Tamils still 'enslaved' in northern Sri Lanka

The Australian   

A SRI Lankan MP has claimed that most of the country's 800,000 Tamils are living as "slaves" in the heavily controlled Northern Province amid daily crimes perpetrated by massive numbers of military personnel.

The claims have been made ahead of this week's CHOGM meeting in Perth, which will be attended by Sri Lankan President Mahinda Rajapaksa along with about 50 heads of state, including the Queen.

Despite ongoing concern about Sri Lanka's abuses during and after its civil war, the country has gained the right to host the next CHOGM meeting in 2013.

Eswarapatham Saravanapavan, who represents the Tamil National Alliance in the Colombo parliament, told The Australian during his visit last week that the minority was experiencing intolerable conditions in refugee camps and in their villages.

He put the number of soldiers in the province at 200,000, or one for every four Tamils living there. With such numbers, abuses against women were commonplace.

"People are scared in the district. The army's behaviour is bad, but women don't complain because they won't be able to live there," he said.

While he said many international agencies were focusing on bringing the perpetrators of war crimes to justice, he said crimes were being committed on a daily basis.

The Northern Province, which was controlled by the Tamils until the Sri Lankan army launched an all-out offensive two years ago, was now run like a military dictatorship, he said. "People feel they have no freedom."