Sri Lanka has asked aid agencies to scale down operations on the island. The government claims that now it has claimed victory over the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE), there is no longer a need for agencies like the Red Cross. 

The move has raised concerns among aid groups about the care of the 300,000 Tamils who were uprooted during the last phase of the fighting that ended in May and are now being held in government-run concentration camps.

Although the government has announced its intention to dismantle the so-called "welfare villages" as soon as possible and plans to return the displaced in six months, aid workers are worried about Sri Lanka's treatment of its displaced, according to press reports.

These concerns include the lack of access to camps, continuing restrictions on aid going into the camps and the lack of movement to resettle the inmates of the camps.

Aid workers have complained about a lack of access to the camps which are run by the military. Sri Lanka’s military has already been accused by rights groups of abuses against the Tamil population, and are known for their poor record in dealing with civilian populations, both in Sri Lanka and overseas – Sri Lankan soldiers on a UN mission in Haiti were accused of rape and running prostitution rings, while Tamils have documented numerous instances of human rights abuses including rape, torture, disappearances and murder.

Many aid workers view the government's call for a scaling down of aid operations as a deliberate move to prevent outsiders from witnessing conditions inside the camps, saying that the lack of free movement for the displaced in the camps is tantamount to arbitrary detention.

Aid workers and rights groups are also concerned about violations such as abductions and disappearances that are reportedly taking place in the camps.

Separately, many aid workers say their ability to work continues to be hampered by the government denying visas to colleagues, interfering in recruitment and setting out rules that lead to a quick turnover of staff.

The restrictions on the types and quantity of goods that can enter the camps is an further hindrance they say.

According to a report in The Times, the government has imposed a 0.9 per cent tax on all funding for aid groups, saying the tax is designed to crack down on non-governmental organisations (NGOs) that abused Sri Lankan law and squandered their funds on their own staff after the tsunami.

Aid workers are also concerned the Colombo government intends to keep the camps running indefinitely despite its vow to resettle most of the displaced in six months.

They say the government has been pushing for semi-permanent structures to be built in the camps and are worried the government may use slow progress on de-mining as a pretext for stopping people from going back home.

Rights groups say the government needs to have a more comprehensive plan to return and resettle all internal refugees in the country, including those displaced in previous phases of the conflict.

Some aid workers have even questioned whether it is worth staying in Sri Lanka given the restrictions on their activities, saying Sri Lanka is not an aid dependent country. 

Hundreds of thousands of Tamils remain locked in camps almost entirely off-limits to journalists, human-rights investigators and political leaders. The Sri Lankan government says the civilians are a security risk because Tamil Tiger fighters are hiding among them.

But diplomats, analysts, aid workers and many Sri Lankans worry the chance to finally bring to a close one of the world's most enduring ethnic conflicts is slipping away, as the government curtails civil rights in its efforts to stamp out the last remnants of the Tigers.

"The government told these people it would look after them," said Veerasingham Anandasangaree, a prominent Tamil politician who has been a staunch supporter of the government's fight against the Tamil Tigers. "But instead they have locked them up like animals with no date certain of when they will be released. This is simply asking for another conflict later on down the road."

The Sri Lankan government has portrayed its final battle against the 26-year insurgency by the Tamil Tigers, which ended in late May with the killing of the group's leader, Velupillai Prabhakaran, as a rescue mission to liberate civilians held hostage by one of the world's richest and most ruthless armed groups, branded terrorists by governments around the globe.

"We can't say this was a war; it was a humanitarian operation to safeguard the people of the area," President Mahinda Rajapaksa said in an interview last week. "They knew we were not against the Tamil people, against the civilians. This was only against the terrorists."

Although many of the camps' residents are grateful to the government for freeing them from the rebels, frustration and anger are building as it becomes clear that reconciliation and finding a political solution to the grievances of the Tamils and other minority groups in Sri Lanka will have to wait.

Rajapaksa said the residents of the camps, which the government refers to as "welfare villages," must be confined because anyone could be a hidden rebel. The government says about 10,000 fighters have been identified so far, most because they turned themselves in.

“I call upon the Australian government to stand up and complain bitterly until something is done”, said Justice John Dowd, Vice President of the International Commission of Jurists (ICJ), stressing his point that it is “to not speak up but yell” in order to save the Tamils in the concentration camps.

He was addressing a forum in Federal Parliament, Canberra, discussing Australia's role on human rights in Sri Lanka.

