Asia Times: Refugees unwilling to return home


	March 23, 2002	atimes.com

India/Pakistan

Refugees unwilling to return home

The peace process being brokered by Norway has created fear among the more than 110,000 Tamil refugees living in India and other parts of the world. Refugees in Rameshwaram, Virudhunagar and Velore of Tamil Nadu in India have expressed dissatisfaction over recent reports that they might be sent back to Sri Lanka. A permanent peaceful settlement should be arrived at first before they could return to that country, they said.

Many refugees in Mandapam refugee camp in Rameshwaram, where most of the refugees reside, said that they don't want to go back to their home before a political settlement is hammered out between Tamils and Sinhalese. Otherwise, they claimed, they would again be caught in the crossfire in the case that the present truce broke down between the Tamil Tigers and the Sri Lankan government.

Certainly, some people say that they would like to go back to their country because they want to reclaim their property and meet relatives. But they are afraid of what would happen if war broke out again between the two warring parties, as happended in 1990 and 1995. They said they feared to cross the sea once again, but agreed to go back only if the Indian government gave its assurances that they would be accepted back if war broke out once again.

Similar views were expressed by refugees in other camps, particularly in Virudhunagar and in Velore. They said that they were wished to go back to their homes since living conditions in refugee camps were harsh, but they were scared to do so.

Some 70,000 of the refugees live in more than 130 state-run camps in Tamil Nadu. Many of the camps are well maintained, but others are badly neglected. Inadequate sanitation and insufficient clean drinking water are among the main problems. The Indian authorities give camp residents cash grants and provide them some non-food items at subsidized rates. They permit the refugees to work outside the camps, but restrict their movement, making it difficult for them to keep jobs.

According to sources, some organizations are making arrangements to send the refugees back. They have asked the refugees to file applications and submit them at local government offices with details regarding members in the family and the place where they wish to return.

According to other sources in Tamil Nadu, they say that India should not send the refugees back unless a negotiated settlement is reached to end the conflict. They said that the government sent back about 10,000 refugees in the mid-1990s, but most of them returned to India, crossing the Palk Strait when hostilities broke out between the government and the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam.

(Eelam Nation)