It is time for all Eelam Tamil freedom fighters to realise that there is no credible alternative other than taking up the matter directly to the people concerned for a mandate to reaffirm the political fundamentals and to direct the course of action.

Incumbency, elitism and adventurism are no answers to the gravity of the situation that needs handling with legitimacy not only the genocidal regime of Colombo but also an entire world.

It is heartening to see moves being discussed towards the formation of a global structure for Eelam Tamils, but how to evolve it mass orientated, how to make it responsible to the people and what is the relationship of this body to the already existing infrastructure are the questions.

All freedom fighters with a record of service to the Eelam Tamil nation have a historic responsibility in this regard to come forward united in forging a neutral interim body with full commitment to execute conducting a mandate among Eelam Tamils in forming a government, even if it is going to be bereft of territory at the moment.

Fortunately the Eelam Tamil nation’s resources and organizational infrastructure are intact in the diaspora. But these have to be immediately transformed with unity and consensus into backing the formulation of the much-needed political structure. Any failure will only see the hijacking of the cause by the same forces that crushed Tamil nationalism militarily.

Some feedbacks to our earlier columns questioned the legitimacy of the diaspora in forming a government and hinted that the future politics of Eelam Tamils will surge up from the conditions of the internment camps.

While not denying the fact that the nature of politics is going to be determined by the ground realities of oppression in the homeland, a parallel political stream in the diaspora is not a liability but contributory to the Tamil nationalist cause. The diaspora on one hand cannot be idling at a historic responsibility in meeting the demands of the homeland and on the other hand has to look after its own needs of identity, self-respect and emotional integrity as well.

No one should forget that the diaspora, especially of those who migrated after the 1972 constitution have a say on Tamil Eelam, as the Eelam Tamils have not accepted the Sri Lankan state and have become the diaspora largely as a consequence to it.

Many readers may wonder why TamilNet doesn’t cover ongoing factional news and debate on Tamil politics. A media is expected to do that, but as an alternative media committed to a cause TamilNet wishes to refrain from contributing to confusion.

It is our earnest hope that an environment will be created soon, conducive for all freedom loving people of the nation to participate in unison in upholding the struggle.

It may be the worst of times but it is also the best of times for Phoenix-like regeneration.

Government of Sri Lanka turned away the ship, MV Captain Ali, carrying relief supplies to the Tamils held in internment camps, after keeping the ship under Sri Lanka Navy (SLN) custody for nearly 4.5 days, and after admitting that the ship carried purely humanitarian supplies, a press release from the Mercy Mission Head Office in the UK said.

While the Government of Sri Lanka has been appealing for funds from the International Community to provide food and other assistance to the 300,000 Tamils being detained in the camps, it is surprising that Colombo would reject 800 tons of relief supplies, the Directors of the Mercy Mission said.

"This Mercy Mission ship, the product of the hard work of thousands of volunteers in the UK and Europe and donations from tens of thousands of Tamils throughout the world, could have been, and in fact, should have been, used by the GoSL as an opportunity to show it’s bona fides and engage with the Tamil Diaspora as a means to begin the process of reconciliation in, in the government’s words, “post-conflict” Sri Lanka," the press release said.

An ex-Sri Lanka Monitoring Mission (SLMM) monitor, Mr. Kristjan Guðmundsson, from Iceland, doctors, and humanitarian workers have accompanied the humanitarian relief on board the ship.

The Captain Ali, a Syrian-registered ship, was seized as it entered Sri

Lankan waters on June 4 by the country's navy, who suspected it  contained logistical equipment for Tamil Tigers.

After escorting the ship to Colombo, Sri Lanka detained 13 crew members and 2 passengers – including one Briton – for questioning.

"The ship had tried to enter Sri Lankan waters without following the proper procedure," a military official told reporters in Colombo.

However, later Sri Lankan authorities admitted the ship only carried a cargo of food and medicine.

"We are extremely disappointed that the Sri Lankan government has turned away this mercy mission that was only carrying aid," said Arjunan Ethirveerasingam a spokesperson for Mercey Mission.

"There are 300,000 people in internment camps in the north of the island who desperately need this aid.”

"The ship is currently headed westerly away from Colombo. When it reaches international waters we will work out how we can get the food and aid into Sri Lanka. Whether we take it to another country and ship it in containers or work with a partner organisation, we will have to decide, but we will find a way of getting the food to the people who need it." Ethirveerasingam added.

Earlier, Mercy Mission made a public appeal to the Sri Lankan government, urging it to allow Tamil Diaspora relief to be distributed to the Tamils held in internment camps in northern Sri Lanka.

“Mercy Mission (UK) implores the Government of Sri Lanka to engage with the Mercy Mission in order to overcome any paperwork errors and ensure that the emergency humanitarian relief (food & medicine) donated by the Tamil Diaspora are delivered to the internally displaced persons (IDPs) in the camps.” The appeal said.

