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INDICTMENT AGAINST SRI LANKA
SINHALA COLONISATION OF
TAMIL HOMELAND
Walter Schwarz, Minority Rights Group on Colonisation in Eastern Province,
1979
Virginia Leary,
International Commission of Jurists, (ICJ) on State Colonisation of
Traditional Tamil Areas, June 1981
On forced eviction of Tamils
- Robert Kilroy-Silk, M.P. and Roger Sims, M.P United Kingdom
Parliamentary Human Rights Group Report, February 1985
"Sri Lanka has
announced plan to colonise all Tamil areas with Sinhala settlers to
reflect the nationwide population ratio of 75% Sinhalese and 25% other minority ethnic groups."
Joint Memorandum submitted by a group of nine Non
Governmental Organisations, February 1985
"All wars are fought for land.. By settling the (Sinhala) people in the Maduru Oya
we were seeking to have in the Batticaloa zone a mass of persons opposed
to a separate state."
Sinhala Mahaveli
Ministry Official, Herman Gunaratne in the Sri Lanka Sunday Times, 26 August 1990
"The
Sinhala people should know that the so called state aided 'colonisation
schemes' within Tamil areas having nothing to do with solving
landlessness among the Sinhala poor" -
Open Letter
from the Central Committee of the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam, to
the Sinhala people, 22 September 1991
Government Policies Threaten Economic Future and Ancestral Homeland of Tamils
- Professor Chelvadurai
Manogaran, July 1996
Professor Chelvadurai
ManogaranJune 1997
Sinhala Colonisation in the Hereditary Tamil Regions of
the Island of Sri Lanka - K.Satchithanandan, March 2000
Buddha’s Statues - Symbol of Sinhalese Hegemony,
- A.Thangavelu, May 2005
Sinhala Colonisation of East Tamil Eelam - Arujna, Oru
Paper
Editorial, May 2007
Presentation
on
Post Resettlement Development Plan
for
The Eastern Region by M.S.Jayasinghe Advisor Sri Lanka Ministry of
Nation Building and Estate Infrastructure Development
President Rajapakse's Colonisation of East Tamil Eelam,
2007 -
"...whilst the current landscape in the East is one of humanitarian crisis and endemic human rights abuses, the current focus on human rights issues, which whilst performing the essential task of exposing the authoritarianism and violence of the current regime, is insufficient to capture the cold calculations and reasoning in the intentions of the Sri Lankan State which has once again returned
to the the logic of Sinhala colonisation.." David Rampton, Lecturer, SOAS, University of London
Walter Schwarz: Minority Rights Group Report on Tamils of Sri Lanka, 1979
"In 1978, Tamil spokesmen complained that the momentum of colonisation was
greater than ever. They referred in particular to the Mahaveli Diversion project,
supported by the World Bank, in the Eastern Province, under which Sinhalese families were
being brought in from the South. They pointed out that the Maduruoya Scheme in the Eastern
Province, backed by Canadian assistance, was having the same effect."
Virginia Leary
on State Colonisation of Traditional Tamil Areas - Ethnic Conflict and Violence in Sri Lanka -
Report of a Mission to Sri Lanka on behalf of the International Commission of Jurists,
July/August 1981
"...Tamils have objected to State colonisation schemes which import large
numbers of Sinhalese into traditional Tamil areas. The Tamil concern about
colonisation is related to insecurity about their physical safety and to fears that Tamils
will become a minority in their traditional homelands. The government maintains that since
Sri Lanka is a single country citizens may freely move into any part of the country and
that it is necessary to transplant some populations to more productive areas. The Tamils
answer that they are not opposed to individual migration but only to large scale
government colonisation schemes which change the ethnic composition of an area...
The government should give renewed attention to Tamil concern over government sponsored
colonisation schemes which bring large numbers of Sinhalese into Tamil areas and thus
change the ethnic composition in such areas. This is particularly important in view of
the insecurity of Tamils due to communal violence against them in areas where they live as
a minority..."
On forced eviction of Tamils -
Robert Kilroy-Silk, M.P. and Roger Sims, M.P United Kingdom
Parliamentary Human Rights Group Report on February 1985
"Witnesses also confirmed
allegations made to us that whole villages have been emptied and neighbourhoods have been
driven by the army from their homes and occupations and turned into refugees dependent on
the government for dry rations... The human rights transgressed in such a course of action
do not need to be detailed here...
More important is that rightly or wrongly it tends to lend credibility to the view so
frequently put to us that it is the Government's objective either to drive the Tamils out
of the north and east in sufficient numbers so as to reduce their majority in the north
and in the east, a process that would be aided by the Government's announced policy of
settling armed Sinhalese people in former Tamil areas... or to drive the Tamils out
altogether.
