Colombo (AsiaNews) – Out of the 300 thousand war refugees in Sri Lanka at least 90 thousand are under 15, according to the United National Party (UNP), the main opposition party to the government of President Mahinda Rajapaksa. As local elections in the Northern provinces draw near, 8 August, the figures of the conflict and the real proportions of the emergency continue to be the subject of controversy, two months after the end of the war between the army and the Tamil Tigers. On the one hand, opposition parties, activists and civil rights NGOs criticize the policy of the government and complain about the inhuman conditions in which refugees are held. On the other Rajapaksa’s cabinet which denies access to the camps for the press and foreign NGOs, and continues to repeat that the rehabilitation of the refugees will proceed as planned.

Yesterday, the three government doctors who immediately after the defeat of the rebels had talked of thousands of casualties among fleeing civilians retracted their version of events. Imprisoned after their allegations that the military caused fatalities and injuries well above the official figures, they appeared in a press conference to declare that the numbers were provided to them by the Tigers.  

The confession of the three, wipes out one of the arguments most often used by those who accuse the government of war crimes, but it has not ended all controversy. Politicians and human rights activists suspect that doctors were forced by the government to self-confess and reject the confession citing figures circulated in May by the UN and Red Cross which spoke to thousands of deaths and injuries.

While the cabinet has pushed through the extension of the state of emergency throughout the island for another month, in the last parliamentary session, entirely dedicated to the post-conflict emergency, sparks flew between the government and opposition.

  Pathmini Sithamparanathan, a deputy from the Tamil National Alliance (TNA), intervened in the debate by listing some worrisome data on the situation of refugees: seven pregnant women have died in recent days, the number of victims of pneumonia continues to increase, and the hygienic conditions are increasingly difficult with one bathroom per hundred people.  

The TNA parliamentarian said that "Tamil Youth have not achieved anything through the war” then added that" the Sinhalese have not won anything by holding on to the idea of a unitary status without any power sharing”.  She then accused the government of doing too little to resolve the situation of refugees thus triggering the response of the minister Hemakumara Nanayakkara. The head of the department for agriculture and rural development launched an invective against Sithamparanathan accusing her "for not having shed a tear as the population suffered without even a grain of rice while held hostage by the leader of the LTTE."