By M.R. Narayan Swamy, IANS
New Delhi : The thousands displaced within Sri Lanka because of fighting are leading a miserable life in refugee camps and are at times forced to return to their original areas of residence against their will, says a report.
The refugees, categorised as Internally Displaced Persons (IDPs), are also used as “pawns” by both the Sri Lankan state and non-state actors such as the breakaway faction of the Tamil Tigers, says a South Asians for Human Rights (SHAR) study.
In its 45-page report released this month by its chairperson and former Indian prime minister I.K. Gujral, SHAR has documented the sufferings of the refugees after visits to Sri Lanka’s northeast – the war theatre – and areas bordering the region.
Besides refugee camps, the researchers also visited interior areas where people had been apparently persuaded to return to show a sense of normalcy to the world after government troops seized the areas from the Tamil Tigers.
“The living conditions in most camps were cramped, and sanitation facilities dismal,” says the report, prepared by three groups of four-member investigators from Sri Lanka as well as other South Asian countries including India.
“Some camps had irregular supply of food … leading to deteriorating health conditions among inmates, especially children, pregnant and lactating mothers.
“Since many camps were situated in isolated spots, the IDP’s didn’t have access to water, schooling, employment opportunities and health facilities,” the report said, adding that conditions in some places were “unbearable”.
Sri Lanka’s population of the internally displaced has shot up ever since violence and fighting involving government forces, the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE) and the breakaway LTTE group led by Karuna escalated sharply from December 2005.
Most IDPs are Tamils although Muslims and to some extent the Sinhalese have also been uprooted from their homes. The first major refugee movement within the island in April 2006 saw some 6,000 families move from Trincomalee to Batticaloa, both in the eastern province.
Many have been forced to shift from more than one place, at times against their wishes, as they escape relentless fighting. Tamil refugees have also made it to India after crossing the sea dividing the two countries.
The SHAR report quoted the refugees as saying that they did not wish to return to places from where they fled “until a solution is found to the conflict and arrangements are made for (their) honourable return. (But) most were not given a choice.”
The report has criticised the UN High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR), which is supposed to function as a coordinated agency in Sri Lanka, for giving a virtual clean chit to the government despite many complaints by the refugees against the authorities.
It said that eastern Sri Lanka – which unlike the overwhelmingly Tamil north is multi-ethnic – was witnessing a gradual militarization besides officially sponsored changes in ethnic demography.
“From the appointment of military personnel to high posts in the Provincial Council of the eastern province … to military oversight of INGO (international NGOs) activities, a militarized civil administration appears to exist in the east.
“Public property such as temples, schools and hospitals have also been taken over by the armed forces, thereby denying the public access to, and the use of, these spaces…
“The current wave of displacement, return and resettlement has also led to fears among the minority communities about state sponsored colonization programmes and alteration of administrative boundaries in the region which they believe seek to change the ethnic demography of the province… The fears are well founded.”
The report said that women were greater sufferers in the refugee camps. Many faced sexual demands, which they were unable to resist. “Women spoke of lack of privacy in camps and the pressures put on them by husbands who demanded conjugal relations despite the adverse circumstances.”
The report also spoke about a gradual radicalisation of Muslim areas, with many complaining that women were now being compelled to “wear the fully concealing garb original from foreign Muslim tradition”.
The report has come out with a series of recommendations to improve the lot of the refugees, who are the worst victims of a bloody war that has claimed many thousands of lives and shows no signs of ending.