COI Report March 2012 - UK Border Agency - Home Office

SRI LANKA 7 MARCH 2012
―Until the early 1980s this process [the tension in relations between the Sinhalese and
Tamils] was primarily political and was defined by sustained agitation by parties and
groups representing the interests of the Sri Lankan Tamils against successive
Sinhalese-dominated governments, interspersed with periodic outbursts of communal
violence in areas of mixed ethnicity at which Tamils suffered at the hands of rampaging
Sinhalese mobs… Tamil grievances at this stage were focused mainly on the theme of
economic deprivation and political alienation and focused upon campaigning for a due
share of political power, access to resources and economic opportunities, and
entitlement to the benefits of development. Over time, there emerged within the Tamil
community the idea that it constitutes a distinct 'national group', primarily in response to
state alienation and exclusion, and that the Tamil community had been arbitrarily unified
with the 'Sinhalese nation' in the creation of 'British Ceylon'. This notion formed the
ideological and political basis of a secessionist movement committed to the objective of
establishing an independent Tamil state ('Eelam') encompassing the northern and
eastern parts of the island of Sri Lanka.
―Several factors contributed to the supremacy acquired by the LTTE over other Tamil
groups. The most basic among these has been their success in mobilising disgruntled
Tamil youth and their capacity to command absolute obedience from among the ranks.
The ferocity with which the LTTE has dealt with renegades, its rivals or any other force
that stood in its way was another factor that contributed to its meteoric rise.‖
18.12 The USSD 2010 report 307 observed:
―Both local and Indian-origin Tamils maintained that they suffered long-standing,
systematic discrimination in university education, government employment, and other
matters controlled by the government. According to the SLHRC [Sri Lanka Human
Rights Commission], Tamils also experienced discrimination in housing. Landlords were
required to register any Tamil tenants and to report their presence to the police,
although in practice many landlords did not comply.
―Tamils throughout the country, but especially in the conflict-affected north and east,
reported frequent harassment of young and middle-age Tamil men by security forces
and paramilitary groups.‖
18.13 The International Crisis Group (ICG) report of July 2011 308 observed:
―Tamils in the north and east are still haunted by the LTTE. Many feel that they gave up
everything for the Tigers‘ promise of a separate state and a life free from discrimination.
They are angry about the forced recruitment, the abductions and the refusal to allow
people out of the Vanni. But many also look back to life under the LTTE as a time when
they at least had some dignity and protection against the most blatant violations of their
rights by the government and security forces. Now, under the thumb of the military, they
feel they have nothing.
307 US State Department 2010 Human Rights Report: Sri Lanka (USSD 2010), released on 8 April 2011,
http://www.state.gov/g/drl/rls/hrrpt/2010/sca/154486.htm , date accessed 11 May 2011, Section 3
308 International Crisis Group (ICG),Sri Lanka: Reconciliation in Sri Lanka: Harder than ever, Asia
Report N°209 – 18 July 2011, http://www.crisisgroup.org/~/media/Files/asia/south-asia/srilanka/209%20Reconciliation%20in%20Sri%20Lanka%20-%20Harder%20than%20Ever.pdf,
p32-33,
Date accessed 6 January 2011
126 The main text of this COI Report contains the most up to date publicly available information as at 3 February 2012.
Further brief information on recent events and reports has been provided in the Latest News section
to 2 March 2012.