“To that end, Mercy Mission seeks the GoSL’s permission to allow the ship and her cargo to enter into Colombo Port, be cleared appropriately, and handed over the Government Agent - Vavuniya, a local NGO, or a GoSL Ministry for distribution to the IDPs.”

“The GoSL has itself repeatedly pleaded with the international community for assistance with the humanitarian catastrophe that has overwhelmed them. With the sole objective of providing this desperately needed emergency humanitarian relief to the 300,000 IDPs in the camps and in the spirit of “engaging”, “reconciling” and “building bridges” with the Tamil Diaspora, Mercy Mission (UK) appeals to the Government of Sri Lanka to please let this assistance reach those who are in such desperate need.” The statement further said.

Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ), a New York based media watchdog, in a special reported, said Sri Lanka topped the list of countries that drove the largest number of journalists into exile.

Even after the end of the decades long war, Sri Lankan state has continued to intimidate and attack journalists. Independent journalists in Sri Lanka say they still feel threatened and intimidated.

"At least 11 Sri Lankan journalists were driven into exile in the past 12 months amid an intensive government crackdown on critical reporters and editors," the report said, adding the number worldwide totalled 39.

Of these journalists, 29 were driven out of threat of violence, 7 threat of imprisonment, and 2 out of harassment, the report added.

"This is a sad reality in countries throughout the world where governments allow attacks on the press to go unpunished." Joel Simon, CPJ executive director said.

Sri Lankan journalists have faced severe retribution for producing critical coverage of government military operations against the Tamil Tigers.

Upali Tennakoon, editor of Sinhala-language weekly Rivira was driving to his office when four men on motorcycles smashed his car windows, beating him and his wife with metal bars.

Though his paper was pro-government, Tennakoon had criticized a high-ranking army official.

Following his release from the hospital, Tennakoon’s wife fielded a menacing phone call urging her husband to quit journalism.

Fearing for their safety, the couple left for California, where they had family to receive them.

Tennakoon has followed the investigation of his attack from afar, but no progress has been made.

“Without information about who did this and why, I don’t think it is safe to go back,” he told CPJ in a recent interview.

The Free Media Movement (FMM) says that the government should take responsibility for the recent spate of attacks on the media.

The group accuses the government of failing to take any concrete action against the killings, abductions and threats.

"We have to point the finger at the government as it has a huge responsibility to stop these attacks but has failed to do so," FMM Secretary Sunil Jayasekara told the BBC.

However, the government says it does not intervene in police investigations.

Media minister Lakshman Yapa Abeywardene admits the investigations over attacks on the media sometimes are lacking in progress and focus.

"As a person who is regularly in touch with journalists I am genuinely shocked," he told the BBC Sinhala service. "But it is up to the security services to investigate and we do not intervene."

At least nine Sri Lankan journalists have been murdered this decade without a single conviction being won against an assailant, according to CPJ research.

Following the end of the war, in a television discussion, Sri Lankan police Chief Jayantha Wickramaratne said there was evidence that some journalists, especially Sinhala nationals, were on the payroll of the Tamil Tigers.

"Although the police are aware of this treason I do not like to reveal the names as it might obstruct our investigations. They betrayed the noble profession and not only distorted and misreported against Sri Lanka but also worked for cash and other benefits," Wickramaratne said on 28 May.

Amid a growing state media campaign over the issue, Poddala Jayantha, a key activist of the Sri Lankan Working Journalists Association, was abducted and assaulted in Colombo.

He was a strong advocate of freedom of expression and a visible participant in protests against threats to media - but had avoided playing an active role in criticising the government over the past few months.

Jayantha was one of many journalists who fled the country following the killing of Sunday Leader Editor-in-Chief, Lasantha Wickramatunge in January 2009. However, he returned to the country after three weeks.

Many leading journalists are yet to return and the fear is such that many do not wish to speak even while living in exile. 

The world welcomes the end of the civil war that has ravaged Sri Lanka for decades. Unfortunately, questions have emerged about how the conflict was brought to a close and whether war crimes were committed in the final bloody days of fighting. The Colombo government has dismissed the allegations as unfounded; the defeat of the Tamil Tigers has overshadowed charges that the guerrillas used civilians as human shields. An investigation is required: If war crimes were committed — no matter which side is responsible — perpetrators must be held accountable. No government or rebel group must believe it is immune from the rule of law.

The Sri Lankan conflict was a long civil war that claimed 80,000 to 100,000 lives. Both sides inflicted indiscriminate damage on civilian populations — the government by resorting to artillery and air power, the rebels by their suicide attacks. The guerrillas even used Tamil compatriots as human shields.

During the last weeks of the conflict, the number of civilian casualties increased as the Tigers retreated to an ever-shrinking area. Rebels claimed civilians joined them out of fear of government forces; the government countered that the refugees had been uprooted at gunpoint. The government said civilian-occupied areas were no-fire zones for heavy artillery; the rebels insisted that pledge was a sham, providing various pieces of evidence to support their allegations. No definitive proof was available as the fighting reached its conclusion; the government kept journalists and human rights groups from the war zone, and Tamil Tiger claims were viewed with suspicion and often dismissed as propaganda.

