SRI LANKA: Forcible evictions; a national passtime Via NY Transfer News Collective * All the News that Doesn't Fit source - CJEPsa Little Kosovo in Modera By Shelani de Silva The forcible evacuating of more than thousand people including pregnant women and children from a land they were occupying in Modera has created a mini Kosovo. The families who were ejected alleged that the police beat women and children and demolished their huts before driving them onto the road. But police denied the allegation of brute force and said they only requested the people to move out of the three-acre plot of land which belongs to the Fisheries Ministry. Police also said the move-on request was made because of allegations that the squatter settlement was contributing to criminal activity in the area. After they were evicted, the displaced people took refuge in a community centre run by the Colombo Municipal Council. But the CMC after two days told them to move to a nearby park and Mayor Omar Kamil now says the government must take responsibility to resettle them elsewhere. Mr. Kamil is insisting that the families must go back to the land they came from but the police are refusing to allow that. Mr. Kamil told The Sunday Times that to even help them, the families would first have to move out of the CMC park. He said it was the responsibility of the Government together with the Fisheries Ministry to provide them with an alternative. "It is not possible for the CMC to give any land, but they have to leave the park because it belongs to the CMC. When the police moved in to eject them, they went to a community centre. Later, the day before Vesak they moved in to the Park, on the request of the people I gave them an additional day to stay on, but they have to go. The Department of Social Services should look into their grievances. On our part, we could provide roofing and other materials," the Mayor said. However the families tell a totally different story where they claim that the police had demolished their homes overnight and attacked women and children. They ask why the officials did nothing when they put up the houses and waited six months to create a problem. The families claim that some residents and the police were against their settlement because the land which was occupied by them was earlier used for various illegal activities. http://www.lacnet.org/suntimes/this/index.html Center for Justice, Equality and Peace in South Asia - An advocacy group for Indigenous and Minority Rights. ================================================================= NY Transfer News Collective * A Service of Blythe Systems Since 1985 - Information for the Rest of Us 339 Lafayette St., New York, NY 10012 http://www.blythe.org e-mail: nyt@blythe.org ================================================================= nytas-06.10.99-03:56:45-30071