Sri Lanka

Displaced Tamils to be freed from internment camps

Article published on the 2009-11-21 Latest update 2009-11-21 12:30 TU

Displaced Tamils react to the news that they can leave the internment camp in Vavuniya
(Photo: Reuters)

The Sri Lankan government has said that it will allow civilians in internment camps to move freely in and out from the start of December. More than 130,000 are housed in the makeshift camps following the army’s offensive against the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE) earlier this year.

“We will allow complete freedom of movement,” senior presidential advisor Basil Rajapakse, and younger brother of President Mahinda Rajapakse, told inmates of one of the camps.

According to the government, resettlement of the displaced men, women and children will take place by the end of January.

“They feel that politically its going to be more useful for them to let these civilians go, at the same time this is an opportunity for them to get some brownie points from the international community,” correspondent Amal Jayasingha told RFI.

41,000 people were released in October, but the government has received criticism for holding refugees indefinitely, and made a promise to UN General Secretary Ban Ki-Moon that resettlement would take place by 31 January.

They claim that they needed time to identify LTTE fighters and clear mines.

“What the government is now trying to do is move them away from this area, and of course most of these people don’t have their homes, because they have been destroyed in the fighting,” said Jayasingha, speaking from Colombo.