Sceptical of United Nations and questioning why Commonwealth is aloof, the jurist mooted an idea for governments such as Australia to hold hearings against those who violated the Genocide Convention, warning what is happening in the island is ethnic cleansing of an ancient people in their homeland.

“We need to go to our parliamentarians to find out why things are not happening, why we are not pressuring the Sri Lankan government”, the jurist asked, urging everyone concerned: “pressure the UN agencies, the NGOs to get people in there as witnesses, the lawyers here will tell you, the most important witness in a civil case is the ambulance officer, the first person on the spot to find out what is happening. We want agencies in, we want governments in, we want the Red Cross in, so they can report what is happening and prevent the terrible things that are happening to these people”.

“If you expose something, if you show something visual, then you get the chance of getting justice.”

“Remember, of the 300,000, something like 80,000 of them are children. They are not combatants. They are not criminals. Lot of them are under-nourished and a lot of them will fail, will die through illness if there is no proper protection. It is up to us, and the media, to let the government know that we want something done, we want some protection for the Tamil people and we want exposure of what is going on now”, he said lamenting that the world spent World War II in learning about such crimes, implemented treaties, but now breaches them.

“Australian public through the media need to understand who the Tamil people are: a minority, but an ancient and a cultured minority in their homeland. The British with their flat-map approach and administrative convenience created the disaster in the same way as we created a disaster in Yugoslavia after the World War I by adopting a ‘convenience of administration’ approach”, the jurist pointed out saying that the Tamils, having a history of some 5000 years, lived in South India and Sri Lanka all the time.

“We have to have a reasonable suspicion that there is going to be more ethnic cleansing”, warned the jurist of the possibilities of Colombo using ‘resettlement’ for infiltration of Sinhalese and re-population of Tamil areas as a form of ethnic cleansing. “Movement of peoples against their will, destruction of culture is a breach of the Genocide Convention, which Australia signed”, he said.

“We need to find out why it is now suggested it will take at least 6 months for the civilians to be released. Why can't they be released back to Jaffna? You get the lie told, oh we are looking for the minefields! Absolute rubbish! There are no reasons why these people from Jaffna, an area under military occupation can't be returned there, and to most of the other areas formerly controlled by the LTTE”, the Justice said.

Asking the question “Why is the Sri Lankan government not allowing people in, to look after them [in the concentration camps]”, Justice John Dowd explained: “Because they want to ensure that every possible person they can identify as a combatant is treated as such – they are examining people for wounds, for evidence of fitness or military activity, and they will use torture to do it”.

“We need to find out about those”, he said in the context of asserting that prisoners of war have to be protected by the four Geneva conventions.

Condemning the attitude of governments favouring another government, the jurist said that governments are the greatest invaders of human rights and the United Nations is not an organisation of nations but governments.

Citing China’s friendship to Sri Lanka and the attitude of Russia, Justice John Dowd said the Security Council is no longer a forum of assistance (to Tamils) and the Human Rights Council “is now effectively, totally, useless as a forum for defending persecuted minorities, but worse, it is now a rubberstamp for approving totalitarian regimes”.

Totalitarian regimes in the Human Rights Council use the misused word ‘sovereignty’ for their protection and thus the HRC is a disaster, he said.

“The Commonwealth is not used as a vehicle it should be”, John Dowd said.

Talking on media, he said they tend to carry only the story of the government. “It's called the 'big lie technique' and if you keep telling the big lie and show photographs of Sri Lankans handing out food, that's the impression that is left."

As free people, and as one in ten in Australia is a refugee or descended from refugees, Australia has to do something for the cause of minorities who don’t have a forum or voice and offer them a platform until the world evolves a body for that purpose, was the position of the international jurist. 

DESPITE the end of the long drawn conflict, Sri Lanka will recruit 50,000 personnel to increase security in areas captured when Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE) were defeated last month, the military has said.

“We are planning to recruit at least 50,000 for army, navy, air force and police,” Keheliya Rambukwella, defence spokesman and a government minister, said in the first security media briefing since the end of the war.

Foreign diplomats have questioned the need for an increased post-war military, already boosted since 2005 to the size needed to finish off the LTTE’s de facto standing army of fighters, replete with artillery, boats and planes.

Stating that the LTTE held more than 1600 square kilometers of territory as well as two-thirds of the coast in the north before end of the war, Rambukwella said: “Now these areas have to be maintained and administered by troops,” Rambukwella said.

 “We need the security forces and police to be in action to safeguard our country.”

