Census in East after civilian displacement

[TamilNet, Friday, 31 August 2007, 13:02 GMT]
Tamil National Alliance (TNA) Parliamentarian blamed the Government of Sri Lanka Thursday, for conducting a census in Batticaloa district after Tamil people were driven out of the district due to the military offensives, said R. Sampanthan, MP, the Parliamentary Group Leader of TNA, Batticaloa district members of Parliament, T. Kanagasabai, S. Jeyananthamoorthy, Miss. K. Thangeswary and P. Ariyaneththiran, Amparai district MP, K. Pathmanathan and Jaffna district MP Suresh Premachchandran, in a joint press communiqué issued Thursday.

“From 25 April till today, 250,000 Tamil people in the East made refugees as a result of various offensives. Only 75,000 families have been so far resettled. The rest are languishing in refugee camps and the some have even gone to the other districts like Vavuniyaa, Vanni and Colombo. Approximately 25,000 people went to India. In this context, conducting a census is not only unfair but also has sinister motives.

“This is a breach of the fundamental rights of the Tamil people and deprives their democratic right of exercising their ballots,” the MPs said in the communiqué.