Testimony by Andrew Stroehlein, International Crisis Group's Communications Director to the European Parliament Sub-committee on Human Rights, October 1, 2009.
“Since the end of the war and the defeat of the terrorist Tamil Tigers, the government of Sri Lanka has been imprisoning without charge over a quarter of a million ethnic Tamils displaced by the conflict. The state has locked them in internment camps in the north of the country. The camps are surrounded by barbed wire, and as an incident just this past weekend in Vavuniya demonstrates, the Sri Lankan army will shoot at anyone who tries to escape. Such restrictions on freedom in the absence of due process are a violation of both national and international law.
Conditions in the camps are poor and deteriorating. They are overcrowded, with medical facilities, access to clean water and sanitation all woefully inadequate. These conditions are expected to worsen dramatically with the onset of the monsoon season. The military is preventing humanitarian organisations, including the UN and International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC), from undertaking effective monitoring and protection in the camps.
The government has made numerous promises to release those held in the main camps, but these are little more than attempts to deliberately mislead the international community. Very little has come of any of Colombo's pledges. The worst kind of duplicity was seen just a few weeks ago, when the government announced it had released 10,000 displaced persons. In fact, we know at least 3,300 people had been moved from an internment camp to another detention facility. (UNHCR press release, 29 September 2009)
The government claims two reasons for continuing to imprison the internally displaced persons (IDPs), but neither argument holds up. First, they say de-mining must occur before people can be allowed back, but this is nonsense, as tens of thousands could be released immediately to live with host families now living in towns and villages free of mines.
Second, the government claims to be conducting a screening process to weed out Tamil Tigers from the 264,000 in the internment camps. The government itself will not say how many people have already been through the screening process, the ICRC has not been able to monitor any screening at all, and when you ask people in the camps themselves, no one seems to know much about any such process. The fact is, all talk of release dates and resettlement schedules is nonsense.
No donors should fund any substantial development work until there is a clear plan, with cross-ethnic consultation and some restoration of democratic rights. We must ensure international monies are not used to fund unfair and destabilising political arrangements that set the stage for the island's next violent ethnic conflict.” |
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