US embassy cable - 03COLOMBO1789

C O N F I D E N T I A L SECTION 01 OF 02 COLOMBO 001789 
 
SIPDIS 
 
DEPARTMENT FOR SA, SA/INS, DRL; NSC FOR E. MILLARD 
 
DEPARTMENT PLEASE ALSO PASS TOPEC 
 
E.O. 12958:    DECL:  10-15-13 
TAGS: PGOV, PHUM, SOCI, PREL, CE, IN, LTTE - Peace Process 
SUBJECT:  Ending a long-standing dispute, Parliament 
grants citizenship to thousands of tea estate Tamils 
 
Refs:  (A) FBIS Reston Va DTG 090153Z Oct 03 
-      (B) Colombo 1466 
 
(U) Classified by James F. Entwistle, Deputy Chief of 
Mission.  Reasons 1.5 (b,d). 
 
1.  (C) SUMMARY:  Sri Lanka's Parliament passed a bill 
granting citizenship to over 160,000 tea estate Tamils 
on October 7.  The bill ends a decades-old dispute that 
pitted the majority Sinhalese community against the 
wider Tamil community and involved the GSL in years of 
tense negotiations with India.  Local observers lauded 
the passage of the bill.  Against the background of the 
ongoing peace process, the constructive way the 
citizenship bill has been handled is a positive sign for 
ethnic reconciliation writ large.  END SUMMARY. 
 
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Parliament Acts on Citizenship Bill 
=================================== 
 
2.  (U) On October 7, Sri Lanka's Parliament passed a 
bill presented by the government granting citizenship to 
over 160,000 tea estate Tamils.  The bill passed 
unanimously, with all 172 MPs present voting in favor, 
and all parties -- government and opposition -- in 
support.  The bill, which is called "Grant of 
Citizenship to Persons of Indian Origin Act," accords 
"the status of citizen to any person of Indian origin 
who has been a permanent resident of Sri Lanka since 
October 30, 1964 or a descendant of any such person." 
To become law, the bill now needs to be signed by J.M. 
Perera, Speaker of the Parliament, who has indicated 
that he will do so soon.  Once it is signed, the tea 
estate Tamils affected by the bill will be able to apply 
for Sri Lankan national identity cards, a process the 
government will coordinate. 
 
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End of a Long-standing Dispute 
============================== 
 
3.  (U) The bill ends a decades old dispute that pitted 
the majority Sinhalese community against Sri Lanka's 
wider Tamil community and involved the Sri Lankan 
government in years of tense negotiations with India. 
The tea estate Tamil community (also known as "Indian" 
or "hill" Tamils) represents about 5.5 percent of Sri 
Lanka's total population.  While members of the same 
Tamil ethno-linguistic group, tea estate Tamils are 
considered distinct from Sri Lanka's long-established 
"Jaffna" and eastern Tamil communities, who represent 
about 13 percent of the population.  Ancestors of 
today's tea estate Tamils were brought by the British 
from southern India to Sri Lanka starting in the 19th 
century to work on the tea plantations located in the 
central highlands.  In one of the first salvos in the 
ethnic confrontation that would divide the country and 
eventually lead to armed conflict, Sri Lanka's 
Parliament passed an act soon after independence in 1948 
that explicitly excluded tea estate Tamils from Sri 
Lankan citizenship.  Reflecting Sinhalese majoritarian 
views, the Parliament took this action out of concern 
that the addition of hundreds of thousands of tea estate 
Tamils to the electoral roles would buttress the 
strength of the country's Tamil community.  Due to the 
1948 Act and those subsequent to it, almost one million 
tea estate Tamils were effectively rendered stateless. 
 
4.  (U) With the Sri Lankan government threatening to 
expel the tea estate Tamils en masse to Tamil Nadu, 
tensions quickly came to a head with India.  After years 
of negotiations, then-prime ministers Sirimavo 
Bandaranaike and Lal Bahadur Shastri agreed in 1964 that 
Sri Lanka would grant citizenship to roughly one third 
of the affected Tamils while India would grant 
citizenship to the remaining two-thirds.  It took years 
and much controversy, but Sri Lanka and India generally 
fulfilled their parts of the bargain, with India 
repatriating thousands of tea estate Tamils.  Two 
segments of the tea estate Tamil community remained 
stateless, however:  those eligible to be repatriated to 
India who chose not to return and those who tried to 
return but were not accepted by India.  These two Tamil 
groups and their descendants, numbering around 160,000 
people in total, were the beneficiaries of the 
citizenship passed by Sri Lanka's Parliament on 
October 7. 
 
====================== 
Observers Enthusiastic 
====================== 
 
5.  (C) Local observers lauded the passage of the bill. 
K. Vivekanandan, a well-known human rights lawyer and a 
tea estate Tamil, told poloff October 15 that the 
passage of the bill resolved the citizenship problem 
once and for all for the tea estate Tamil community. 
With the passage of the bill, he noted that all tea 
estate Tamils now have all the basic rights guaranteed 
other Sri Lankans, including the right to vote and to 
own property.  Vivekanandan cautioned that after years 
of discrimination tea estate Tamils still have far to go 
until they are fully integrated into Sri Lankan society, 
however.  That said, the citizenship bill should help in 
the integration process, he remarked.  In an October 14 
conversation with polchief, Taranjit Sandhu, political 
counselor at the Indian High Commission, stated that he 
thought the Sri Lankan Parliament's vote had been a very 
positive step.  While the issue of the tea estate Tamils 
had ceased to be an irritant in Indo-Sri Lankan 
relations many years ago, Sandhu said the final closure 
of the whole matter was satisfying and highlighted an 
increased level of inter-communal acceptance in Sri 
Lanka. 
 
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COMMENT 
======= 
 
6.  (C) As noted above, the matter of how to handle the 
citizenship of tea estate Tamils was the seminal issue 
that set the stage for the friction (over language, 
access to employment and educational opportunities, 
etc.) between Sinhalese and Tamils that was to overwhelm 
Sri Lanka and eventually lead to war.  The fact that the 
long-standing dispute over citizenship has now finally 
been resolved in such a responsible way seems to be a 
positive sign for ethnic reconciliation between 
Sinhalese and Tamils writ large.  As such, the 
Parliament's passage of the bill seems to be good news 
for the fragile peace process.  END COMMENT. 
 
7.  (U) Minimize considered. 
 
LUNSTEAD