Dokument #1098187
IRB – Immigration and Refugee Board of Canada (Autor)
The following information was provided in a
14 May 1997 telephone interview with a senior priest of the Jaffna
Diocese of the Roman Catholic Church who is based in Colombo. The
views expressed in this Response are his own.
St. Francis Xavier's Seminary in
Colombogam, Jaffna, was established by the Bishop of Jaffna
approximately ten years ago to accommodate Tamil seminarians who
had problems travelling to the national seminary in Kandy. The
Bishop of Mannar also sent his seminarians to St. Francis Xavier.
When Jaffna was invaded by the army in December 1995, the
seminarians and professors left for Kilinochchi in the Vavuniya
area with a minimum number of books. When the armed forces occupied
Kilinochchi the seminary moved to Madhu, off the Vavuniya-Mannar
road, in an area uncleared of militants. The seminary is presently
functioning in Madhu, but at the end of the academic year, which is
in August 1997, it will return to Jaffna.
The senior priest has not heard of any
seminarian of St. Francis Xavier's Seminary being harassed by
either the armed forces or the LTTE.
The senior priest stated that the former
director of the seminary, Father Emmanuel was accused by the
authorities of supporting the LTTE. He denied these accusations,
left Sri Lanka and is presently residing in the UK.
Corroborating and additional information on
St. Francis Xavier's Seminary and the treatment of its seminarians
by the LTTE and security forces in Jaffna, and by the security
forces in Colombo, could not be found among the sources consulted
by the DIRB.
This Response was prepared after
researching publicly accessible information currently available to
the DIRB within time constraints. This Response is not, and does
not purport to be, conclusive as to the merit of any particular
claim to refugee status or asylum. Please find below the list of
additional sources consulted in researching this Information
Request.
Reference
Senior priest, Jaffna Diocese of the
Roman Catholic Church, Colombo. 14 May 1997. Telephone
interview.
Additional Sources Consulted
Amnesty International Report
1996. 1996.
Asian Survey [Berkeley,
Calif.]. Monthly. September 1996-March 1997.
Country Reports on Human Rights
Practices for 1996. 1997.
DIRB Indexed Media Review
[Ottawa]. Weekly. September 1996-present.
_____. "Sri Lanka" country file.
September 1996-present.
_____. "Sri Lanka: Amnesty
International" country file. September 1996-present.
Eglises d'Asie [Paris].
Fortnightly. November 1995-present.
Foreign Broadcast Information Service
(FBIS) Daily Reports. (WNC)
Human Rights Watch World Report
1997. 1996.
Keesing's Record of World
Events [Cambridge]. Monthly. September 1996-February 1997.
The Refugee Council, London. February 1997.
Protection Denied: Sri Lankan Tamils, the Home Office and the Forgotten Civil War.
Sri Lanka Information Monitor:
Situation Report [Colombo]. Monthly. November 1996-April
1997.
The Sri Lanka Monitor [London].
Monthly. October 1996-March 1997.
Tamil Information [London].
Infrequent reports. January-February 1996 to June-September
1996.
Tamil Times [Surrey]. Monthly.
November 1996-May 1997.
UNHCR-Geneva. March 1997.
Background Paper on Refugees and Asylum Seekers from Sri Lanka.
On-line/Database searches:
SHARENet.
NEXIS
World Wide Web