Tamils ordered to vacate lodges in Pettah [2ND LEAD]

Tamil owners of 68 lodges in Pettah (Peaddai) Police Division in Colombo have been instructed by the Police Officer in Charge of Pettah to immediately expel around 5000 Tamil tenants from Northeast and Upcountry, currently staying in 68 lodges in Pettah, to their "native places" within 24 hours before the military is deployed to forcefully transport the inmates. Chief Inspector Jayaratne, the OIC, Thursday evening summoned the owners of the lodges on short notice to convey the warning, lodge owners told media. Tension prevails in Pettah as Tamil parliamentarians were trying to get in touch with the Sri Lankan government offiicals. The OIC issued a 24-hour deadline to vacate tenants from Northeast and Upcountry.

People who come to Colombo from Northeast, stay in lodges. Individuals who have come for medical treatment from remote areas, individuals who were waiting to go abroad for education or employment, families on reunion staying in Colombo with their family members visiting from abroad and those who have come with military clearance are among more than 5000 Tamils who are instructed to vacate the lodges, according to lodge owners in Pettah.

Upcountry Peoples Front (UPF) and Western Province People's Front (WPPF) parliamentarians who contacted the defence establishment in Colombo, said they have sought assurances from the government authorities that nobody would be forced to vacate or close down lodges based on their ethnic identity.

"Even those who were scheduled to leave Colombo to India on Sunday were not allowed to stay in the lodges after Friday," a lodge owner told TamilNet.

"Are you from North, go back to Vavuniyaa. Are you from Hatton, go back to Hatton," the OIC has told the lodge owners stating that he had clear instructions from higher authorities.

The chief inspector has given a strict warning, saying that he would not be entertaining complaints on missing persons if the lodge owners did not adhere to the instructions from the top authorities.

-Tamilnet-

Edited June 1, 200718 yr by யாழ்வினோ

Sri Lanka evicts 'loitering' Tamils from capital.

Hundreds of minority Tamils have been asked to leave Sri Lanka's capital and return to their villages, some in conflict areas, because they are a "threat to national security," police said Friday. Police Inspector-General Victor Perera said Tamils from the embattled northern and eastern provinces were spending long periods of time in Colombo without any work.

"Those who are loitering in Colombo will be sent home. We will give them transport," Perera told reporters here. "We are doing this to protect the people and because of a threat to national security." Tamils are required to obtain permits to travel to the rest of the country from the police under a de facto visa system put in place to prevent Tiger rebels infiltrating the capital. The guerrillas fighting for a Tamil homeland were blamed for two bomb attacks that killed nine people and wounded 44 in and around the capital last week.

Earlier this week, the police virtually sealed the capital for three hours to check every vehicle and passengers entering the city of 600,000 people. Perera, a member of the majority Sinhalese community, denied media reports that 56 lodges, or hostels, in Colombo had been asked to evict Tamil guests. "We have asked lodge owners to send away suspicious people or those who can't produce valid identification papers."

Thousands of Tamils from violence-ridden areas arrive in the capital monthly in the hope of obtaining passports to travel abroad for employment or secure political asylum overseas.

-AFP-