Sri Lanka - Tamil camps opened

Thousands freed from Tamil detention camps

Article published on the 2009-12-01 Latest update 2009-12-01 12:39 TU

Soldiers and Tamils at a displaced persons camp, Vavuniya, 21 November 2009
(Photo: Reuters)

Tens of thousands of Sri Lankans were freed Tuesday from state-run camps where they had been held in since the end of the conflict between the army and the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE) earlier this year.

"Today more than 1,000 families consisting of about 6,000 persons have already exited the camps," N Thirugnanasampanther, a senior civil servant in northern Vavuniya district, told AFP.

The 130,000 Tamil civilians in the camps in the Manik Farm complex were granted the right to leave, as was announced ten days ago, but many are expected to stay based there, as their villages have been destroyed.

"We have turned all the IDP [internally displaced person] camps into open camps," said G.A. Chandrasiri, the governor of Northern Province, adding that people were free to come and go as they please.

"They can stay in the camps until they arrange accommodation elsewhere," he said.

The UN and international aid groups had criticised the crowded, unsanitary conditions in the camps. In May, when the fighting between the Tamil Tigers and the army ended, the camps held 280,000 people.

The government had justified detaining civilians by saying it needed to screen people to weed out rebels, and also because mines had to be cleared from villages.