After Tamils were forcibly evicted from Colombo, the President promised to investigate the incident, although subsequent reports suggest the orders were issued at the highest levels of government. FORUM-ASIA members write to the President urging him to make the findings of the investigation public.
After Tamils were forcibly evicted from Colombo, the President promised to investigate the incident, although subsequent reports suggest the orders were issued at the highest levels of government. FORUM-ASIA members write to the President urging him to make the findings of the investigation public.
On 7 June, hundreds of Tamils were forcibly evicted from Colombo, the capital of Sri Lanka. The Supreme Court swiftly halted the evictions that were carried out by the police forces. A diverse group of Sri Lankans as well as the wider international community rallied together to condemn the evictions.
The Prime Minister apologized to the Tamil minority; the President ordered an immediate investigation. Initially, the Inspector General of Police, Victor Perera, claimed that the move was voluntary and the state was offering free transport to those who wanted to return to the northern and eastern areas. After it became painfully obvious that the evictions were not voluntary, the presidential secretariat released a statement that read: “Allegations that officials exceeded their authority in implementing this initiative will be thoroughly investigated and appropriate remedial action will be taken.”1
Suggestions that the police chief were to blame were prevalent. Yet in a leaked document published by the Sunday Leader, a Sri Lankan paper, the decision to evict Tamils was made in a meeting with high government officials that included the Defence Secretary Gothabaya Rajapakse.2
Jehan Perera, a political analyst for the National Peace Council of Sri Lanka, comments: “This incident, where political appointees preside over illegal decisions, and regular officers of state are compelled to carry them out, demonstrates the need to protect the autonomy and integrity of important national institutions, such as the police.”3
A group of Sri Lankan NGOs, including INFORM and Law and Society Trust—FORUM-ASIA members—recently released an open letter urging the President to publish the results of the investigation into the evictions.
Read the full text of this open letter (in .pdf).
1 “Gothabaya blamed for eviction fiasco” http://www.tamilguardian.com/article.asp?articleid=1279
2 “Halting the deadly spread of impunity through police action” http://www.dailymirror.lk/2007/07/10/opinion/01.asp
3 Ibid.
