LTTE Claimed Racial Discrimination in Sri Lanka: Facts and Myths by Dr. Sam Weerahandi As a former professor, I had studied LTTE claimed racial discrimination. Some of my findings are Tamil community had a greater representation (even before 1983, and continue to be so) than the majority in – professional jobs (see chart) – higher education (see chart) – government cabinet positions (20% compared with 12.6% Tamil population) In fact, Sri Lanka is one of the two countries in the world where minority does better than the majority Sri Lanka has no race or caste base university admission system. The admission system is based only on the grades and level of provincial educational facilities

Racial Discrimination by LTTE Ironically, LTTE has been discriminating Tamil and other communities based on caste, religion, race, and national origin LTTE discriminated (e.g. put lower caste in front lines) own community in the East based on caste and religion – As a result, in 2006 LTTE second in command Karuna group broke away from LTTE and joined the democratic process LTTE engaged in ethnic cleansing in the North completely eliminating Sinhalese and other minorities, whereas Tamils have been migrating from the North to the South Since Indian Tamils in Sri Lanka were brought by British to work in low class jobs, they were discriminated by LTTE based on caste, national origin, and low income LTTE continues to have the support of elite Tamils living home and abroad, while poor Tamil civilians now trust the Sri Lankan government more than LTTE (next slide)

Tamil Civilians trust SL Government or LTTE? Proof by Statistics and Pictures Since 2006 Tamil civilians have been moving away from LTTE controlled areas, a phenomenon seen in no other ethnic conflict. Percentage of Tamil community lived under SL government controlled areas: – 50% before 2006 Eastern liberation – 90% after 2006 and before the Wanni operation – 99% at this time Would a ceasefire would help the free movement of Tamil civilians? – During two days of pause of military activities, just about 200 civilians escaped from LTTE – Just after the ceasefire that number increased to about 3,000 – On April 20th mass exodus over 100,000 took place after SL Army broke LTTE final defense lines