan to resettle the people in the abandoned Sinhala villages in Kebithigollewa as soon as the forward defence line is completed.

The INGOs, which now work with the blessings of the Minister of Disaster Relief, should be instructed to work according to this master plan drawn up by the Divisional Secretary.

The valuable Sinhala Buddhist culture in the villages of Kebithigollewa - a culture that was protected and preserved over the years by our ancestors -- is under severe threat, by the actions of INGOs now at work in IDP camps. Our culture, our values and our future generation are more important to us than the money that the INGOs are bringing into this country for what they call disaster relief work. If their activities in Kebithigollewa are well analyzed, it would be found that their work is disaster induction rather than disaster relief.