Resettled government servants in Champoor complain of ethnic discrimination

[TamilNet, Sunday, 12 February 2017, 23:07 GMT]
176 public servants, who are among the resettled Eezham Tamils in Champoor, are being systematically discriminated in the provision of governmental and non-governmental assistance for their resettlement after being uprooted from their own lands in Champoor. From Colombo's UNP-influenced administrative hierarchy to the Tamil-speaking Divisional Secretary of Moothoor, the entire administrative mechanism of the unitary state of genocidal Sri Lanka has been operating against the resettled Champoor Tamils. While the structural discrimination has been institutionalized in the ‘Sri Lankan’ system, the officials of the UN Refugee Agency (UNHCR) have also not been able to assist the people cutting the red tape of the anti-Tamil establishment operating against the resettled Tamils in Champoor.

Repeated appeals addressed to SL Government Agent of Trincomalee have failed to provide any result. Tamil politicians, including the Opposition Leader have not been able to do anything about the plight of resettled Tamils.

Almost two years have elapsed since the public servants among the affected people started to seek governmental and non-governmental assistance for their resettlement.

The UNHRC promised to construct toilets a long time ago. But, the SL administrative establishment has not been cooperative to help the resettled Tamils.

“It is not a matter of getting rid of the usual red tape of the bureaucracy, but a matter of confronting systemic ethnic discrimination,” commented a Tamil civil official working closely with A. Pushpakumara, the Sinhala SL Government Agent of Trincomalee and with the Divisional Secretary of Moothoor Mr V. Yoosuff.

In the meantime, Tamil political leaders have failed to seek compensation from the SL State for the destruction caused to the properties belonging to uprooted Tamils from Champoor.

After the genocidal onslaught on Champoor in 2006, the regime of Mahinda Rajapaksa claimed that the civilian properties were largely intact and that people could resettle in Champoor. Sinhala journalists were taken on a trip from South and their video footage documented that there were houses and buildings that had survived the carnage.

However, Rajapaksa regime went ahead with destroying the properties of Tamils to the extent of deleting Champoor from the official records and seizing the lands. The entire area was transformed into a so-called Heavy Industry Zone.

The resettled Tamils are now seeking legal assistance to demand compensation from the SL State, Rural Development Society representatives in Champoor said.

In the meantime, the occupying Colombo and the SL military have put up a systematic surveillance infrastructure to monitor independent assistance to Champoor Tamils from outside.

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