Since the fighting ended, however, independent observers have been able to examine the war zone and what they have found is disturbing. A strip of beach where thousands of civilians retreated was pockmarked by craters that, in the words of one expert, look to be the work of "a very large" shell.

The civilian casualty list is long and growing. The number of refugees exceeds 265,000; some say it tops 300,000. Equally troubling is the death toll. The government says civilian deaths were unavoidable, adding that the military did not use heavy artillery as alleged while the Tamil Tigers used civilians as shields and in some cases even killed civilians themselves.

Officially, the United Nations has estimated that 7,000 people were killed in the final offensive. Unofficially, however, it has been reported that the death toll for the last month of fighting could exceed 20,000 civilians. The discrepancy has prompted calls for an investigation into whether war crimes were committed. Ms. Navanethem Pillay, the U.N. high commissioner for human rights, rightly noted that "victims and the survivors have a right to justice and remedies." As she explained, "establishing the facts is crucial to set the record straight regarding the conduct of all parties in the conflict." The European Union's human rights commissioner agrees.

The Sri Lankan government has dismissed any criticism of its actions. Officials say they should be applauded, not censured, for ending one of the world's most vicious insurgencies. Mr. Palitha Kohona, the minister of foreign affairs, firmly rejected the allegations, arguing that "We would have finished this war months ago if we hadn't cared about hurting civilians." The local press was even more succinct: "The time has come to tell the salmon-eating international busybodies to go home."

The diplomatic response has been more restrained. When European governments brought a motion before the U.N. Human Rights Council, calling for an international investigation into whether war crimes had been committed by either side, the council instead passed a resolution commending the government's victory and urged it to protect minorities.

Colombo is no doubt aggrieved that its victory has been sullied. It is upset that Western governments, which demanded support in their war against terror while permitting the Tamil diaspora to fund the Tiger rebels, would demand that Sri Lanka be held to account. But the laws of war and the notion of crimes against humanity are premised on the belief that there are limits to how combatants conduct themselves in conflict.

If anything goes, then all conflicts could be ended much quicker. But we insist on standards to restrict the behavior of combatants, and it is only the prospect of their enforcement that gives them force and utility. Laws that are disregarded when they are needed most are worse than useless, because they endanger those who rely on them for protection.

If the government is telling the truth, it should have nothing to fear from an investigation. A complete, unvarnished international assessment of its conduct would vindicate its counterclaim that the Tamil rebels are the real criminals. Stepping forward would also demonstrate the government's readiness to reach out to its long-aggrieved Tamil community, a vital first step toward true reconciliation and enduring peace in Sri Lanka.

An independent international commission must be set up to investigate human rights violations in Sri Lanka over the last 20 years, as successive governments have failed to account for abuses such as torture, enforced disappearances and extrajudicial killings during its civil war, Amnesty International said.

According to a report published by the London-based human rights group, serious human rights violations have been occurring in the Indian Ocean Island for many years.

"As the Sri Lankan people contend with the most recent abuses committed by both sides of the recent conflict, particularly during the last few months of the fighting, the reality is that they have been haunted by injustice and impunity for years," said Sam Zarifi, Amnesty International's Asia-Pacific Director.

The report titled "Twenty Years of Make-Believe: Sri Lanka's Commissions of Inquiry" said that over the last 20 years, there have been assassinations of public figures, killings of aid workers and other civilians, and enforced disappearances.

It cited various examples of violations including the massacre of 17 aid workers from Action Contre la Faim (ACF) in the town of Muttur in 2006. Fifteen bodies were discovered lying face-down on the front lawn of the charity's office, with bullet wounds to head and neck, indicating that they have been shot at close range, execution style. Two more staff members were found in a car nearby, possibly trying to escape.

The report also mentions the case of a lawyer tortured to death in police custody as well as the mass "disappearance" of 159 people from a camp for displaced people.

Ad hoc commissions of inquiry established by the government over the last two decades have lacked any real credibility and delayed criminal investigations, said the study.

Authorities had failed to protect victims and witnesses, said Amnesty, adding that state agents had even intervened directly in some cases to eliminate witnesses through bribes, threats, harassment, intimidation and violence, including murder, to discourage police investigations.

The study added that the country's "glacially slow" criminal justice system - which is subjected to political pressure - is so degraded that the vast majority of human rights violations over the past 20 years have never been investigated, let alone heard in court.

"The Sri Lankan authorities have had little success in providing accountability for abuses against civilians committed by the LTTE; they are even less likely to effectively investigate and prosecute their own forces for violations of human rights and humanitarian law," said Zarifi.

"Given the scale of the problem of impunity in Sri Lanka, accountability can only be achieved with the active commitment of the Sri Lankan government, supported by systematic and sustained international human rights monitoring and technical assistance."

However, Sri Lanka has repeatedly resisted calls for international scrutiny, on the basis that it would jeopardize the country's sovereignty.