Sri Lanka’s military and police, with a combined strength of 350,000, won one of the Asia’s longest modern wars and declared total victory over the LTTE.

Sri Lankan President Mahinda Rajapakse has told a Cabinet meeting that he would not be averse to Canada and the European countries granting asylum to the internally displaced Tamil civilians.

However, according to Daily Mirror newspaper, Rajapakse told his ministers that he would not allow Tamils to go to India anymore because that country was not willing to accommodate them.

“Canada has pledged to accept any number of IDPs (Interanlly Displaced People). I do not mind these countries putting up visa offices in the welfare camps to facilitate people willing to leave the country,” Daily Mirror quoted Rajapakse as saying.

According to the paper, Rajapakse charged foreign diplomatic missions of making malicious allegations against Sri Lanka. 

Rajapakse pointed out that the US State Department had now put up a news item regarding some Sri Lankan soldiers who were facing charges during their peace keeping mission in Haiti a few months ago, Daily Mirror further said.  

THE 57-division’s Commanding officer Jagath Dias has been appointed as Sri Lanka’s Deputy Ambassador to Germany, informed sources said Friday, June 26.

Making the announcement, a government official said Dias would leave the country to take over his duties shortly.

Dias led the 57 Division from the beginning of the Wanni operation three years ago and directed the capture of LTTE administered areas such as Madhu, Kokavil, Thunukkai and Mallavi and Kilinochchi.

Some weeks ago, another Sri Lankan Army commander Major General Udaya Perera, who was the Director Operations of the Army was appointed Deputy Sri Lankan High Commissioner to Malaysia.

There are varying views on the reasoning behind these appointments ranging from the commanders being rewarded for their service in the fight against the LTTE and commanders loyal to opposition being sidelined from a future military or political role to commanders being sent to coordinate actions to check Tamil Diaspora activities.

SRI LANKAN Minister and General Secretary of Eelam Peoples’ Democratic Party (EPDP), Douglas Devananda, announced that his party will contest the local government elections of Jaffna Municipal Council (JMC) and Vavuniyaa Town Council (TC) under ‘Betel Leaf’ symbol, the common symbol of the ruling United Peoples’ Freedom Alliance (UPFA), sources in Jaffna said.

Devananda has been under pressure from the ruling SLFP to join the party in recent times, giving up the "Eelam" identity, according to informed sources, which also revealed that Devananda was forced to give up his plan of contesting under his party symbol Veenai.

20 EPDP candidates and 9 from other coalition parties in the UPFA will consist of the total 29 contesting JMC election while 6 EPDP candidates will contest in Vavuniyaa TC election, Douglas Devananda said among his supporters assembled in Srithar Theatre, the main office of EPDP in Jaffna, Tuesday morning.

Meanwhile, the government is actively engaged in launching some 'development' activities in Jaffna peninsula with the view to lure in voters.

Opening up of roads which had remained closed for public use for a long time, lifting fishing ban and announcing to resume 24 hours electricity supply to the peninsula are also some of the propaganda activities launched by Colombo.

Douglas Devananda handed over 5 omnibuses to Koandaavil Depot of Sri Lanka Transport Board to be used in local transport services and gave agricultural implements to the farmers in Jaffna Tuesday.

“Though the parties contesting along with EPDP have different aims of their own, here we stand united to achieve a common goal,” Douglas told his supporters.

“We are contesting these elections not for the sake of us but for the people to live freely and that is why we had chosen to contest under the Betel Leaf symbol”, he further said attempting to justify his decision.

Advocating a fresh approach to the Tamil national question in Sri Lanka in the post-LTTE era, DMK president and Tamil Nadu chief minister M Karunanidhi on Wednesday (July 1) declared in the assembly that achieving ‘Tamil Eelam’ was no more a realistic possibility.

He said Tamils should henceforth work for their livelihood rights in the island nation and struggle for equal rights, equal status for the language and devolution of powers at the regional level.

“Only this is possible, not Tamil Eelam,” he said, responding to views of members from various parties on a special mention on the Sri Lankan Tamil issue.

Counselling Tamil parties to adopt a flexible stand on the issue, Karunanidhi recalled that DMK founder C N Annadurai had shelved the party’s core demand — creating a separate Dravidian state (Dravida Nadu) — in 1962 to avoid proscription.

There was nothing wrong in changing stands for the “welfare of the people”, he said.

He said the conflict in Lanka between Sinhalese and Tamils was taking place for more than five decades now.

