Nov. 27 Sri Lanka said it completed the return of Tamil civilians displaced in the war with Tamil Tiger rebels to the northern Jaffna district as part of plans to settle almost 122,000 people in camps by the end of January.
“Several welfare camps have been closed,” the Media Center for National Security said. “Schools which were used to initially house the displaced have once again been handed over” to the education services.
President Mahinda Rajapaksa’s government has come under international pressure, led by the United Nations, to allow civilians to leave camps where they have lived since the army defeated the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam in May.
Rajapaksa, seeking to capitalize on his government ending the LTTE’s 26-year fight for a separate Tamil homeland in the island’s north and east, this week called a presidential election for 2010, two years before his mandate expires. He will face General Sarath Fonseka, who commanded the army when it defeated the Tamil Tigers, in the ballot.
Sri Lanka’s detention of the Tamils “could squander hopes for national reconciliation,” The Elders, a humanitarian group created by former South African President Nelson Mandela, said in an e-mailed statement yesterday.
Basic Rights
The confinement of the civilians breaches international law and deprives them of basic human rights, the group said in a letter to Rajapaksa. It called on the government to allow “unimpeded access” to the camps.
“No sustainable peace is possible without trust,” said former South African archbishop Desmond Tutu, the chairman of the group. “Having won a military victory, the Sri Lankan government must not squander its gains.”
The group, which includes former U.S. President Jimmy Carter and Graca Machel, the former first lady of Mozambique, wrote to donor nations such as the U.S. and Japan asking them to use their influence with Sri Lanka to ensure conditions are in place to develop the north and east.
More than 59,000 displaced people have left centers in Mannar, in thenorthwest, Vavuniya in the north and Trincomalee in the east for settlement in the northern Jaffna Peninsula, the Ministry of Rehabilitation and Resettlement said yesterday.
Those still in camps are from the Kilinochchi and Mullaitivu districts, the government said. Both areas were heavily mined as the LTTE had its headquarters in Kilinochchi town and staged its last stand around the northeastern port of Mullaitivu.
Security Concerns
Sri Lanka says the need to clear mines and ensure security in the north delayed the release of more than 280,000 people housed in camps in May.
An estimated 1.5 million mines and unexploded ordnance contaminated 500 square kilometers (193 square miles) of territory when the war ended, the army said last month.
The presidential election is likely to be held in the middle or end of January, Deputy Finance Minister Sarath Amunugama said in an interview in Singapore yesterday. A date will probably be announced in about a week’s time, he said.
Rajapaksa, 64, said earlier this week the election will allow people in the north and east to exercise their right to vote after being deprived of the chance because of the “threat of LTTE terrorism.” The defeat of the Tamil Tigers gave the country an opportunity to unite, he said.
Resettled people will be able to vote in the presidential election, senior presidential adviser Basil Rajapaksa said Nov. 24 in Colombo, according to the government’s Web site.
Rebuilding Program
Rebuilding after the conflict is helping the island’s $41 billion economy. The central bank forecasts it will grow as much as 6 percent next year after expanding about 3.5 percent in 2009.
The end to the war that killed about 90,000 people has also helped pushed the benchmark Colombo All-share index up nearly 90 percent this year.
Sri Lanka’s Janatha Vimukthi Peramuna, or People’s Liberation Front, and the United National Party, have agreed on fielding Fonseka, 58, as a common opposition candidate
The presidential ballot will be held before general elections scheduled to take place by April next year.
The U.K. is opposing Sri Lanka’s bid to host the 2011 summit of the 53-nation Commonwealth group, the London-based Times reported on its Web site today.
Prime Minister Gordon Brown will tell this year’s summit that starts today in Trinidad and Tobago that Sri Lanka shouldn’t be considered, the newspaper said, citing an unidentified diplomatic official. The Commonwealth is largely composed of countries with historic ties to Britain.
