by Keith Ritchmond
The government of Sri Lanka has finally agreed to start freeing the tens of thousands of Tamil civilians it has been holding in Army-run detention camps.
Colombo has come under growing international pressure to let these people go before the monsoon season creates serious health problems.
The government has confined everyone displaced by the army’s push to end the country’s 25-year civil war – more than a quarter of a million people, according to the United Nations – most of them in a complex of barbed wire-enclosed camps called Menik Farm in Vavuniya.
There was international condemnation for Colombo holding people against their will and UN Secretary General Ban Ki-Moon has warned the Sri Lankan government that it risks creating “bitterness” among the Tamil population if it fails to resettle the refugees.
The government, which says it wants to screen people in case they are terrorists, said this week it will allow people out for short periods – “to visit friends and relatives” – from next month and made a pledge to close the camps next year.