“I am the one who is aware of this problem since its beginning. I had even penned it in a detail way in my novel Pandaraka Vannian,” the Chief Minister said and added: “Both the Union and Tamil Nadu governments are keen to help the Lankan Tamils.”

“The Centre is now respecting State governments thanks to the pressure from our side on various occasions. Likewise, a Lankan government respecting the sentiments of Tamils should be formed,” he said.

The Chief Minister further said: “Like how Barack Obama from the oppressed community became the President of the United States, let us hope that a government led by Tamils would be formed soon in Lanka.”

Karunanidhi asked the parties not to make provocative remarks against the Sinhalese as that could further affect Tamils in the island nation.

He said that the only way to help Tamils in the present situation was through the Rajapakse government. “In order to help our brothers and sisters in the island nation, we should not come out with hard hitting remarks against Sinhalese. Because, in the present scenario, we could only reach Tamils through them,” he said.

Distancing himself from the demand by the AIADMK and the PMK that Sri Lanka President Mahinda Rajapaksa be hauled up for war crimes, the chief minister said that it would be an exercise in futility, as it would only adversely affect the safety of the Tamils in that country. 

The Inter-Parliamentary Union (IPU) is calling on the government of Sri Lanka to mount a thorough investigation of the murders of three Members of Parliament, two of them Tamils. 

The IPU's Human Rights Committee, which has wrapped up its latest session, has examined cases of abuse of some 300 MPs in 29 countries. 

The Inter-Parliamentary Union says the Sri Lankan government no longer has any reason for not investigating the murders of the Parliamentarians now that its long-running civil war with the Tamil Tigers is over.

Chair of the IPU's Human Rights Committee, Canadian Senator, Sharon Carstairs, says the government has always maintained it was unable to investigate the murders because they occurred in LTTE-held territory. She says that excuse no longer exists.

Tamil Parliamentarians are subject to arbitrary arrest, harassment and intimidation, she told Voice of America radio.

She says her Committee is concerned about the situation of 12 Tamil Parliamentarians.

She says they essentially have been stripped of their rights of freedom of movement and of their ability to perform their legislative duties.

She says the Tamil Parliamentarians are reluctant to leave the capital, Colombo, because their security is not guaranteed.

"So, there is great fear among the Tamil Parliamentarians," Carstairs said.

"So, what we hope from Sri Lanka at this point is to get a new signal from them that Tamil Parliamentarians will have freedom of movement, they will have adequate security, they will be full participants of the government of Sri Lanka because they are duly elected Parliamentarians." 

The Sri Lankan Governments thinking that “the concept of Tamil autonomy or freedom or even culture should be beaten to its knees and never rise again” can be compared to the actions of Joseph Stalin, said leading Australian Pediatrician Dr John Whitehall, describing government internment facilities as “concentration camps”, and saying the imprisonment of 300,000 refugees was much more sinister than he originally thought.

"The concept that you can indefinitely incarcerate a population to change their thinking is frightening," he observed.

Speaking at a forum held in Parliament on 17 June, discussing human rights in Sri Lanka and Australia’s need to act, Whitehall, the director of Townsville Hospital's Neonatal Unit who visited Kilinochchi in 2004 to train medical workers, also described the LTTEs former governance over the traditional Tamil homeland as an established civil administration.

"In my observation, The Tigers were not similar to the Vietcong, whom I had observed from a distance when we worked in Vietnam many years before. They [the Tigers] did not emerge from holes in the ground at night to do their business. This was in fact a practicing established civil administration. It wasn't perfect of course. It was to say the least autocratic. Nevertheless, there was the ability to discuss [...]," said the doctor who has co-authored a book, 'War and Medicine', a collection of short stories from the medical practitioners in the North-East.

Highlighting conversations with LTTE officials, over the future plans of improving governance if autonomy was achieved, Whitehall said support for the liberation movement was founded within the “concept of self preservation of their race, of their religion, of their culture”.

“The people were thinking we want our freedom, we want autonomy, we want respect of our culture. These things are not easily or ever eradicated. But the concept that you can indefinitely incarcerate a population to change their thinking is frightening” Whitehall said, comparing Sri Lankas imprisonment of refugees to Joseph Stalin’s execution and starvation of thousands of Ukrainians.

Urging the Australian Government to involve itself in the crisis “for the humanity of it as a nation”, Whitehall said allegations of war crimes by human rights commissions made the need for access to camps vital.

