Race tension remains after Sri Lanka riots

Press, 22 October 1983, Page 16

Race tension remains after Sri Lanka riots

By

Lucien Rajakaruna

in Colombo

Colombo was placed on full military alert last week in a rehearsal of security arrangements to deal with any future race riots.

Nearly three months after the worst riots in the island’s history--300 Tamil dead and 15,000 still homeless—security remains the biggest question bothering the Government and public. Late in September, nearly 200 Tamil prisoners escaped from the east coast Batticaloa Prison, among them 27 Tamil terrorists held in maximum security. They are still at large and may have escaped by sea to South India.

Relations between the two main racial groups, Sinhalese and Tamils, seem to have reached an

impasse. President Jayawardene, who blames anti-Tamil riots on public reaction to Tamil terrorism and separatist demands in the north, says he will not talk to the Tamil United Liberation Front (T.U.L.F.), the largest Tamil political group, until it abandons its separatist demands. The T.U.L.F. refuses to participate in talks with such preconditions. The political dice have been loaded against the T.U.L.F. with new laws making separatist calls illegal and requiring all members of Parliament to take fresh oaths

of allegiance to a unitary State. Consequently, Tamil opinion remains unrepresented in Parliament as the T.U.L.F. boycotts sittings to force by-elections in Tamil areas. Two T.U.L.F. members have already been unseated for continued absence from the House, and all 16 T.U.L.F. members will be out by the end of January if the boycott continues. From India, Sri Lanka’s nearest neighbour, Mrs Indira Gandhi’s special envoy, Mr G. Parathasarthy, returns to Sri Lanka this month to resume conciliation talks with the Government and Tamil political leaders. He will find an atmosphere of increasing antiIndian sentiment, built up by sections of the press and reflecting to a large extent the attitude of the Government.

Moves have been announced by senior Ministers to evict hundreds of former Indian plantation workers settled on Government land in the north and east after the race riots of 1977 and 1981.

Plans are also proceeding to transfer large sections of the wholesale trade in foodstuffs, once controlled by Tamils, to Sinhalese traders. There is a build-up of pressure for the distribution of Government jobs and higher education to be based on racial proportions, ensuring Sinhalese dominance in all important areas

of activity. The Government has failed to bring any charges against those responsible for the anti-Tamil violence in July. Propaganda efforts to blame foreign super-Power involvement have failed, and detained Communists have been released from detention. Government efforts to build a Sinhalese consensus on the Tamil issue depend largely on the response of the Freedom Party led by Mrs Sirimavo Bandaranaike, the former Prime Minister, who is strongly critical of Government handling of the racial question. She suggests a more conciliatory attitude to Tamil opinion, although she, too, opposes separatism.

As the crisis of confidence among Tamils grows, many see migration to India, Europe, America or Australia as the best way out, and foreign embassies have been flooded with applications.

Many who cannot afford to escape are adopting Sinhalese names in an attempt to merge with the majority. Large numbers are disenfranchising themselves by not enrolling on electoral registers. The mobs who attacked them in July are said to have identified Tamil homes and businesses from voters’ lists.

Copyright—London Observer Service.