Access Denied? The issue of gaining entry into IDP camps Sri Lanka

Mano Ganeshan, the leader of Western People's Front(WPF) and Colombo district parliamentarian speaking to media

Govt conduct on IDPs will determine future Sinhala-Tamil relationship

by Udara Soysa

Sri Lankan government won a decisive battle against the Tamil Tigers. The thirty years of Tiger terror campaign came to a clear end. However, the next real war for the government is resettlement of internally displaced people, or IDPs, in Sri Lanka.

According to many media and human rights reports, the IDP camps are overcrowded. The UN chief claimed that these IDP camps are some of the worst places he had seen in his traveling. Some reports go on to castigate government of possible rapes and murderers taking place in these camps. Government clearly and firmly has denied all these allegations.

In addition, there are also reports that government had restricted access to the IDP camps. However, when the author questioned Dr. Rajiva Wijesinha, Secretary General of the Peace Secretariat, he denied the allegations: Actually they (aid organizations) do have full access to the camps. There was much confusion last month, when there was no access to the conflict area, but Susan Rice for instance got it wrong when she asked for access to the camps, at a time when the UN and 52 agencies were functioning there.

Last week there was a moratorium on vehicles, since so many agencies having half a dozen vehicles each was a nuisance, in addition to a worry about some of them smuggling people out. Access however continues, and if people cannot walk in the camps, there is provision to keep a couple of vehicles inside to transport them round, but on leaving they must descend from the vehicle and go through the gate and get into another vehicle, he further added.

Link : http://transcurrents.com/tc/2009/05/govt_conduct_on_idps_will_dete.html

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