In a wide ranging address, Dr Whitehall also highlighted the role of China, Cuba and Russia in the United Nations Human Rights Council’s (UNHRC) regarding the "pusillanimous decision by the human rights council to ratify the behaviour of the Sri Lankan government", which has established an "international precedent that these countries can wage ruthless and unrelenting war on their minorities using all kinds of weapons to do the job."

Health experts warn that the expected rains could increase the risk of waterborne diseases for tens of thousands of internally displaced persons (IDPs) in camps in northern Sri Lanka.

More than 280,000 people who fled fighting between government forces and the now defeated Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam are staying in some 35 government camps in four northern districts - Vavuniya, Mannar, Jaffna and Trincomalee.

The majority, 220,000, are living at the Menik Farm camp, a sprawling site of over 700ha outside Vavuniya town.

“With such a large number of people concentrated together, there is always the risk of waterborne disease with the rains,” Laurent Sury, head of mission for Médecins Sans Frontières, told IRIN in Colombo.

MSF runs a field hospital in Vavuniya District where more than 23 of the IDP camps are located, housing 260,000 IDPs.

“There are around 115 patients at the MSF hospital now,” Sury said.

Even though the World Health Organization (WHO) says no major disease outbreaks have been reported, the risk factors for malaria and diarrhoea have increased.

WHO said the Ministry of Health had taken precautions to deal with a possible malaria outbreak, with proper surveillance mechanisms at all camps.

Until 19 June, only 29 cases of malaria had been reported, but health officials initiated a high alert when two cases were reported on 18 June from zone 4 in Menik Farm.

Field staff have been deployed to all hospitals and healthcare units assisting IDPs by the Regional Malaria Office for the Vavuniya District from 8 June.

“This is an alarming situation considering the very small number of malaria cases reported from the entire country in the recent past,” the WHO update said. “An active surveillance for malaria is ... [ongoing].”

Until 18 June, 1,060 cases of dysentery and more than 5,000 cases of diarrhoea had been reported from the camps, it said.

"There is a serious threat of waterborne diseases because of so many people living so close together," one humanitarian official said, highlighting the risk posed by improper disposal of solid waste and rubbish in the camps.

According to the UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA) on 27 June, the greatest needs were specialist doctors.

“IDP health workers, paid by the government of Sri Lanka, are working in the IDP sites. Thirty-seven new doctors are expected to be appointed at the Vavuniya District within a week. However, a shortage of specialists remain,” OCHA confirmed.

Thousands of Tamil civilians have fled the fighting in the north and are now staying at government camps in and around the northern town of Vavuniya

According to the latest communicable Disease Weekly Update released on 25 June, surveillance within the camps by the Ministry of Health staff was being strengthened.

The greatest disease outbreak reported so far was chickenpox, with more than 12,000 cases, but those numbers had since been decreasing, the UN reported.

The number of new cases reported is steadily declining and admissions to hospitals are 40–50 patients per day, OCHA confirmed on 19 June.

“In Vavuniya, the number of Hepatitis A cases is also declining. A total of 2,139 cases were reported as at 12 June,” the report added.

Medical officers working with the displaced suspect that most of the chickenpox patients contracted the disease before they arrived in camps. 

A Coalition of six US-based Human Rights Organizations in a letter to U.S. President Obama wrote: "[t]o address abuses associated with the recent fighting [in Sri Lanka's north], there is an urgent need for an independent, international commission of inquiry into many credible allegations of laws of war violations, including possible war crimes, by both sides, as well as illegitimate detentions. Mr. President, we urge you to publicly call for an international commission of inquiry and to take necessary steps to achieve it. We also urge you to take steps for the full protection of internally displaced persons, including independent access to camps, former areas of conflict and to conflict-affected civilians by humanitarian and human rights organizations and the media."

The Coalition included the Carter Center, American Jewish Council through its Jacob Blaustein Institute for the Advancement of Human Rights, Physicians for Human Rights (PHR), International League for Human Rights (ILHR), Freedom House (FH), and Amnesty International (AI) representatives signed the letter.

"Despite repeated warnings by several international organizations of impending mass killings of civilians and despite strong statements of concern by you and several other world leaders, more than 20,000 civilians are reported to have been killed. The Times of London and Le Monde have published investigations, based on reliable data, and suggested that most of the civilian deaths were caused as a result of shelling by the Sri Lankan government," the Coalition said in the letter.

The letter warned that "[t]he failure of the international community to take concrete action to protect civilians in Sri Lanka has given the green light to regimes around the world and has signaled that there is nothing that the international community will do when a government kills its own people under the cover of sovereignty."

