The Sri Lankan Supreme Court ruled on June 8 against the eviction of hundreds of Tamils from the capital.
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The day before, heavily armed police had transferred 376 Tamils from Colombo to the town of Vavuniya. The evictions were carried out under the pretext of uprooting members of the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam, the main Tamil national liberation organization in Sri Lanka.
Sri Lanka’s Sinhalese-controlled media denounced the evictions, primarily on the grounds that they might encourage other Tamils to take up arms. Such reasoning implies the Sinhalese elite would feel no need for restraint in the absence of an armed resistance movement.
The Tamil people of Sri Lanka have been resisting Sinhalese oppression since the end of British rule following World War II.
