REFUGEE

Sri Lanka said Saturday it would grant free movement to the remaining war-displaced civilians held in internment camps, meeting a key demand of the international community.
The government also reiterated it would complete the resettlement of civilians by the end of January.
"We will allow complete freedom of movement," senior presidential adviser Basil Rajapakse told inmates of the Manik Farm complex, the main facility housing displaced civilians.
The United Nations welcomed the announcement that camp inmates will be able to come and go freely from December 1, saying it was in line with a pledge Sri Lanka gave Secretary General Ban Ki-moon.
The announcement came amid intense international pressure on Colombo to release tens of thousands of civilians held in the camps since security forces crushed Tamil Tiger rebels in May.
UN humanitarian chief John Holmes visited the area earlier this week and pressed authorities to grant free movement to the camp inmates.
The government's announcement was a "pleasing" development, the UN spokesman in Colombo, Gordon Weiss, told AFP
"This is in keeping with the assurances given to the Secretary-General," he said. "It is a pleasing sign of progress and we look forward to its full implementation."
In Brussels, the European Union noted that Colombo's announcement "would be fulfilling the European Union's demands that have been put some time ago to the Sri Lankan government".
The EU as well as the UN and other key international players, including rights groups have been pressing Colombo to allow war displaced civilians the freedom to choose where they wanted to live.
Brussels remained cautious and keen to see changes on the ground rather than mere words, a EU official said.
"That's the standing EU position, we have an open demand," the official in Brussels said.
The EU had also linked the treatment of internally displaced as a key demand to consider extending preferential tariffs for imports from Sri Lanka.
Over 136,000 men, women and children remain inside camps across the island's north, down from 280,000 at the end of the fighting in May with the defeat of the guerrillas.
Camp inmates will be allowed to come and go freely from the start of December, said Rajapakse.
The country's former top military general, Sarath Fonseka, who defeated the Tamil Tigers in May, had criticised the government for dragging out the civilian resettlement process.
Fonseka, who quit as chief of defence staff last week and is widely expected to challenge President Mahinda Rajapakse in elections expected by next April, had vowed to work for the speedy release of civilians.
Basil Rajapakse, the younger brother of the president, repeated a pledge the entire resettlement will be completed on schedule by January 31.
He made the announcement at the Manik Farm complex, 257 kilometres (160 miles) north of the capital, where he handed over relief supplies.
A batch of 41,000 people were allowed to leave the camps in October, the biggest single release so far.
In May, Sri Lankan troops defeated the Tamil rebels who had been fighting since 1972 to carve out a separate nation in the Sinhalese-majority island.
The government has been widely criticised for holding refugees indefinitely, but it insisted it needed time to weed out rebel fighters hidden among the civilians.
Military officials said about 10,000 ex-combatants had surrendered to security forces and were being held at separate camps ahead of sending them for vocational training.
The government has also said over 1.5 million mines must be cleared and basic infrastructure put in place to allow returnees to resume normal lives.
Critics claimed the civilians were being held as prisoners at the camps which have been off limits for independent media except during guided military tours.