On the 300,000 Tamil civilians still held in internment camps, the HR Organizations appealed to "urgently address the plight of those in de facto internment camps and to initiate action to hold accountable those responsible for the mass killings. There are reports that some in the camps have already died from starvation or malnutrition....there are consistent reports of widespread and serious human rights violations facing the displaced people, including enforced disappearance, extrajudicial executions, torture and other ill-treatment, forced recruitment by paramilitary groups and sexual violence."

Pointing out that "the Sri Lankan government’s record on investigating serious human rights abuses is poor and impunity has been a persistent problem," and that "[t]here have been serious ongoing violations of human rights and a backlog of cases of enforced disappearance and unlawful killings that run to tens of thousands," the letter drew attention to the the past failed efforts to address violations through the establishment of ad hoc mechanisms in Sri Lanka, such as presidential commissions of inquiry, the letter urged Obama to take steps to initiate an international inquiry into "allegations of laws of war violations, including possible war crimes, by both sides."

In the background of the failure of the United Nations to take any punitive action and realizing that effective leverage can only be exercised by the U.S., the letter said, "[i]t is now imperative that the United States assume the leadership necessary to mobilize the international community to protect the surviving civilians and to hold accountable those responsible for mass atrocities. Failure to do so would encourage governments to commit mass atrocities without fear of consequence. That is why your immediate action is important at this juncture," the letter said.

About 15-20% of the 30,000 to 35,000 children housed in the Sri Lankan government run camps are suffering from ‘acute malnutrition’ according to NGOs and the UN.

“About thirty thousand to thirty five thousand children are sheltered in Manik Farm. Many of them are suffering from diseases and some still suffer from injuries sustained in the military operations. Fifteen to twenty percent of them are also suffering from acute malnutrition,” media reports in Colombo said quoting Dr. Vinya Ariyaratne, the executive director of Colombo based NGO Sarvodaya Shramadana Sangamaya.

It can take a few weeks to few months for these children to recover, Dr. Vinya has told media.

“The international standard is for 20 people to use one toilet, but in Manik Farm about 70 people are sharing one toilet,” he said.

Around five thousand internally displaced children from Vanni and sheltered in camps which are described as internment camps fenced with barbed wire are found to be malnourished, according to a survey conducted by a non-governmental organization.

Sri Lankan Health Ministry says it has been working together with Sarvodaya, UNICEF and others to improve the conditions in the internment camps.

Meanwhile, the high rate of malnutrition reported among children in camps for displaced people in Sri Lanka is a cause for concern, a senior UN official told the BBC’s Sinhala service.

The UN's representative on children and armed conflict said the government should set up special feeding programmes.

Radhika Coomaraswamy, the UN's special representative on children and armed conflict, told the BBC Sinhala Service's Saroj Pathirana that the UN hopes to send a delegation to advise the government on a range of issues relating to child welfare.

"The malnutrition rates are very high, especially among young children, and [there is a] need for special feeding programmes and all those kind of things in the camps for the children.

"So, our sense is that the sooner they can get back to normalcy, to education, to schools, it is the best thing," she said.

Her comments follow concern expressed by Sri Lankan charity Sarvodaya about rates of chronic malnutrition in the camps.

She added that the UN is also concerned about the plight of children separated from their families.

"The delegation is to look into whether there is enough effort being taken to reunite them with parents," she said. 

A new group of eminent Tamil people in Sri Lanka has made a plea for those held in government camps to be given a timetable for their release.

The group said people were yearning to be released from their confinement.

The camps still house nearly 300,000 Tamils displaced in the final stages of the war which ended in May.

The Group of Concerned Tamils in Sri Lanka says Tamil voices are being stilled and members of the minority were nervous of speaking out.

In this, its third statement, the group says it is disturbed over persistent reports of poor living conditions and even political disappearances in the camps.

It said the refugees yearned to get away from the barbed wire enclosures where they are detained, adding that there must be steps to erase "their sense of being held captive".

The group urged that timetables be drawn up for ongoing screening of refugees for possible Tamil Tiger affiliation and for the de-mining of their home areas.

Then people could be given a release date which would ease camp congestion and remove "any fears of indefinite detention".

But the government's human rights secretary, Rajiva Wijesinha, told the BBC he believed many people were "quite relieved" to be in the camps and that on his recent visit to them people looked less miserable and less frail than before.

Mr Wijesinha said that people should have no fear that they might be held indefinitely and reiterated the government's promise that most will be allowed out by the end of the year.