Freedom at high price

[AlphaCentauri]

Desperate relatives pay hundreds of thousands of rupees to highly-connected racketeers to get their loved ones released from IDP camps
Insight Team: Anthony David, Chris Kamalendran, Asif Fuard and Damith Wickremasekera, Pic by Sanka Vidanagama
She lives in one of the many crowded guesthouses that have mushroomed in Vavuniya. Twenty-six-year old Kamala, in blue jeans and striped T-shirt, is tall and big made. She digs into her handbag, pulls out a pink lipstick and moistens her lips before shaking my hand.


She points to a table in the corner of the air conditioned but empty restaurant. “Have you eaten? Can I get you something to eat or drink,” she asks as we settle down to our chairs. “A coke,” I reply and the conversation begins. “Tell me the name of the person, zone and tent number,” she says. I was ready with the answers.

Together with the contact I met earlier at a location in Vavuniya town, I had arranged to meet Kamala to seek the release of an Internally Displaced Person (IDP) at Menik farm.

An extent of 1,000 acres of state land in Chettikulam, 35 kilometres southwest of this northern town, the gateway to Wanni, forms the area where families displaced from the just concluded separatist war are located. Barring small numbers in Jaffna and Trincomalee, the vast majority live here in makeshift shelters in six different zones.

My contact had rehearsed the drill with me. I was to seek the release of an imaginary uncle. The money for this was coming in foreign exchange from his brother in Canada. An inmate inside a camp agreed to play “uncle” and even used a mobile phone.

Kamala fires a volley of questions. “Before they became inmates of an IDP camp, where did they live? What are their family names? Where do they want to go? Do they want themselves released from the camp to travel abroad, to travel to Colombo or remain in Vavuniya?” There were many more. Though she spoke in Tamil, she was conversant in English. Our conversation halted every now and then when her mobile phone rang. She would say, “I am with a client. Call me later.” On one occasion, she told a caller “your matter is okay. She is coming out tomorrow.”

She picks her mobile phone and rings my “uncle” in the Menik Farm. She gives him the good news that she would get him out soon. He pleads with her that she should not charge a large amount. He says he had lost his wife and all his belongings during the fighting. “My brother is willing to send the money. Please be reasonable. He is unable to remit a big amount from Canada. He is a paid employee,” my “uncle” pleads with Kamala.

She turns to me. Her face lights up as she smiles. “You are lucky. The prices have now come down,” she says. Kamala then reveals her rate plan.

The fee to secure the release of an IDP from a camp and “deliver” him or her to Vavuniya is Rs 100,000.
To secure the release of an IDP from a camp and “deliver” them to Colombo or the Bandaranaike International Airport (BIA) is Rs 500,000. Travel and visa arrangements, however, would have to be made by those securing the release.

http://www.sundaytimes.lk/090906/News/nws_24.html