Harassment of Tamils in Colombo with intimidation. Nazi Germany style draconian laws.

Harassment of Tamils in Colombo with intimidation. Nazi Germany style draconian laws.

Finally, the Island newspapers which is well known for it's racial, chauvinistic, extremist, and Anti Tamil Tamil editorials and feature articles have suddenly written a reasonable editorial condemning the policies of the draconian laws on Tamils. They and especially the editor Prabath Sahabandu should be congratulated and complimented for this article. We, at Tamils For Justice encourage the Island group of newspapers to be fair, reasonable and just when writing such editorials, and not to provoke the Tamils so that they harden their views and opinions not only against the despots and dictators of the Sinhala GOSL, but the Sinhala people.

It is time that the media, bring to the attention of the Sinhala people, that Tamils in Sri Lanka have the same rights, and privileges like the Sinhala Buddhist, and this includes the LTTE as well. Today, the Sinhala terrorist, who took arms and responsible for two bloody insurrections where nearly 150,000 Sinhalese perished in a violent war since 1971, are cabinet ministers, members of Parliament, chairman of corporations, diplomats, and in several local administrative organizations. The GOSL whether it was the SLFP or UNP did not indiscriminately aerial bomb, the Sinhala villages or towns, nor were responsible for indiscriminate shelling from the land or sea. The GOSL did not consider all the Sinhalese in the Sinhala villages as Sinhala terrorist. There was a good reason for that. Because, they did not wish to hurt, injure, or murder any Sinhalese, because they themselves were Sinhala buddhist.

That policy, or principle is not practiced by the GOSL, with the Tamils in the Tamil homeland of the North and East. That is why, and is the main reason that LTTE has received the fullest cooperation, and support from the Tamils in the NORTH and EAST, WEST, AND UP COUNTRY, AS WELL AS THE TAMIL DIASPORA.

The Sinhalese, and the GOSL, are always been in a State of Denial, trying to accuse the LTTE that it has been intimidating the Tamils to financially support them in their war of liberation in creating a separate state. There might be an element of truth that some of these fund collectors have not been diplomatic and polite when requesting for funds from the Tamils. however, the Sinhalese do not understand some the Tamils attitude when it comes to parting with funds. Tamils are tight fisted and stingy, and in some cases the fund collectors have been undiplomatic.

The UNP and TNA, including Mano Ganeshan's upcountry party should use this opportunity of census to register the Tamils to vote in the Western Province elections next year as voters, in the Municipal, Provincial, General and Presidential elections in 2009, 2010, and possibly 2011, if the current President survives politically to hold office, before being removed before his term ends. the Rajapkses have forgotten history, nor do they remember how they were installed into power and Presidency in November 2005, thanks to the bribery, and corruption of people like Tiran Alles, and other Tamils. One of the chief culprits is hiding in Dubai, and the main advisers are dead, or removed from office, or about to be removed.

even the legal adviser fits into this category for several reasons, as well as many from the TRO, WTCC, and WTM.

Tamils For Justice:

Tomorrow's Census by Prabath Sahabandu - EDITOR ISLAND NEWSPAPERS:

The police are taking a census tomorrow of the Tamil people who have entered Western Province during the past five years. They are required to report to the police for this purpose, Police Spokesman SSP Ranjith Gunasekera has said.

Having infiltrated the city and its suburbs heavily, the LTTE is carrying out terror strikes on civilian targets to force the government to relent. It is all out to provoke a backlash to open an escape route through the flames of communal violence. Therefore, there is a pressing need for defeating the LTTE's sinister plans to ensure public safety and safeguard the national security interests. Extraordinary security measures being adopted to meet terrorist threats are perfectly understandable. The police and the armed forces, to their credit, have detected large quantities of explosives in the city and arrested several key terrorists during the past few months.

However, the police must not lose sight of the plight of the Tamil civilians caught in the nutcracker of terrorism and counter-terror operations. That there are terrorists among the fleeing civilians, some of whom have moved to Colombo, is no reason why each and every Tamil civilian must be treated like a terrorist. Unfortunately, in most cases, the police don't care to make this vital distinction, which is a prerequisite for preventing those men, women and children feeling that they have become aliens in their own land.

There are said to be four reasons why the police treat Tamil civilians in this manner: Callousness, racism, ignorance and corruption. How some police personnel take Tamils into custody so as to extract money for their release is only too well known. Victims choose to 'buy' their freedom and keep mum for fear of reprisal. They also suffer humiliation at the hands of some khaki-clad pompous dregs given to lording it over civilians at checkpoints. It was only the other day that one of our readers pointed out that policemen had taken to checking even women's handbags! This undesirable practice must end-the sooner, the better. Where have all the WPCs gone?

The police lack Tamil speaking personnel and not all Tamil civilians can speak Sinhala. The opening up of the LTTE-held terrain in the North has triggered an influx of displaced people into the southern parts. How can the police cope with them without being able to speak Tamil?

Ethnic profiling carries a lot of stigma. It makes one feel as if one were a social oddity held in irrational and bigoted contempt. Nothing hurts a decent citizen more than being made an object of public suspicion for no fault of his or hers. No wonder that more and more Tamils are leaving the country out of sheer frustration.

It behoves the police bigwigs and government worthies to factor in these sentiments in adopting preventive measures such as the registration of civilians with police stations and subjecting them to security checks.

The All Ceylon Hindu Congress (ACHC) has appealed to the IGP that at least people who have already registered with the police, the elderly and the sick be spared the trouble of being physically present at police stations for the census. This request must be granted and alternative arrangements made, as the ACHC says.

The people who are fleeing terrorists must be able to live with dignity, free from harassment and exploitation, in the other parts of the country if it is 'a socialist democratic republic'. Will the government take steps to ensure that?