[lg policy] Sri Lanka Tamils: freed from camps, their votes may give them new clout

[Harold Schiffman]

Sri Lanka Tamils: freed from camps, their votes may give them new clout

Sri Lanka Tamils may have been freed from camps because of the
politics surrounding upcoming elections as much as international
pressure.

By Mian Ridge | Correspondent of The Christian Science Monitor

New Delhi
Sri Lanka's government freed hundreds of thousands of Tamils from vast
internment camps in the north of the island Tuesday – prompted as much
by upcoming elections as concerns over human rights, say analysts. In
May, when the Army finally routed the rebel Liberation Tigers of Tamil
Eelam (LTTE) from their northern stronghold, much of the population of
that area – close to 300,000 people - was imprisoned in overcrowded
camps. Tuesday morning, fewer than half that number were thought to
remain.  As conditions deteriorated, international pressure mounted,
along with warnings that continued detainment would make
reconciliation between the island's Tamil minority and Sinhalese
majority increasingly elusive. That ethnic conflict was the root of
the LTTE's long war against the government.

But internal politics are likely to have done more to secure the
freedom of the northern Tamils than foreign pressure. "[For] the first
time in a long time, the government has been forced to focus on the
minorities," says Jehan Perera, executive director of the National
Peace Council of Sri Lanka, a nonpartisan advocacy group. That change
was ushered in last month, when Sri Lanka's Army chief, Gen. Sarath
Fonseka, stepped down as head of the military and announced he would
run as the opposition candidate against President Mahindra Rajapakse
in general elections in January.

President Rajapakse had called an early election to take advantage of
the popularity garnered by his historic defeat of the LTTE. But
analysts say General Fonseka's bid threatens to split the president's
Sinhalese voter base – forcing Rajapakse to court the vote of the
Tamil minority. Fonseka, an ardent Sinhalese nationalist, has also
sought to play to Tamil and moderate sentiments, voicing concern over
the current situation of the refugees. In his letter of resignation as
head of the Army, he criticized both the "appalling conditions" in the
camps and the president's failure to reconcile Sri Lanka's Tamils and
Sinhalese.

Mr. Perera says it is questionable whether minorities will back
Fonseka, who led a brutal military crackdown on the LTTE in which
thousands of civilian Tamils were killed, although "my own belief is
that they will be prepared to back someone new," he says. "His
standing for the polls is good for the country, because he has
strengthened the opposition," he adds.

Freed Tamils: tough journey home

Many of the newly freed Tamils face a difficult task returning to
their villages hundreds of miles away from the camps in which they
have lived for months. Mr. Perera said their journeys home would not
be as easy as the government had suggested, as roads were blocked and
there was little public transport. He added that the government's
handout of 5,000 rupees ($43) per household was entirely inadequate
for people returning to homelands decimated by war, with ruined
buildings and patchy sanitation. Experts also say that with much of
the north still dangerously mined, many Tamils will choose to remain
in the camps for now.

Meanwhile, Sri Lanka's government still has to prove that it is
serious about bringing lasting peace by giving Tamils some form of
political autonomy. Over the weekend, Sri Lanka was blocked from
hosting the next meeting of Commonwealth leaders in protest of
Colombo's military repression of Tamils during the last phase of
fighting. Australia and Britain united to block Sri Lanka's bid for
the 2011 summit, which it had formally submitted in 2007. That meeting
will now be hosted by Australia.

from the December 01, 2009 edition -
http://www.csmonitor.com/2009/1201/p06s08-wosc.html
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