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According to the Ministry of Defence, the police told these 376 Tamils, including 85
women, to leave for their homes in Vavuniya, Batticaloa, Jaffna, and Trincomalee
because they could not provide “valid reasons” for being in Colombo. The police
sent these people in buses to their home towns in northeastern Sri Lanka after they
“expressed consent to go home if free transportation was provided” a statement
dated June 9 said. “The resulting action by the police is required considering security
demands such as the recent Tamil Tiger bomb explosions resulting in several
innocent lives lost, and severe damage to property,” the statement said.
“Investigations have also confirmed that those responsible for these brutal killings
have hatched their brutal plans and executed them from these lodgings.”
The forced evictions sparked a domestic and international outcry. 124 “While we are
full cognizant of the current security situation and the need to maintain close
surveillance of the city and its environs,” a group of eight Sri Lankan
nongovernmental organizations said in an open letter to President Rajapaksa, “in
terms of the human rights principles that guide us in our work as human rights
defenders, we are convinced that the above process is NOT capable of guaranteeing
security and rather creates further polarization between the different ethnic
communities that share this island, and heightens the sense of marginalization and
alienation of Tamil people of this country.” The organizations stressed the principle
enshrined in Sri Lanka’s constitution that “guarantees all Sri Lankans the right to
choose their own residence (temporary or permanent), and freedom of movement
and maintain that what has taken place in Colombo today is a flagrant violation of
this principle, and a disgrace to humanity.” 125
One of the signatories to the letter, the Centre for Policy Alternatives, filed a
fundamental rights application with the Supreme Court to halt the expulsions,
124 “Sri Lanka: End Expulsions of Tamils from Colombo,” Human Rights Watch news release, June 8, 2007,
http://hrw.org/english/docs/2007/06/08/slanka16106.htm. The US government said, “Such measures violate the Sri Lankan
Constitution’s guarantee that every citizen has the right to freedom of movement and choice of residence within Sri Lanka.”
“The United States Condemns the Forced Removal of Tamils,” US Embassy in Sri Lanka press release, June 8, 2007,
http://colombo.usembassy.gov/pr-08june2007.html (accessed June 25, 2007).
125 “Open Letter to President Mahinda Rajapaksa to Stop the Expulsion of Tamils from Colombo,” signed by the Center for
Human Rights and Development, Center for Policy Alternatives, Free Media Movement, INFORM Human Rights Documentation
Center, Institute of Human Rights, International Movement against All forms of Racial Discrimination, Law & Society Trust, and
Rights Now, June 7, 2007, http://www.cpalanka.org/Statements/Letter_to_Pres_on_expulsion_of_Tamils-Final.pdf (accessed
June 25, 2007).
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Human Rights Watch August 2007