The camps of Sri Lanka

Now that LTTE supremo, V. Prabhaharan has been killed and any land occupied by LTTE captured, nothing is over yet. The people “liberated” from the clutches of LTTE are not really liberated. All of them are living in barb wired camps lacking basic facilities. The SL government’s reasoning is to identify any existing LTTE cadres and bring them to justice for crimes commited or to “rehabilitate” them.

No media is allowed inside these camps. The journalists of Channel 4 who reported on the alleged sexual abuses, shortage of food and water among other things were deported by the GofSL. Few days back, Sky News reported alleged rapes and disappreances of young men(nothing new about it) in the camps. When they asked about it, one government official(Professor Rajiva Wijesinha) replied “There are some blue eyed children in the camp, so you know some of the NGOs had a jolly good time up in Vavuniya. So when you go up try and identify them”. Though shocking, these kind of irresponsible responses are not surprising. For long they have been complaining about the support of NGOs to the LTTE and involved in “misinformation campaign” against them.

By banning all media, they are not making their case any stronger. The footages, of food distribution and SL army soldiers helping kids, showed in state media are not serving their purpose. Even the respected media houses in India are just acting like mouth pieces of SL mostly reporting only the army victories and very few on the sufferings of the people. Probably Indian media had similar response when LTTE murdered others, I don’t know may be I didn’t notice because I didn’t care then.

Whatever be the past, India has responsibility in making sure Tamil grievances are duly addressed by Sri Lanka to prevent History repeating itself. I am sure SL is also well aware of it, but with the decade long hatred and lack of trust, reconciling both sides is not so easy.