Letters - Long road ahead for Sri Lanka

"PEACE pays off for Sri Lanka (Off the Cuff, May 20) refers.
Yes, peace dividends might have brought benefits to those political elites, foreign investors, tourists but what about the local people and Tamils. The civil war ended up with the defeat of the LTTE (Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam), not a terrorist organisation, but a liberation movement.
If not for the harsh and brutal policies of the Sri Lankan government, the LTTE would not have arisen in the first place.
One can hardly talk about the dividends of peace, when major human rights issues in the north and east have not been settled. The call by international human rights agencies for the Sri Lanka government to undertake reconciliation measures by accounting for the missing people, killings and torture has not been addressed.
The new government of President Maithripala Sirisena has failed to punish those responsible for war crimes.
The war might have ended, but the civilian Tamil population particularly in the north and east are being robbed of their properties and land. Hundreds and thousands of plots of land belonging to Tamils have been grabbed by the armed forces in the name of security.
Tamil fishermen have been refused permission to fish in certain areas by the Sri Lankan Navy.
Small-scale businesses have been taken over by organisations affiliated to the armed forces. A large number of houses owned by Tamils has come under the control of the armed forces by listing these properties under the security list.
There might be improved communications, frequency of flights and so on, but they have no impact on improving the socio-economic situation of Tamils in their own homeland.
Professor