Protesters told of reversing Sri Lanka’s bid to return Rohingyas to Myanmar
An aide to Sri Lanka’s president assured that the Rohingya war refugees who are being held in an air force base in war-torn Vanni will not be forcibly evicted, says the Committee for Investigation of Disappeared (CID), who led a protest in Colombo and handed over a petition.
"He accepted, that currently the government is of the view that they will not be sent back to Myanmar. But we made requests to bring them to a free environment and settle. Then they accepted that they are currently discussing the matter, and they accepted that the refugees need to be taken to a free environment."
Sundaram Mahendran, Convener of the Committee for Investigation of Disappeared affiliated to the Nava Sama Samaja Party, spoke to the journalist in Colombo after talks with a Presidential Coordination Secretary at the Presidential Secretariat along with several other civil organization activists.
Displaying protest placards such as, ‘Sri Lanka Don’t Clean Up Rohingyas', ‘Protect Rohingyas Fleeing Myanmar Terror’, ‘Military Barracks for Refugees in ‘Beautiful Country’, ‘Who ordered Rohingya refugees to be detained in a military camp?’ in Sinhala, Tamil and English, civil society activists, political leaders and trade union leaders had launched the protest in front of the President's Secretariat in Colombo on Friday 10 January 2025 demanding that the Rohingyas who fled from Myanmar fearing prosecution should not be sent back to the country.
During the protest, Sundaram Mahendran, told the journalists in the capital that it is the responsibility of the citizens of Sri Lanka to protect Rohingya Muslims of Myanmar who came to this country fleeing death and destruction.
“Myanmar Rohingya Muslims are continuously being attacked. They are getting killed. Therefore, they have left that country with the desire to live and to have the right to live, and they have come to Sri Lanka today by sea. One hundred odd. Including small children.”
Sundaram Mahendran - a human rights activist who stood up for justice against enforced disappearances in the North and South, despite the risk of his life, during and after the Sri Lanka’s bloody civil war, also emphasized to the journalists the reasons why they were protesting against keeping the Rohingya Muslims in an army camp.
"We are against keeping them in a military camp, under the military guard. Because they came to this country out of fear of military terror. Even after they came here, now again they are being kept in an army camp, which means that those children still have to spend the night under duress and fear. Therefore, we request to immediately take them out of the military camp to a free civilian environment and provide them with protection, medical, food and other facilities."
The human rights activist had also condemned the air force had preventing the Sri Lanka Human Rights Commission from entering the camp where the war refugees were held.
"If the government is unable to do that, we request to hand over them to the United Nations immediately. If they were handed over to the United Nations, they will accept it. But the government is not willing to let entering the camp and see them or even ask about their well-being.”
The group of Rohingyas stranded at sea were rescued by fishermen from war-torn Vanni. Sundaram Mahendran also recalled the history of severe human right violations took place against such Tamils.
Minister of Public Security - Ananda Wijepala, who told an English newspaper that the group of Rohingyas who fled from Myanmar will be forcibly deported back to Myanmar, had taken a step back in Parliament last week saying that he is ready to act according to international law ‘if they are recognized as refugees’.
However, Minister Ananda Wijepala had also warned by quoting intelligence reports that another hundred thousand illegal immigrants are going to arrive in Sri Lanka in the coming days. Sundaram Mahendran, convener of the Committee for Investigation of Disappeared, accused the government of making such statements with the aim of provoking the people of this country.
"We are telling the government not to incite people by saying that hundreds of thousands of Myanmar citizens are coming to Sri Lanka just to mislead. We are saying that no matter how many people come, the main goal is to accept them as refugees and provide them with proper protection."
On January 09, 2025, Tamils had also launched a protest in the war-torn Mullaitivu, demanding that the Rohingyas, including children who fled the terror of Myanmar, and now been detained at the Mullaitivu Air Force Base for more than twenty days, should not be deported back.
The convenor of the protest Jesumaney Yardsan Figurado has now been been summoned to the Criminal Investigation Department (CID).
The 115 refugees who arrived to Sri Lanka three weeks ago are currently being held at Mullaitivu Air Force Base. Among them are 12 people who were released by the Trincomalee Magistrate's Court on Wednesday, January 7, 2025 after being remanded on suspicion of driving the vessel they arrived in.
The Sri Lanka Human Rights Commission has announced that there are more than forty children among them. Their hope is to get political asylum in a safe country. The Immigration and Emigration authorities have apologized for obstructing the Human Rights Commission from entering the Mullaitivu Air Force base to inquire about the welfare of the Rohingyas, but it is not yet known whether the Commission's representatives visited there afterwards.