"These things take time, and we can't allow any possibility of injustice to happen," Rajiva Wijesinha, secretary at the Ministry of Disaster Management and Human Rights said in Colombo.

The government's own commission into allegations of human rights abuses is proceeding, albeit slowly, he added.

All rights groups have been particularly critical of the last months of the war, where they say both the government and Tigers showed a wanton disregard for human life with between 10,000 and 20,000 people killed during this period alone.

The military has been accused of continuously using heavy artillery to shell a tiny strip of land where Tigers were trapped along with hundreds of thousands of civilians, while the LTTE were accused of holding civilians hostage and using them as human shields. Both parties have rejected the charges.

However, the government remains under pressure to recognize calls both domestically and internationally for accountability and transparency, with the U.N. Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon saying earlier this month that any credible accusation of human rights violations should be investigated.

Over one hundred thousand expatriate Tamils in Britain marched Saturday, June 20, through central London to express their outrage at international inaction over Sri Lanka’s massacre of tens of thousands of Tamils and the suffering of hundreds of thousands more enduring starvation, disease, disappearance, rape and torture in Colombo’s internment camps.

Dressed in black, carrying placards and several hundred Tamil Eelam flags, the protesters marched from Hyde Park to rally at Embankment. The event was organised by the British Tamil Forum.

The protestors began forming up at midday and began their march at 2:00 p.m. By the time the lead protestors reached Haymarket, the hundred thousand-strong column stretched the mile-long length of Piccadilly and up Park Lane. The rally began at 5.30 p.m.

To facilitate the march, the Police closed off traffic in one direction along the three-lane Park Lane and Piccadilly roads and along Haymarket, past Parliament Square and one direction of the thoroughfare along the Embankment.

Hundreds of red and yellow Tamil Eelam flags fluttered in the summer breeze as the marchers chanted slogans, handed out leaflets to tourists and spectators crowding the pavements and balconies of central London. Several Union Jacks were carried by the protestors.

“The protests we have been doing [in the Diaspora centres], at last has opened the conscience of the Western world,” a BTF spokesman said. “For example, the mainstream media has begun to expose the scale of the tragedy suffered by our people.”

“Our struggle has now shifted to the hands of the Diaspora,” he said.

“We have gathered here today to begin the next chapter of our long struggle to come.”

Tamil expatriates were joined by delegations from Columbian, Kurdish, Palestinian and some Indian communities in Britain, as well civil liberties and social justice groups.

At the front of the protestors’ column were mobile street theatres depicting Sri Lanka’s militarized concentration camps where hundreds of thousands of Tamils are detained without access to sufficient food or medicine and suffering escalating abuse.

Groups of Tamil people, including – elderly, children, families, dressed in blood-stained clothing and bandages marched within squares of barbed wire bearing signs with names of known concentration camps. Other protestors dressed in military uniform threateningly wielded batons to symbolize the ongoing brutality.

Leaflets handed out set out the protestors’ demands about Sri Lanka’s abuses: “[1] Stop the disappearances, rapes and torture occurring daily at the internment camps, and find all those who have already gone missing [2] Free people from the camps immediately so that they can return to their normal way of life [3] Bring the perpetrators of the genocide against the Tamils to justice.”

Another leaflet stated: “The Tamil community, disappointed and embittered by the failure of the UK and other international powers to prevent the recent carnage despite constant and repeated warnings, are demanding that the international community must at least now act decisively to save the estimated 300,000 civilians in these camps, who remain in grave danger.”

The protestors gathered on Embankment by Blackfriars Bridge where a stage had been set up, decorated in Tamil colours of red and yellow and a banner demanding “Free Tamils from Nazi style concentration camps! Prosecute the war criminals of the Sri Lankan State!”

The rally was addressed by British political personalities, including Tony Benn, Simon Hughes MP and Jeremy Corbyn MP, as well as Tamil and British human rights and social justice activists.

Veteran politician Tony Benn condemned the Sri Lankan state’s violence against the Tamils as crimes against humanity in which Britain continues to play an unacceptable. He also criticised the British media for the woeful lack of coverage the conflict in Sri Lanka has received, compared to similar conflicts around the world.

Raji Nesaraja, representing the Tamil Youth Organisation (TYO), said the recent events in Sri Lanka were “nothing short of genocide”.

In a stirring speech that illustrated the strong feelings amongst young Tamils in the UK, she went on to say that, following repeated and desperate warnings of an impending bloodbath, young Tamils were left dumbfounded and disappointed by the UN’s complete lack of response.

She however expressed her optimism in the awakening of all sections of the British Tamil community in the past few months, and, observing that “we are witnessing a global uprising of Tamils,” vowed the Tamil struggle would be taken forward.

Jan Jananayagam, who stood as an independent candidate at the 4 June European election, winning a historic record of 50,000 votes for an independent, urged everyone to work tirelessly until the Tamils of Sri Lanka enjoy the same rights that Tamils take for granted in the UK.

