Destruction and devastation during military operations in East

Excerpts from a speech by TNA parliamentary group leader R. Sampanthan at the debate on the current situation in the North and East.

I want to make it perfectly clear before I begin my submissions on the debate of this Adjournment Motion that any submissions that I will make on the floor of this House in the course of this debate is not directed against any community. I want to make it clear that all communities in this country are entitled to live in equality and that the maintenance of goodwill among all communities is essential for permanent peace in this country. Therefore, any submissions I make on the floor of this House is not intended to offend the feelings of any one community. I want to make that perfectly clear.

But, at the same time injustice cannot be permitted to occur and to ensure that injustice does not continue unchecked, it is necessary to raise relevant issues with the Government and there can be no more effective way of raising these issues with the Government than on the floor of this House.

It has been said, that there is a well-known Buddhist view on politics which enunciates that the politicians' approach to governance should be based solely on dharma or justice and righteousness. And I shall endeavour in the course of my submissions today, on the basis of hard facts to establish in this House and to this country that many of the steps that have been taken by the present Government in this country today, particularly in the Eastern Province are not based on dharma, are not based on justice and are not based on righteousness and therefore, it is our duty as representatives democratically elected by the people of the North-East to voice the sentiments of those people on the Floor of this House.

More than 300,000 Tamil civilians were displaced in the Eastern Province during the course of the military actions - the manner of such displacement, the objective of such displacement, the consequences of such displacement, the plight of the people today and what is happening after such displacement and other matters related thereto.

President Mahinda Rajapaksa happened to visit Vakarai on February 3 the day before the Independence Day celebrations on the 4th and he said at Vakarai on that occasion, "What we have done is to liberate the people from the terrorists. I am here to thank the troops for their action without causing a single casualty.” If the President believed that these operations had been carried out without causing a single casualty, I am afraid he was totally misinformed in regard to that matter because in the course of my submissions in this House today, I shall demonstrate to this House that in the course of these operations carried out in the Eastern Province during this period, over 300 innocent Tamil civilians, men, women and children were killed. Apart from immense devastation and destruction to their houses, to their plantations, to their crops, to their livestock, to their agricultural and personal vehicles, to their farming equipment, to their fishing equipment, their means of livelihood was totally destroyed and these people today live in a state of penury and destitution.

As I said before, these operations that had been carried out in the East and which have resulted in immense havoc in the lives of the innocent Tamil civilians living in those territories have been referred to by various Government Spokesmen as the "Dawn of the East", or as the "Awakening of the East" and so on and so forth. But, I am inclined to the view, that what has taken place and what is taking place and what will perhaps take place in the future as per the indications that we have is that the situation we are facing is the "Doom of the East".

He moved that;

(a) The flagrant violation of Human Rights, in the form of extrajudicial killings, enforced disappearances and other inhuman and unlawful actions continuously perpetrated against the unarmed Tamil civilian population, particularly in the North-East, and also in some other parts of the country, with a sense of total impunity on the part of such perpetrators, and the persistent failure on the part of the Government to take meaningful, adequate, positive and tangible action, so as to prevent or deter such regular and continuing violations, other than some face-saving measures in regard to certain identified past violations, which results in Tamil civilians particularly in the North-East having to continuously suffer unbearable agony in an environment of total insecurity, indignity and oppression.

(b) The several actions of the Government both covert and overt to dismantle the arrangements on which the peace process pertaining to the North-East was structured particularly in relation to the merged North-East and inclusive of the special steps resorted to by Government to alienate State land and provide housing to persons of the majority community, in parts of the Eastern Province, which are racially discriminatory against and particularly harmful to the Tamil-speaking people, both Tamils and Muslims in the North-East, particularly in the East at present, which steps would also cause adverse changes in existing demographic compositions in such territories, and also the steps contemplated by Government to effect territorial changes in administrative structures by creating new units of administration, in such territories, so as to strengthen majority interests and emasculate minority interests, which would permanently endanger the well-being of the Tamils and Muslims in the North-East, the cumulative effect of which steps taken by the Government, would be that instead of moving towards resolution of the conflict, the conflict would be further exacerbated and prolonged.

(c) The immense suffering endured by the several hundreds of thousands of Tamil civilians who were displaced consequent to the aerial bombardment and the firing of multi barrel rockets by the Government armed forces into properties owned and occupied by them for generations and centuries, the lack of a cohesive programme acceptable to the displaced Tamil people pertaining to their resettlement on the lands from which they were evicted and the several aspects relating thereto, the lack of transparency, and the lack of consultation, in regard to such activities carried out by the Government, and the need to evolve and implement a comprehensive programme that would restore lasting stability in the lives of these unfortunate Tamil people, rather than pursue programmes dictated by narrow political agendas which would only be to the permanent detriment of these people and deny them the long standing benefits to which they are legitimately entitled are matters of grave public concern; and urged:-

(I) that the Government takes effective steps to terminate the continuing flagrant violations of human rights of the Tamil people particularly, in the North-East.

(II) (a) that the Government takes appropriate action to restore the merged North-East, (b) that the Government desists from the special steps taken to alienate State land to the majority community in the North-East, so as to change the demographic composition in such territories and from creating new administrative units in any part of the North-East so as to strengthen majority interests and emasculate the interests of the Tamil speaking people the Tamils and Muslims in the North-East.

(III) that the displaced Tamil people be resettled on the lands from which they were evicted as per a programme prepared in consultation with the displaced Tamil people and that they be adequately compensated for the losses suffered by them and that they be provided with all other essential facilities so as to enable them to recommence life in a stable manner.

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