Sri Lanka: Bloggers react to eviction of Tamils in Colombo

by Actual News Geezer | June 8, 2007 at 10:26 am

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This is just in from Reuters on the situation in Columbo, Sri Lanka:

COLOMBO (Reuters) - Sri Lanka's Supreme Court on Friday ordered the government to stop evicting minority ethnic Tamils from the capital a day after police deported hundreds to the island's war-torn north, a civil rights lawyer said.

Police on Thursday swept boarding houses in Colombo, evicted 376 Tamils, citing security concerns, and took them to the northern district of Vavuniya, the front line of renewed civil war between the state and Tamil Tiger rebels. Rights groups are up in arms.

There can't be much more depressing evidence of mankind's ability to foul its most perfect places than the current situation in Sri Lanka.

A pearl of an island filled with normally amazingly generous people, a civil war underway is more unwelcome proof our imperfectibility. And yet the reporting from many bloggers can be interestingly nuanced. Not all of course; our old friend Neha Viswanathan has collected a range of voices on the brilliant Global Voices community.

The Sri Lankan Blogosphere is reacting strongly to the recent move by the authorities to evacuate some Tamil people in Colombo. A lot of blogs have expressed anger and rage at the government’s actions, while others have attempted to understand the reasons for this move. Another debate appears to if this is a form of ethnic cleansing or sheer ineptness on part of the government. From Kumar Rupesinghe

More than 300 Tamils who live in lodges in Colombo suburbs have been forcibly evacuated by the Sri Lankan Police, after a massive search operation in the Wellawatte, Kotahena, Pettah and Wattala areas in the morning of 7th June. According to news reports, 47 Tamils were forcefully taken from a single lodge located in Station Road in Wellawatte. Another lodge in the area reported 35 arrests by the Police.

A Janusis asks pertinent questions about why there was utter lack of diplomacy surrounding the events. The author further points out to what appears to upset the bloggers, and sums it up with the post title “Colombo being cleansed by the filthy?”.