She also reminded the crowd of the power of their vote in a genuine democracy, and urged them to ensure they make their individuals vote count during the next UK general election towards the cause of stopping Sri Lanka’s genocide..

Andy Higginbottom, secretary of the Columbia Solidarity campaign and lecturer in human rights at Kingston University, called claims that the LTTE used civilians as human shields during the conflict the “first lie of the international media” and the “first propaganda victory of the Sri Lankan government”. He went on to denounce the inaction of the UN during the conflict, and the pitiable resolution passed by the UN Human Rights Council following the conflict, an “absolute and utter disgrace”.

Simon Hughes MP, a senior Liberal Democrat and long-time supporter of the Tamils, praised the “fantastic courage and determination” that UK Tamils have shown in the past few months, and assured the crowd that there were many non-Tamils that supported them in their aspirations.

Cllr Julian Bell, leader of the Ealing Labour Party and researcher for the All Party Parliamentary Group for Tamils (APPG-T) admitted that members of the APPG-T share the Tamil community’s feelings of being let down by Britain’s Labour government.

He said the APPG-T were working hard to ensure that the food and medical aid that UK Tamils collected and sent to Sri Lanka on board the Mercy Mission ship, which was recently turned away by the Sri Lankan authorities, would still reach the desperate Tamil civilians there.

Dan Mayor, national organiser for the Socialist Worker Party, angrily dismissed complaints about the alleged police cost during the 73 day Tamil protest at Westminster, saying that the Britain had made much more money through the sale of military equipment to Sri Lanka.

He blamed the US/UK led ‘War on Terror’ for masking the political question in Sri Lanka and weakening the Tamils’ position and making possible Sri Lanka’s brazen onslaught against the Tamils.

Jeremy Corbyn MP, Labour politician and chairman of the human rights organisation Liberation, called for a complete economic boycott of Sri Lanka, saying “the tourism must stop, the arms must stop, the trade must stop”.

Tim Martin, former aid worker and director of the charity Act Now, was loudly cheered by the crowds as he thanked them for the huge support he received from UK Tamils during his recent 21-day hunger strike in Parliament Square. Revealing that Bob Geldoff and several other international celebrities have begun pledging their support for the Tamils struggle against Sinhala oppression, he urged UK Tamils to “keep on fighting” for the freedom of their people in Sri Lanka.

Police presence was light throughout the event. Officers closing off side roads, so protestors could pass and guiding tourists and others seeking to reach places on the other side of the column of marchers.

Officers worked with several hundred Tamil volunteers to keep the crowd moving steadily and there were no riot police, in contrast to some other major protests in London. Media helicopters and police chopper remained aloft for the duration.

“We are in an open jail,” Kumar whispers, his skinny shoulders shaking as he looks around to check who is watching “Help us, we want to be free.”

He is one of about 200,000 Tamil civilians being held against their will behind the razor-wire coils that surround Manik Farm, the largest displacement camp in Sri Lanka — one of the largest in the world.

Camp is not the word its inmates use for it. A prison and a concentration camp were two of the descriptions The Times heard on a rare visit to the camp on the sidelines of the visit by Ban Ki Moon, the United Nations Secretary-General.

Squalor is less the defining feature of Manik Farm than militarism. The presence of armed soldiers around the camp and its perimeter is overwhelming. New armoured patrol vehicles sit at the entrance to the side of a sandbagged bunker.

The entire camp is surrounded by seven-foot-high wooden posts, strung with barbed wire and wreathed with coils of razor wire.

Mechanical diggers have carved out a deep surrounding trench. “These people are not allowed to leave,” Gerson Brandao, a UN humanitarian co-ordinator said. “Civilians shouldn’t be behind barbed wire.”

Father Amalraj, a Catholic priest, was shocked by what he found on his arrival with his parishioners on a military bus (on 18 May).

“I read in a book on the Second World War about concentration camps,” he says. “I feel we are experiencing that now. The concentration camps of the Second World War are here in Sri Lanka.”

At Manik Farm, the boys – and some girls – of fighting age were separated for screening and have not been seen since. Many are under age and were never willing combatants – the Tigers were notorious for abducting children to fight and carry arms.

Father Amalraj’s parishioners clamour to tell of their missing offspring.

“When the children came out, the Government told them that, if they told the truth, they would be safe,” said Mahalam, whose 17-year-old daughter, Sathal, was taken from her seven days ago and has not been seen since.

The Government says it has taken suspected fighters for “rehabilitation” in special security camps and has refused to allow aid agencies access until the process – begun three weeks ago – is completed.

Mr Ban, who came to Sri Lanka to urge for that access, left without it. United Nations officials admit that they can barely keep up with the Sri Lankan zest for chopping down jungle and throwing up barbed-wire enclosures to house the Tamil civilians, let alone take control of it.

The lack of outside aid unnerves the inmates. “There is no people like you here,” Kumar whispers, hiding behind the crowds lined up for Mr Ban’s visit. “There is not enough food. There is not enough hospital here.”

