REFUGEE

Sri Lanka said it is accelerating the settlement of Tamil refugees held in transit camps since the defeat of the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam in May, after coming under international criticism for delaying their release.

President Mahinda Rajapaksa appointed a team comprising lawmakers and government ministers to oversee the return of refugees and development in the north, the Ministry of Defense said on its Web site yesterday.

“The government plans to further accelerate the development in the north on a priority basis to restore normalcy in life,” the ministry said in a statement.

United Nations Human Rights Commissioner Navi Pillay said last month more than 280,000 displaced Tamils are being held under “conditions of internment.” Sri Lanka rejected the assessment, saying security must be established in the north and mines cleared from former conflict zones before the settlement program is completed.

The number of displaced people has been reduced from 288,000 to 196,088, helped by the success of the mine-clearing program, Mahinda Samarasinghe, the minister for disaster management and human rights, said two days ago.

More than 10,000 people were resettled in recent days in an area around Kilinochchi, the northern town where the LTTE had its headquarters, the government said yesterday. The area was heavily mined, it said.

Mine Clearing

A special task force is involved in clearing mines and the government has bought 24 de-mining machines to help speed the process, the Defense Ministry said.

An estimated 1.5 million mines and unexploded ordnance contaminated 500 square kilometers (193 square miles) of the north when the war ended, Lieutenant General Jagath Jayasuriya, Sri Lanka’s army commander, said yesterday in the capital, Colombo. About 65 percent of that area was inhabited by civilians and 25 percent is agricultural land, he said at a seminar on the threat from landmines in former conflict zones.

“The LTTE laid millions of mines in areas under their control, disregarding the danger that could be suffered by innocent civilians,” Jayasuriya said, adding that the mines “considerably delayed” army drives into rebel-held territory.

“For the resettlement process, landmines pose a serious threat,” he said.

The reports of an increasing number of civilians leaving the transit camps are “welcome,” European Union foreign ministers said in a statement yesterday.

“It is crucial that the government in Sri Lanka now ensures that these refugees can return home voluntarily and with dignity,” the ministers said.

End of War

The army defeated the last LTTE forces in a battle on the northeastern coast in May, ending their 26-year fight for a separate Tamil homeland in the north and east. Tens of thousands of civilians were caught between the rebels and army units.

Rajapaksa earlier this week appointed an independent committee to investigate a U.S. State Department report that civilians were shelled by the army in the last weeks of the war. The report listed killings and other abuses carried out by the army and the LTTE.

While the government described last week’s report as “unsubstantiated,” Samarasinghe said it was the responsibility of a democratic state to investigate such charges.

“Though some elements try to interpret this report as a charge sheet against Sri Lanka, it clearly says it has no legal basis,” Samarasinghe said Oct. 26.

Credible Report

The State Department said last week the incidents of abuses listed in the report are based mostly on reporting by the U.S. embassy in Sri Lanka, international organizations and the media and are “credible.”

Department spokesman Ian Kelly welcomed the government’s decision to investigate the report, saying at an Oct. 26 briefing in Washington “this is exactly what we would expect Sri Lanka to do.”

A domestic probe by Sri Lanka is an attempt to evade an international inquiry into violations during the war, Human Rights Watch said in an e-mailed statement today.

“The government is once again creating a smokescreen inquiry to avoid accountability for abuses,” said Brad Adams, the Asia director of the New York-based group. “Only an independent international investigation will uncover the truth.”

The U.S. and UN shouldn’t “play along with the government’s pretense” it will conduct its own probe, he added.

The political climate in Sri Lanka, where the government brands critics as LTTE supporters, means a credible domestic inquiry is unlikely, Human Rights Watch said.

Sri Lanka is still threatened by separatist forces, Rajapaksa said in a speech on Oct. 19. The government’s war on terrorism was based on achieving an “undivided country, a national consensus and an honorable peace,” he said.

Tamils make up almost 12 percent of Sri Lanka’s population of 20 million people. Sinhalese account for 74 percent, according to a 2001 census.