Re: Collacott's Myopia Never Ceases To Amaze, letter to the editor, Nov. 4; 'Normal' In Sri Lanka Is Not Good Enough, letter to the editor, Nov. 7.
Letter-writers Roy Ratnavel and David Poopalapillai have attempted to make the case that Tamils are persecuted in Sri Lanka. If we accept this contention, it will help pave the way for the boatload of Sri Lankan Tamils who arrived recently in our waters to claim they are genuine refugees and, therefore, entitled to stay here permanently.
While the fighting continued in Sri Lanka, the argument was made that young Tamil men were at risk either from the government side -- which thought they might be supporters of the Tamil Tiger terrorists -- or from the Tigers themselves, who were not reluctant about using forceful methods where necessary to gain new recruits for their movement. The fighting ended in May of this year, however, and this argument has become less than convincing.
As Tamils, are they being persecuted? In support of his claim that the Sri Lankan government has an anti-Tamil bias, Mr. Ratnavel cites the large numbers of Tamils killed by Sinhalese mobs in Colombo in July 1983, following the deaths of 13 soldiers in an ambush carried out by the Tigers. While questions have been raised about the slowness of the authorities in quelling the violence and restoring order on that occasion, the fact is that in the intervening years no similar outbreak has been allowed to occur -- despite terrorist bombings by the Tigers that have killed hundreds of civilians.
Tamils, understandably, recall with horror the events of July 1983 and many at the time fled to what they regarded as safer areas of the country. Since then, however, the authorities have ensured that Tamils can live in a state of security in the capital and their proportion of the population in the Colombo District has actually increased beyond what it was before the 1983 riots. In the central area of the city they now constitute about one third of population. A Tamil, moreover, served as mayor in the late 1990s and there are currently three Tamil ministers in the national Cabinet.
In the circumstances, the recent boat arrivals will have a hard time proving they are members of a persecuted minority in Sri Lanka -- which they will have to do if they are to make a credible case for being granted refugee status in Canada. Otherwise, they will have to line up like thousands of others and apply to come here as regular immigrants if they want to enjoy the benefits of living in this country.
Martin Collacott, former high commissioner to Sri Lanka, Vancouver.
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