
Black July 1983: the Charge is Genocide
More than one hundred
thousand Tamils sought refuge in hastily improvised refugee 'camps'...
Eighteen
(18) Relief Camps established in Colombo
(from Relief and
Rehabilitation of Displaced Persons, a Publication of the Sri Lanka
Government quoted in quoted in Lawasia Report 'Democracy in
Peril - Sri Lanka, a Country in Crisis' by Patricia Hyndman, 7 June
1985)
1. Ratmalana Airport Building
2.
Hindu
College/Kathiresen Kovil/Pillayar Kovil/Saraswathie
Hall, Bambalapitiya 3. Sirima Bandaranaike
School, Colombo 4. Thurstan College, Colombo
5. Mahanama Vidyalaya, Colombo 6.
St. Peter�s College,
Wellawatte
7. St. Benedicts College. Kotahena 8.
St. Lucia�s Maha
Vidyalaya, Kotahena 9. Sinhala Maha
Vidyalaya, Kotahena 10. Good Shepherd
Convent, Kotahena 11. Kotahena Maha Vidyalaya,
Kotahena 12. Sivan Kovil Camp 13. Gintupitiya
Kovil Camp 14. Anula Vidyalaya. Nugegoda 15.
lssipatnana Maha Vidyalaya. Colombo 5 16. Ladies
College. Colombo 17. St Thomas Preparatory
School, Kollupitiya 18. St. Thomas College, Mt.
Lavina
(Outstations Camps were established in Gampaha. Kalutara,
Galle, Matara, Kegalle, Kandy, Matale, Badulla, Batticaloa and Trincomalee)
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More than one hundred thousand Tamils sought refuge in hastily
improvised refugee 'camps'. (see also
Eighteen Relief Camps established in Colombo )
"...Awareness of their insecurity drove many Tamils, especially
in the Colombo area, to abandon their homes and shops and seek
refuge in temples, airport hangars and improvised camps. Estimates
of the numbers made homeless range up to 100,000, many in poorly
provisioned 'refugee camps' (where as displaced persons, victims of
an internal conflict they lacked the international protection which
would be extended by UNHCR)..." (Minority Rights Group Report -
Tamils of Sri Lanka, September 1983)
"It is only the yard of a Hindu Temple, outside Colombo, but
in this small space 5,000 people are trying to stay alive. Two
things unite them: their racial origin - for they are Tamils -
and their fear. During the nights and days of Sinhalese
violence last week, the people now in the camp watched their
homes and businesses burn, their property ransacked, their
belongings scattered... A woman in her late thirties told
me: "We saw them come to the front of our house. They were
waving sticks and swords. We just ran out and over the back
fence." Some of the refugees wear bandages and plasters. 'We
were beaten' they say simply. ... A Red Cross worker explained:
'He went to the hospital and they did this to him there.'
(Michael Hamlyn: London Times, 3 August 1983)
''By now (Friday, 29 July), nearly ten refugee camps had been set
up in Colombo to house those Tamils who had been rendered homeless.
The figures rose from 20,000 to 50,000 within days, and then reached
79,000. Conditions in the camps were horrible, almost primitive.
The Ratmalana airport hangar, which was ready to house 800 refugees,
accomodated 8,000. According to an inmate, there was hardly standing
space. There were over 2000 infants and 500 elderly peole with
only one doctor to serve them. Water was scarce and food was
inadequate. Similar camps had also been set up in Kandy, Matale,
Badulla...'' (Eye witness account, Sri Lanka: Racism and the
Authoritarian State - Race and Class, Volume XXVI, A.Sivanandan and
Hazel Waters, Institute of Race Relations, London)
''...it is now understood that there are about 78,000 Tamils
in at least 12 (refugee) camps. The city has a Tamil population
of about 162,000 of whom it is estimated that over 100,000 have
been displaced from their homes by the recent violence''
(Guardian, 3 August 1983)
"Conditions in two camps I visited in the Bambalapitiya district
of Colombo are appalling. Three thousand Tamils sleeping on the
floors of the Hindu temple were sharing six stinking toilets, all
without water for washing. There were only two taps working in
the camp and Red Cross volunteers complained the water was too dirty
today to make milk for the infants. No foreign food supplies had
reached the temple since it opened on the 25th of July..."
(T.R.Lasner and Agencies in Colombo, London Sunday Observer, 7
August 1983)
''Foreign aid for the relief of Tamils is failing to reach
the refugee camps where it was needed. Instead foreign aid and
essential medical supplies are being stored in government
depots. The government stores are full but the food is not being
distributed.''
(London Observer, 7 August 1983)
''Two members of the International Committee of the Red Cross
visiting Sri Lanka to arrange aid supplies were effectively expelled
from the island yesterday. There was no explanation for the
unofficial expulsions, but the two men were believed to have tried,
unsuccessfully, to gain access to refugee camps and local prisons.''
(The Guardian, 9 August 1983)
N.Shanmugathasan writing in the
London based publication of Institute of Race Relations, 'Race and
Class', concluded in moving terms:
"Imagine
finding yourself overnight without a roof over your head, all
your life's possessions and savings gone up in flames, your
wife's thali-kodi and other jewellery stolen, yourself standing
with only the clothes you wear and also realising that many of
your relations and friends are in the same plight and that in
many cases, the sources of employment had disappeared!... They
(theTamils) can no longer feel secure in the South."
(Sri Lanka: Racism and the Authoritarian State)
...continued....
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