De Telegraaf, 1 March 1997
Photographs:
Left top: On the edge of the refugee camp in Vavuniya the children and elderly are eating ice cream.
Left bottom: A Tamil boy is playing with a kite made out of a plastic bag, in the refugee camp in Vavuniya
Right top: Father Hugo in Negombo: "Everybody here lives like brother and sister, there is complete freedom of religion."
Right middle: Elderly Tamils are living safely in the Dutch Welcome Village which is being run by Herman Steur.
Right bottom: A Tamil mother and her child, who will be going back to Jaffna soon.
The arrival of 173 Tamils in the Netherlands and the subsequent disappearance of the majority of these 'asylum seekers' has caused great indignation, worries and unanswered questions. Our journalist travelled to Sri Lanka to look for the answers on the island in the Indian ocean, which is extremely dangerous according to the Tamils.
Surprising conclusion after interviews with staff members of Embassies, high Government officials, social workers and many Tamils in Sri Lanka: a small portion of this former British colony is still suffering because of the battle between the LTTE and the Government, but the Tamils are tree to go to a safe area, which covers 95% of the island
In a revealing report Director General S Palihakkara, right hand of the Minister of Foreign Affairs, said: "The arrival of these 'refugees' in the Netherlands was most likely the work of the Tamil Tigers of the LTTE. They had to collect money in the Netherlands and the rest of Europe in order to finance the guerrilla war in the North and East of my country. And the chance of more fake refugees is very big, because the Tigers are in a difficult position now."
In the refugee camp New Nellukkulam - temporary shelter for more than 2000 Tamils - the children are playing with balloons, eating ice cream and smiling cheerfully at us. 52 year old Mujoechim Pillai said: "My family and I have everything we need. We are getting 160 Rupees pocket money from the Government every day, and we can manage very well with that. Next week we are taking the boat back to Jaffna. the city where I was born, which we left many years ago because of the violence of the Tamil 'Tigers. But it is quiet there now. Things are going into the right direction in Sri Lanka."
We arrived in Vavuniya. in the Northern province, after a six hour drive from the capital Colombo. After dozens of road blocks and extensive security checks, because the area is on the border with the territory which is dominated by the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE), the guerrilla army of the Tamil Tigers. At the moment about 13,000 homeless Tamils are staying in 11 refugee camps in the Vavuniya area. According to reports by Tamils who have come to the Netherlands, even the Northern area is safe for civilians. Heavy fighting between the guerrilla’s and the Government troops in the area which is dominated by the LTTE, but Tamil civilians can easily avoid all problems by moving to the other areas, where nobody is, going to touch them.
The group of 173 Tamils who fled to the Netherlands and who claim to come from Jaffna, the city on the Jaffna Peninsula, have stated that their lives were threatened there. But daily 500 Tamils are voluntarily returning to a completely safe and quiet Jaffna.
P. Patmunabiu, Tamil and social worker in New Nellukkulam, told us during a round trip through the camp: "From here the people are going to the harbour city Trincomalee in the East, and from there they are taking a boat to Jaffna. Three boats with one thousand passengers are going back and forth. Peace and quiet have been restored in Jaffna and the Tamil Tigers were driven out of town. The city is being rebuilt right now, and the people want to go back to their own homes.” Earlier this week in Colombo, Peter Meijer1 Dutch director of the refugee organisation of the United Nations (UNHCR) In Sri Lanka, had already told us that civilians are being prosecuted on this Island.
The UN top officer had said in his office on Horton Place: 'I hope the Netherlands will screen these ‘Tamil refugees' well, because it is a very bad thing if the international community is granting asylum to these kind of people. It causes problems for real refugees from countries, where civilians are actually in danger. I am a real expert of refugees, but I am afraid that the Netherlands has admitted these people for the time being out of political and not humane motives. In the Netherlands there is a strong lobby for all sorts of groups of social workers and help organisations, and there is a lot of fear of being accused of discrimination."
"I do admit that the Tamils are sometimes being discriminated here, and they don't always have an easy life. But fleeing the country for reason. other than economic reasons is not really necessary. The objective of UNHCR is to create a situation thanks to which people can stay in their own country. That is what you can call help."
And therefore the refugee organisation of the United Nations is keeping an eye on countries like Sweden, Norway, Denmark, Germany and Switzerland, which - contrary to the Netherlands - are sending Tamils back to Sri Lanka if they arrive at their borders.
Peter Meijer: "Slice 1994 there have been many hundreds of Tamils, and only twice people have been arrested by the Sri Lankan Police. But even those two were released immediately and are now walking around freely."
Next to almost all officials from Embassies of countries of the European Union who stated to this newspaper during the last few days that Tamil asylum seekers are lying and cheating in order to get a new life in the rich Western countries, MichaeI Morf of the Embassy of Switzerland has provided hard evidence.
Swiss consul Schonl said: "The report about the flight by Turkmenistan Airlines to Schiphol was received with surprise here. Our Second Secretary Morf has rented a large hotel in Nugegoda in Southern Sri Lanka, for 1.2 million Rupees per year, where Tamils can stay after being sent back to their own country from Zurich. And you know something? The hotel is always empty. After failed attempts to build up a new life in Geneva or Zurich, all the deported refugees are going back to their families and their own homes immediately after arrival In Sri Lanka... I am inviting the Dutch Embassy to participate in this project, because it clearly shows that we are being cheated."
In the meantime the news about the successful flight of 113 Tamils to Schiphol, their stay in
Schalkhaar and now most likely In other European countries is spreading quickly in Sri Lanka.
People who do not even know whore the Netherlands is, are telling us how nice and hospitable
the Netherlands is.
