Trivantpuram, December 02: Thousands of Tamil civilians streamed out of the controversial refugee camps where they have been detained for months yesterday, after the Sri Lanka government told them they were free to leave temporarily. But the bar on international monitoring of the camps and the refugees’ movements remained in force.
A full six months after the conclusion of the country’s long-running civil war, officials said the civilians were able to leave the overcrowded camps for up to 10 days, although they would have to register with the authorities wherever they went. Major-General Kamal Gunaratne, the officer in charge of the biggest of the camps, Menik Farm, told the BBC that anyone who failed to return would be “tracked down”.
Human rights groups said that while the move did not amount to complete freedom for the civilians, it was a positive step.
–Agencies