Call for Pope to visit Sri Lanka

Published: 22 November 2009
By: Paul Dobbyn

A BRISBANE priest and a doctor have supported Pope Benedict's recent call to the Sri Lankan Government to free displaced civilians from internment camps.

However, both Dominican Father Pan Jordan and Dr Brian Senewiratne believe the Pope must visit Sri Lanka to have any impact on the mistreatment of the estimated 250,000 Tamil people imprisoned in camps in the country's north.

Both also say, given the appalling conditions in their home country, it is no wonder that Tamils are fleeing by boat to find refuge in countries including Australia.

Pope Benedict was recently reported as noting "with satisfaction" that the Sri Lankan Government was making an effort to allow for those displaced by the decades-long civil war to return to their homes.

But Fr Jordan and Dr Senewiratne, who have considerable experience of life in Sri Lanka, said many of these people had no homes to return to.

Fr Jordan, who was born into a Tamil family in the northern town of Adampan in 1954, and who has returned to Sri Lanka in the years since becoming a priest, most recently in April this year, keeps in regular contact with priests and religious sisters in the strife-torn country.

"My contacts report that many of the Tamil people have had their homes destroyed," Fr Jordan said.

"Others return only to find their homes occupied by the Singhalese."

Life is also dangerous for Tamils that are not kept in internment camps.

In 2007, a former government minister estimated that one person disappeared every five hours in Sri Lanka.

Australasian Federation of Tamil Associa-tions chairman Raga Ragavan said there had been another surge of disappearances in recent months.

"It is to escape this dire situation that Tamils are fleeing the island," he said.

It has been reported that of the 1890 people on 39 boats that have turned up in northern Australian waters recently, almost half are Sri Lankan Tamils.

Fr Jordan said it was no wonder that Tamils were fleeing the country.

"And if the Australian Government deports these people and sends them back home it is like putting them under a death sentence," he said.

He said things were much worse for many Tamils since the final day of battle in the civil war on May 19 when more than 20,000 civilians were believed to have been killed.

"Conditions in the internment camps will get much worse now that the monsoon season has started," Fr Jordan said.

"The floors of tents are turning to mud - they are not on concrete.

"People are being forced to stand for one or two days in water - they can't lie down to sleep."

Dr Senewiratne, who comes from Sri Lanka's ruling Bandaranaikes family, said it was not just Tamils who were at risk under the current regime but Christians too.

He has grave concerns over Buddhist aggression towards Christians in Sri Lanka.

"The Pope needs to realise the totality of the problem which has resulted in the slaughter of thousands of Christians, especially Roman Catholics including more than a dozen Roman Catholic clergy," he said.

"The only thing that will work is for the Pope to visit Sri Lanka and to insist on going and seeing his flock in the camps."

After inspecting the camps earlier this year, United Nations Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon declared: "I have travelled around the world and visited similar places, but this is by far the most appalling scene I have seen".