How long does he think he will he be here for? “I don’t know. Maybe forever? We are afraid we will be killed. If I tell the truth, I will be killed.”

Father Amalraj says his parishioners have been beaten by the soldiers. The Government talks of reconciliation between Tamils and Sinhalese, but there is no sign of it here.

Human Rights Watch called for the end to the illegal detention of nearly 300,000 ethnic Tamils displaced by the recently ended conflict.

For more than a year, the Sri Lankan government has detained virtually everyone - including entire families - displaced by the fighting in the north in military-run camps, in violation of international law.

While the government has said that most would be able to return home by the end of the year, past government practice and the absence of any concrete plans for their release raises serious concerns about indefinite confinement, said Human Rights Watch.

"Treating all these men, women, and children as if they were Tamil Tiger fighters is a national disgrace," said Brad Adams, Asia director at Human Rights Watch. "Displaced Tamil civilians have the same rights to liberty and freedom of movement as other Sri Lankans."

While the Sri Lankan authorities are expected to screen persons leaving the war zone to identify Tamil Tiger combatants, international law prohibits arbitrary detention and unnecessary restrictions on freedom of movement. This means that anyone taken into custody must be promptly brought before a judge and charged with a criminal offense or released.

Although human rights law permits restrictions on freedom of movement for security reasons, the restrictions must have a clear legal basis, be limited to what is necessary, and be proportionate to the threat.

Since March 2008, the government of Sri Lanka has detained virtually all civilians fleeing areas controlled by the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam at so-called "welfare centers" and "transitional relief villages."

A small number of camp residents, mainly the elderly, have been released to host families and institutions for the elderly. The vast majority, however, remain in detention.

As of June 5, the United Nations reported that the authorities were keeping 278,263 people in detention in 40 camps in the four northern districts of Vavuniya, Mannar, Jaffna, and Trincomalee.

This is still tens of thousands short the initial figure of detainees – 300,000 – leading to concerns about killings and disappearance from within the internment camps.

"Many people are in the camps not because they have no other place to go," said Adams. "They are in the camps because the government does not allow them to leave."

Before the recent massive influx of displaced persons, the government proposed holding the displaced in camps for up to three years. After international protests, the government said that it would resettle 80 percent of the displaced by the end of 2009.

But the government's history of restricting the rights of displaced persons through rigid pass systems and strict restrictions on leaving the camps heightens concerns that they will be confined in camps much longer, possibly for years.

Conditions in the camps are inadequate. Virtually all camps are overcrowded, some holding twice the number recommended by the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees. Food distribution is chaotic, there are shortages of water, and sanitation facilities are inadequate. Camp residents do not have access to proper medical services and communicable diseases have broken out in the camps.

Since May 16, the military camp administration has imposed numerous restrictions on humanitarian organizations working in the camps, such as limiting the number of vehicles and staff members that can enter the camps, which has delayed the provision of much-needed aid.

The military does not allow organizations into the camps to conduct protection activities, and a ban on talking to the camp residents leaves them further isolated. The military has also barred journalists from entering the camps except on organized and supervised tours.

"The poor conditions in the camps may worsen with the monsoon rains," said Adams. "Holding civilians who wish to move in with relatives and friends is irresponsible as well as unlawful."

Calls for investigations into allegations of war crimes by the Sri Lankan government during the final stages of its military offensive against the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE) appear to be gathering strength.

UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-Moon has called for an inquiry into these allegations, pointing out that “whenever and wherever there are credible allegations of violations of humanitarian law, there should be a proper investigation”, reported the Deccan Herald. 

Ban’s call comes close on the heels of international criticism of the UN’s silence on Sri Lanka’s conduct of the war, the paper said.

The UN secretary general, Ban Ki-moon, briefed Security Council members behind closed doors on Friday, telling journalists outside of the need for an “impartial and objective” investigation into wrongdoing by the Sri Lankan military and the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE).

Activists now say the UN must go further and launch its own investigation into war crimes because neither the Sri Lankan government nor the world body’s Geneva-based Human Rights Council willing or able to shoulder the responsibility, reported The National newspaper.

“I think we need to have some very clear signal from the secretary general that we cannot simply put this behind us, thinking we can gain stability by closing the book on what happened,” the paper quoted Steve Crawshaw, a UN expert for Human Rights Watch, as saying.

“I hope Mr Ban will make explicit his backing for the creation of a commission of inquiry, and that the Security Council will wake up in a way that it has failed to wake up during the last three months.”

A special session of the United Nations Human Rights Council (UNHRC) recently passed a resolution on Sri Lanka that not only failed to call for independent investigations into violations of international human rights and humanitarian law by the armed forces but also, did not express concern for the plight of civilians facing indefinite detention in government camps. In fact, the resolution praised the government over its war against the LTTE.

At the height of the conflict, John Holmes, the UN’s humanitarian chief, described a “bloodbath on the beaches” with mass civilian casualties.

The UN has since proved reluctant to investigate the human tragedy and even stands accused of being complicit with the Sri Lankan government in obscuring the actual number of civilians killed.