84 year old V. Ampalavanar in New Vavuniya, another refugee camp in the Northern province said: 'I am hoping to go to Colombo instead of Jaffna. Because Colombo has an airport. and that is the beginning of a better life in the West." Sources of the police and the army in Sri Lanka state that the ease with which the 173 Tamils were able to enter the Netherlands, might have an attracting effect. In Colombo, shady agencies are advertising jobs in Dubal and Saudi Arabia in the Sunday editions of the Daily News and The Island, the two largest newspapers in Sri Lanka. Once in Dubai or Saudi Arabia, after payment of more than 10,000 Dollar, nothing can stop you to start a new life in Northern America or Western Europe, the Tamils are being promised.
Director General S. Palihakkara of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs said. "The Tamil Tigers are losing more and more territory, especially since the Jaffna district is safe again and 500,000 have returned voluntarily. We are seriously considering the possibility that the LTTE is paying the Tamils to go abroad. In this way these people can spread their message in the Netherlands, and at the same time they can send money to Sri Lanka to finance the guerrilla war. The Tigers have the most modern weapons, which they buying with the millions of Guilders which are collected among the refugees in the asylum centres."
The money is a pay-back for The loans the LTTE has granted these people to bring them to Europe or America. The money is collected by representatives of the Tigers, who have been granted asylum all over the world at an earlier time. According to Palihakkara, the Tigers do not hesitate to use blackmail or intimidation.
"The worst thing is,” the high official of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs said, "that a nice and hospitable country like the Netherlands is being cheated in this way. It is a worldwide strategy of the LTTE to abuse the mondial asylum policies. These ‘refugees' are gold diggers, not people who are being threatened. The fact that the Netherlands has such a free asylum policy is very convenient for the Tigers. I have even heard that the asylum seekers in the Netherlands are free to walk in and especially out of the asylum centres as they please."
It is 38 degrees outside, and we are talking to Reverent Father Hugo Palihawadana in the St. Mary's cathedral in Grand Street in Negombo on the coast of the Indian Ocean. The priest, known and loved in all of Sri Lanka, said: "Everybody here lives like brother and sister, there is complete freedom of religion, the country is trying to lift itself from poverty. But it is impossible because of the guerrilla Tigers in the North and East. This is exactly why it is such a pity that your country has admitted a group of these run-away's into the Netherlands. I suppose that most of them have disappeared now, and the eyes of the Dutch have been opened. Here, in my street, all sorts of people are living peacefully next to each other. There is a cathedral, a Buddhist temple and a mosque on the same side of the street, and nothing ever goes wrong. I know thousands of Tamils who don't even think about fleeing, because they don't have a single reason to do so.
The priest feels that the entire affair is like a slap in the face of Dutch development aid on the island. “The Dutch are doing so much here,” Father Hugo said. "And they are getting a couple of these smart gold diggers on their neck as thanks. I am deeply ashamed. Sri Lankans should only go to the Netherlands as tourists. And after two weeks they should go back to their own island and offer resistance to the Tiger terrorists and help to rebuild the country. That is what I am telling everybody at mass on Sundays."
One of the development projects in Sri Lanka, which is financed and run by the Netherlands and to which the priest is referring, is the Dutch Welcome Village in Goriawila. Under the inspiring leadership of Herman Steur from Monnickendam the village, entirely in old Dutch style, provides shelter to elderly and poor Sri Lankans.
We spoke to Mr. Steur, who offered his own fortune to help the homeless, in his simple cottage on the edge of the village: "I am not involved in politics, but I do know that Tamils can live In Sri Lanka just as well as everyone else. A lot of the Ministers and Members of Parliament are Tamils. But then again, I have only been here for the last 18 years, and in The Hague they know it better.
In the Welcome Village, with street names like Eelde, Meppel, Coevorden and Aerdenhouthuis, we met the Tamil couple Sandia and Veronica Thomas, 63 and 76 years old. "We are from Mannar, in the Jaffna district. When the war of the Tigers was most violent we lost our home and came to the Colombo area. Herman Steur has picked us off the street, and since then we are free, safe and happy. The Tigers are dangerous, but you certainly do not have to leave Sri Lanka in order to get away from them. We old people can manage, then certainly young Tamils can also manage, especially if they can afford to pay more than 10,000 Dollar for a one-way ticket to the Netherlands....”
Rachel Raman, another tenant of the Welcome village: "There are 5,000 Tamils living in the Gonawila area. They are working, have families and houses. If Tamils are living in the war area, they can get special passes from the Government to come to Colombo for example.”
The authorities in Sri Lanka feel embarrassed that the country has become the Centre of attraction because of the flight of Turkmenistan Airlines with the Boeing 757. The police as well as the Ministry of Foreign Affairs still clings on to the hope that the passengers are not Sri Lankans, but Tamils from India for example.
The Sri Lankan police hopes to get information from the Netherlands in order to tackle the Organisers of this Tamil smuggle-line. But next to that, lack of understanding prevails at the heavily guarded Police Head Quarters DIG In the first district of Colombo.
In a partly underground bunker just outside the Centre of the capital, chief Superintendent Gamini Wijesuriya wants to react: "The biggest mistake is with the Dutch Government itself. These people should have been sent back to us and the problem would have been solved. And don't think that we would have locked them up in a dungeon and only let them out again some time next century... More than 53% of Colombo is Tamil; Colombo is a city with almost one million people. They can live here, work, go to the beach and to the disco. But the thing bothering me is the fact that they are still fighting against us from Europe, With the money they are earning there or getting from someone. An average family in Sri Lanka could live for 21 years with the 10,000 Dollar which these Tamils have paid for their flight. According to our standards, these are not refugees, but millionaires."
05 March 1997 12:51:46
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