» 12/30/2009 11:28 SRI LANKA Government postpones closure of Tamil refugee camps and investigation of war crimes by Melani Manel Perera At least 100 thousand refugees remain in camps in Vavuniya even after January. Presentation of the report into alleged war crimes committed by the army during the final stages of the war also delayed for four months.
Colombo (AsiaNews) - The Sri Lankan government "can not promise to complete the process of resettlement of displaced persons' from the camps in Vavuniya by the end of January so at least 100 thousand Internally Displaced People (IDPs) will remain in reception centres.
The delay was confirmed by Mahinda Buddhadasa Samarasinghe, Minister for natural disasters and human rights, thus renaging on a promise only made one month ago by the Colombo government.
Samarasinghe assures that "the government is working hard to complete the process as soon as possible" and that to remedy the failure to resettle IDPs the ministry has organized a "reconnaissance mission" to their places of origin.
The so called "Go and See Visit" aims to allow the refugees to see for themselves the situation of the areas to which they refer and to leave it to their responsibility the choice to leave the camps or not.
President Mahinda Rajapaksa has also postponed by four months the presentation of the results of government inquiry into human rights violations during the final stages of the war. The investigation was to answer questions from the U.S. State Department and was due on 31 December.
The United States supported by the United Nations say that in the surge that led to the defeat of the Tamil Tigers, the Colombo army killed rebels who had surrendered. The accusation U.S. is supported by statements made in January by Sarath Fonseka, former head of the Armed Forces of Colombo, who in an interview spoke of summary executions of the leaders of the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE).
The issue of human rights violations committed by the military in Colombo against Tamil rebels and civilians during the war hangs like a sword of Damocles over the government of Rajapaksa. The prosecution of war crimes weighs on the presidential elections scheduled for January 26 next contended by two heroes of the war against the Tigers: the incumbent president and his former general Fonseca. The latter spoke of summary executions of rebels claiming that they were made in his absence, while he was on official trip to China.
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