Minorities flay Lanka for neglect

Tamils and Muslims accused Govt of neglecting them post-tsunami, writes PK Balachanddran in Colombo Diary.

Tamils and Muslims, who are a minority in Sri Lanka, but are a majority in the tsunami-hit coastal areas of Amparai and Batticaloa, have a grouse against the government.

They allege that they are being discriminated against in post-tsunami rehabilitation work on "communal" grounds, by a "Sinhala-dominated" government.

But government officials, some of whom are Muslims, maintain that the charge is baseless.

They point out that the people are themselves responsible for some of the delays they are complaining about.

Last Friday (February 4), people in the Muslim-majority coastal towns of Amparai, namely, Ninthavur, Saindamarudu, Maaligaikadu and Kalmunaikudi demonstrated after their Jumma prayers, holding placards denouncing the government's "step-motherly" treatment of the Muslim areas.

"We hear that good work is being done in Sinhala majority districts like Matara. But the situation here in Amparai is very bad in comparison," says IM Ibrahim, Chairman of the Federation of Mosques in Kalmunai.

The Tamil media frequently carry articles on how the Sinhala areas are recovering fast, while the Tamil-Muslim areas are languishing for want of attention, whether governmental or political, national or international.

This is affecting the minds of the people in the Tamil and Muslim areas.

"The television footage on the speedy work in the Sinhala-majority districts of Galle, Matara and Hambantota affects the minds of the people in places like Kalmunai where people are sitting on rubble even 40 days after the disaster," said Saleem, a leading journalist in Kalmunai.

"In Friday's demonstration, people shouted slogans like, "Work is at the speed of a hare in the Sinhala areas, but at the pace of a tortoise in the Muslim areas!" recalled Ibrahim.

It is the Tamils and Muslims who live in the coastal areas of Amparai district, and it is this area, which bore the brunt of the tsunami.

But the centre for power in the district, the Katcheri or district secretariat, is in Amparai town, some 25 kms further inland.

"The administrators will not know what is happening in the coast unless they visit these places. But they have made themselves scarce," Ibrahim said.

Batticaloa's grouse

"Reconstruction work is nil here in Batticaloa district," complains Fr Harry Miller, an American Jesuit priest who is in charge of St Michael's College in Batticaloa town, which accommodated 3,000 refugees till the other day.

Batticalcoa is a Tamil-majority district, but some areas in it are almost exclusively Muslim.

"There is enough food and medical attention, but no resettlement and very little debris clearance. The UNDP and UNICEF are doing good public health work like fumigation. But what we desperately need is shelter. There is also much too much rubble lying around with no sign of any clearing operation. We need earth moving equipment," Fr Miller said.

"We the Jesuits can build small dwellings for SLRs 30,000 each, to put up people temporarily. But as yet, there is no governmental plan for this sort of thing," he said.

According to him, Batticaloa was being neglected by all — the government, the LTTE and the national and international NGOs.

"There is no political leader in Batticaloa who has clout in Colombo. No national or international leader has bothered to visit us. If they had visited us, others, including the national and international NGOs, would have followed, and pitched their tents here," he said.

Miller contrasted this with the national and international attention, which the Sinhala-dominated districts in the South had got.

"There was a procession of big national and international leaders to these areas. The NGOs followed suit because these places began to get media attention," the Jesuit, who has been living in Batticaloa for long, said.

"As for the LTTE, it is only interested in the Northern Tamils. The only LTTE leader who could have spoken for the Eastern Tamils, Karuna, had been driven out," Miller lamented.

But the Muslims of Batticaloa have not fared so badly, he feels.

"Kattankudy, which is completely Muslim, has had international teams coming, and relief also arriving, due to MLAM Hisbullah, who was a minister earlier, and who is now in charge of the airport in Colombo.

He has been able to divert relief from the airport to Kattankudy," Miller said.