Sri Lankan Tamil Rebels Threaten National Census

Sri Lanka's national census due July 17 is facing serious obstruction in the north and east from separatist Tamil Tiger rebels who have warned of serious consequences for anyone who cooperated in the project, officials said.

Accordingly, volunteers and government officials have refused to conduct door to door data collection, thereby crippling the process in those areas, they said.

Director General of Census and Statistics A.G.W. Nanayakkara said that they may have to call off the census in these areas as even the United Nation's High Commission for Refugees (UNHCR) which was willing to help could not move this stage forward without the cooperation of local players.

Initially the UNHCR had helped in the listing and labeling of houses. The actual data collection phase of the census, the first in 20 years in the island country, started on Monday with volunteers and government officials visiting households with questionnaires and personally interviewing residents.

Mainstream Tamil political parties have also urged the government to exclude the north and the east from the census because the large number of displaced persons did not allow an accurate tally.

They also fear that a large drop of population in the areas will affect allocations for university admission and parliament seats which are calculated on the basis of census statistics.

The Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam rebels have been fighting in the north and east of the country since 1983 for an independent Tamil homeland there. Some 64,000 people have died in the bloody war and a large number of residents have been displaced in the area.

Opposition Denies Proposal to Lift Rebel Ban

Sri Lanka's main opposition United National Party (UNP) said on Wednesday night that its leader Ranil Wickremasinghe did not suggest that the ban on separatist Tamil Tiger rebels be lifted during his talks with President Chandrika Kumaratunga last Friday.

"A press release from the President's Office dated 26th June stated that the Leader of the Opposition proposed to the president that she should consider lifting the ban on the LTTE (Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam). This is completely false. Ramil Wickremesinghe, the Leader of the Opposition did not make any such proposal." the UNP said in a statement issued on Wednesday night.

During the talks held on the invitation of President Kumaratunga, it was agreed that the government and the UNP would engage in a constructive dialogue to carry the peace process forward, it said.

It further stated that the UNP acted in this spirit because it believes that a political solution is necessary to the conflict in the north and east of the war-torn country.

The Norwegian-brokered peace process in the country has been deadlocked over a rebel demand to lift the ban on the organization. The government has rejected the demand as "unreasonable".

The LTTE rebels have been fighting against government forces in the north and east of the country since 1983 for an independent Tamil homeland. The bloody war has killed some 64,000 people.






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