The UN came under criticism for ‘deliberately underestimating’ the civilian death toll and for covering up the enormity of the crisis in Sri Lanka. Ban’s call appears to be an attempt to undo the mistakes the UN has made on the Sri Lankan war, the Deccan Herald said, before going on to call for investigations into all war crimes, including those committed in Iraq and Afghanistan.

The Security Council has been deadlocked on the issue, with roughly half the 15-nation membership arguing for Sri Lanka’s sovereign right to quash an insurgency within its own borders.

Members have only met “informally” at the UN, last month announcing “grave concern” over civilian deaths while also recognising the “legitimate right of the government of Sri Lanka to combat terrorism”.

Sir John Sawers, Britain’s ambassador to the UN, said pressuring other council members to shift their positions would be difficult and unlikely to yield “any real difference on the ground” in Sri Lanka.

After briefing the council on Friday, Mr Ban told reporters that he called on “the Sri Lankan government to recognise the international call for accountability and full transparency” and suggested a “proper investigation”.

Sri Lanka’s ambassador to the UN, Hewa MGS Palihakkara, said he would “follow up” on Mr Ban’s request, although the country’s president, Mahinda Rajapaksa, has openly rejected calls for a war-crimes investigation.

Rights watchdogs are not convinced that Sri Lankan officials will ever investigate the allegations fairly, with Mr Crawshaw, of the New York-based lobby group, calling on Mr Ban and the Security Council to step in.

“The government saying it will investigate doesn’t solve the problem, because the government has stated in advance that it has committed no crimes and they are only interested in investigating the crimes of the Tamil Tigers,” he said.

“We can’t have any more of everyone looking away, which is what the world seems depressingly eager to do at the moment.”

Amnesty International has likewise called for an “international, independent inquiry” established under the auspices of the Security Council or Mr Ban’s own mandate.

“According to testimonies, the LTTE was responsible for using civilians as human shields, but there is evidence that most civilians were killed as a result of shelling,” the advocacy group said.

“The Sri Lankan military continued to use heavy weapons despite promising on Feb 24 and again on April 27 that it would stop using them. The firing of artillery into an area with a high concentration of civilians violates international humanitarian law.”

Farhan Haq, a spokesman for Mr Ban, ruled out launching a UN Secretariat inquiry for the time being, saying the secretary general will monitor first whether the Sri Lankan government’s own investigation is sufficient.

Mr Ban “hopes that the Sri Lankan government will follow up to implement the promises that they have made. If they haven’t, he will review and act accordingly”, the spokesman said.

Sri Lanka will ‘never go after donor countries or agencies with a begging bowl’ for aid, the country’s Central Bank chief has declared  despite waiting for the International Monetary Fund (IMF) to approve a loan request for US $1.9 billion.

“We will never go after donors or lending agencies with a begging bowl. We are capable of standing on our own and raise funds through capital markets," Central Bank of Sri Lanka Governor, Nivard Cabraal, told AFP.

“We have the capability to stand on our own and necessary funds are available locally for the resettlement and reconstruction in the North. With our new found dignity and identity in the international community Sri Lanka does not want to go after anyone for aid with bended knees. But we accept whatever assistance offered without strings and with respect,” Cabral added.

Sri Lanka approached the IMF in March in a bid to stave off its first balance of payment deficit in four years after the island's foreign currency reserves fell to around six weeks worth of imports.

Commenting on the IMF loan Cabraal said: “No risk is involved in obtaining the IMF loan as it is entirely a non political transaction between the IMF and a member state. Besides, we have a right to seek IMF funds as a member and the IMF has an obligation to approve it in due course. The IMF has categorically said the loan will be approved,”

However, a decision on the loan has been put off due to political pressure from the US, Britain and other Western nations over Sri Lanka’s handling of the final stages of the battle against the Tamil Tigers and charges that thousands of civilians were intentionally killed by Sri Lankan security in the final months of the war.

Despite pressure from the West, Cabraal said he was confident the rescue package would be approved but added: "Little by little, the urgency of the IMF loan is easing. I am not saying that we don't need it. The threat of a downturn is receding and Sri Lanka is getting some inflows after the end of the war,"

According to IMF, the loan for Sri Lanka is still not ready for approval for its executive board.

IMF spokesperson Caroline Atkinson said Friday, June 19  "whenever there is final agreement, then a program would go to the Executive Board."

According to Cabraal the World Bank, ADB and several other friendly countries had responded positively for assistance for the reconstruction and resettlement process.

Cabraal added that foreign reserves have picked up in the past several weeks, with money coming from aid flows -- to meet the humanitarian needs of nearly 300,000 displaced people in the north -- remittances and foreign investments.

The central bank was also negotiating a 500 million dollar loan from Libya and another 500 million dollars from an unnamed "friendly country" to help with post-war reconstruction, he said.

"The future scenario is very comforting to our foreign exchange situation," he said.