We cannot make a judgement on this issue. We can say, without doubt, that the Government
is driving Tamils from their homes and does intend to settle Sinhalese people in these
areas. This, at least, lends support to the more extreme version believed by most
Tamils."
Professor Chelvadurai
ManogaranJune 1997 [full
text]
"Sri Lanka has
announced plan to colonise all Tamil areas with Sinhala settlers to
reflect the nationwide population ratio of 75% Sinhalese and 25% other minority ethnic groups." Joint Memorandum submitted by a group of nine Non
Governmental Organisations, February 1985 [see
full text]
consisting of the Anti-Slavery Society for the Protection
of Human Rights, Centre Europe - Tiers Monde, Disabled Peoples International,
International Federation of Human Rights, International League for the Rights and
Liberation of People, Pax Christi International, Pax Romana - International Catholic
Movement for Intellectual and Cultural Affairs, International Movement of Catholic
Students, International Movement of Catholic Students, International Movement for
Fraternal Union among Races and People, and World Student Christian Federation at the UN
Commission on Human Rights in February 1985
"The President of Sri Lanka has
announced his Government's plan to colonise all Tamil areas with Sinhala settlers to
reflect the nationwide population ratio of 75% Sinhalese and 25% other minority ethnic
groups. This is calculated to undermine the numerical strength of Tamils in areas
where they have traditionally lived.
The Minister of National Security told conference of District Ministers on January 8, 1985
that the only way to root out terrorism was to remove the concept of 'traditional
homelands' and create parity between different communities. He announced that according to
the plan 30,000 Sinhalese families will be settled in the Tamil north this year.
Under the plan 250 families would be selected from each of the Sinhala constituencies for
resettlement in the northern province. Such settlements would be created this year in
Killinochchi, Vavuniya, Mullaitivu and Mannar districts and extended to the Jaffna
Peninsula next year.
The new settlers would be given military training and equipment to safeguard
themselves. In fact, in certain predominantly Tamil areas like Vavuniya, Mannar,
Mullaitivu and Trincomalee districts, guns have already been distributed. In its recent
report the CRM has drawn attention to the arming of civilians: 'Civilians in the
Trincomalee district have been given arms by police, ostensibly for their
self-defence. Instances have been given reported of such individuals and groups using arms
to terrorise persons of the Tamil community.'"
"All wars are fought for land.. By settling the (Sinhala) people in the Maduru Oya
we were seeking to have in the Batticaloa zone a mass of persons opposed to
a separate state." Sinhala Mahaveli
Ministry Official, Herman Gunaratne in the Sri Lanka Sunday Times, 26 August 1990
The Sinhala Buddhist Dimbugala
Priest
with Sinhala armed settlers in Maduru Oya, 1984
"All wars are fought for land...The
plan for settlement of people in Yan Oya and Malwathu Oya basins was worked out before the
communal riots of 1983. Indeed the keenest minds in the Mahaveli, some of whom are holding
top international positions were the architects of this plan. My role was that of an
executor...
We conceived and implemented a plan which we thought would secure the territorial
integrity of Sri Lanka for a long time. We moved a large group of 45,000 land hungry
(Sinhala) peasants into the Batticaloa and Polonnaruwa districts of Maduru Oya delta. The
second step was to make a similar human settlement in the Yan Oya basin. The third step
was going to be a settlement of a number of people, opposed to Eelam, on the banks of the
Malwathu Oya.
By settling the (Sinhala) people in the Maduru Oya we were seeking to have in the
Batticaloa zone a mass of persons opposed to a separate state...Yan Oya if settled by non
separatists (Sinhala people) would have increased the population by about another 50,000.
It would completely secure Trincomalee from the rebels..."
"The Sinhala people should
know that the so called state aided 'colonisation schemes' within Tamil
areas having nothing to do with solving landlessness among the Sinhala poor"
- Open Letter from the Central Committee of the Liberation Tigers of Tamil
Eelam, to the Sinhala people, 22 September 1991
''The Sinhala people should know that the so called state aided 'colonisation schemes'
within Tamil areas having nothing to do with solving landlessness among the Sinhala poor.
The
real aim of the Sri Lankan government is to use Sinhala settlers sometimes as a buffer,
and sometimes as a cutting edge, in its war of aggression against the Tamil nation.
The additional longer term purpose of these 'colonisation schemes' is to change the
demography of the Tamil homeland and in this way, make the Tamils a manageable minority in
their own land.
The Sri Lanka government has systematically armed these settlers - some of them
ex-convicts - and often uses them to attack Tamil villagers in the surrounding areas...
It seeks to exploit the Sinhala poor by arming them in such settlements, and using them as
expendable pawns in its war of aggression again the Tamil nation. We appeal to the Sinhala
poor not to become pawns in the 'colonisation schemes' which have been carefully designed
by Sinhala chauvinistic forces to sow the seeds of discord and create everlasting enmity
between the Tamil people and the Sinhala people.''
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