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| Sri Lanka |
| UN confirms Tamil camps exodus |
| 2009-11-20 |
| UN humanitarian chief John Holmes has confirmed that more than half the Tamils who were in refugee camps in northern Sri Lanka have now left them. The camps were set up to house Tamils who fled the final stages of a 25-year civil war between troops and Tamil Tiger rebels, which ended in May. Mr Holmes, who has just visited the area, said fewer than 135,000 out of 300,000 people were still in the camps. Mr Holmes said it was clear those who had been able to go home were glad to be going back to their villages. "I welcome very much the recent paces of releases and returns of internally displaced people from the camps. It's very good to see that the number of people in the Menik Farm camp, the main camp, is now just under half what it was at its peak," he told the BBC. "That process of releases and returns is continuing andÂ… that's extremely welcome." He expressed the hope that the issue of freedom of movement for those remaining in the camps would be tackled soon - and said the Sri Lankan government had indicated some flexibility on this. And he still had concerns about the nature of the returns process; there had been some lack of consultation with the Tamils themselves, and with the UN. Mr Holmes said the safety of returnees, and their access to basic services, had to be ensured. "The places I saw have got those basic services," he said, although he added that areas people were returning to needed to be "properly de-mined and certified as de-mined". Mr Holmes admitted it would be years before normality returned to northern Sri Lanka. He said he was shocked at the number of ruined buildings. "[People] face major problems in terms of shelter. Most of the houses I think which people have left, they find in ruins when they return so there are big issues there," he said. |
| Posted by:Steve White |