A Tamil staff of United Nations Office for Project Services (UNOPS) and another Tamil staff of the UNHCR, both attached to the UN offices in Vavuniya, have been reported missing since Thursday June13 after being arrested by Sri Lankan authorities, the UN announced on Sunday June 21.

The UNOPS worker reported missing was known as Saunthi and the other was named Charles, according to the sources that alleged the abductions were carried out by the Sri Lankan Military Intelligence operatives at Temple Road in Kurumankaadu.

The two men, both ethnic Sri Lankan Tamils, were reported missing eight days ago and were subsequently discovered to have been taken into custody by Sri Lankan officials, the UN office in Colombo said in a statement.

"We are not aware which, if any, charges have been laid, and nor are we aware of the details of any accusations," the statement said.

The two men were working for the UN refugee agency and the UN office for Project Services in the northern region of Vavuniya

Over the past three years, Sri Lanka’s regime has spent 602 billion rupees or about $US6 billion on the war – equivalent to 14 percent of the country’s gross domestic product (GDP) in 2008.

Following the declared victory over the LTTE and the end of brutal military campaign, far from there being any reduction in military expenses, Sri Lanka Army commander General Fonseka says that the army would be expanded by 50 percent, leading to increases in defence expenses.

“Our strength is 200,000 and it will become 300,000 soon... We like to see young men joining us more quickly. We don’t mind enlisting even 10,000 a month; we need a lot more soldiers to reach our goal,” Fonseka told, ITN, a local Television station on Monday May 25.

According to Fonseka, this huge army, one of the largest per capita in the world, will be used for a military occupation of the North and East of the island, primarily directed against the Tamil population.

“It will not be easy for them to build up a terror group as they did before,” Fonseka told ITN. 

However, US opposition to Sri Lanka’s request for a $1.9 billion IMF standby facility appears to be waning.

US Congressman Heath Shuler who was in Sri Lanka recently told reporters in Colombo that Sri Lanka deserves the loan for its development.

During the final phase of the war in Sri Lanka, US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton said that “it was not the appropriate time to consider granting a massive IMF loan for Sri Lanka.’’

Asked to comment on Clinton’s statement, Shuler said that this was not the message he was getting from the authorities and also it is vital to separate economic issues from politics.

Following Clinton’s statement, Central Bank of Sri Lanka Governor Nivard Cabraal had said: "There is nothing in the governance structure of the IMF to indicate any political consideration be taken into account."

Also, the IMF has moved to asked the US Supreme Court to lift dismiss a case seeking to force the US to deny Sri Lanka the loan, arguing that the plaintiff has no standing, the court lacks jurisdiction, there is no private right of action to enforce "policy goals," and under federal law both defendants - Timothy Geithner, Secretary of the Treasury, and Meg Lundsager, Executive Director of the IMF - are immune from legal prosecution.

Tamils Against Genocide (TAG), which filed the original suit, is considering a response, but their ;lead counsel said he is leaning towards dismissing the IMF lawsuit voluntarily and let the political processes unfold.

"The resources needed to provide an effective rebuttal to the Government's position is very high," he told TamilNet.

Meanwhile, a number of humanitarian and rights organisations including Human Rights Watch, Amnesty International, International Crisis Group, the Global Centre for the Responsibility to Protect, have urged the US other IMF member countries to block the loan to Sri Lanka.

United National Party (UNP), Sri Lanka’s main opposition, has said the government should defeat the ‘Eelam ideology’ and stressed the need to take action on Tamil political parties to remove the Eelam ‘tag’ from their names.

Now that the LTTE is defeated, there is an urgent need to look at various ways of defeating the concept of 'Eelam' or a separate Tamil homeland through political means, UNP leader Dayasiri Jayasekara told reporters.

"Action needs to be taken regarding political parties carrying the name Eelam. The LTTE has imposed this concept on the minds of people who lived in the North and East.

"They have been made to believe they were living on a land described as Eelam under a separate flag. Now we have to through political means replace the Eelam concept or mindset with the one that we are all Sri Lankans," the UNP leader said.

‘Action needs to be taken regarding political parties carrying the name Eelam’ Jayasekara  added referring to Eelam People's Democratic Party (EPDP), Tamil Eelam Liberation Organisation (TELO), Eelam People's Revolutionary Liberation Front (EPRLF), People Liberation Organisation of Tamil Eelam (PLOTE) and Eelam Revolutionary Organisation of Students (EROS).

Jayasekara said the UNP was delighted at the government’s resolution being adopted at the United Nations Human Rights Council on Wednesday with 29 nations voting in favour and added the government should going forward look at the reasons for some European nations voting against Sri Lanka at the special session, and revamp Sri Lanka’s foreign policy to win them over.

“The United States and the European countries are our major trading partners. Without just focusing only on one section of the international community we should focus on the others too,” he said.

Underlining the need for the government and his party to work to a common agenda at least on national issues Jayasekara said: “The government should stop criticizing the UNP leadership and it members. We should agree on a common programme. If the government needs our help, they should tell us. If not we could carry out our political work on our own,” he said.