(August 17, 2009) Sri Lanka's Catholic leaders on Saturday called for the release
of ethnic Tamils held in military-run displacement camps, saying they are confined
like prisoners behind barbed wire. The leaders made the appeal during the annual
August 15th feast of the Assumption of Mary at the island's holiest Catholic
shrine of Madhu in the former northern war zone. The government lifted a blockade
on the Our Lady of Madhu shrine the day before to allow pilgrims to hold their annual
feast there, a sign the north was returning to normal after the May defeat of the
Tamil Tiger rebels, who fought for 25 years for an independent homeland alleging discrimination
and marginalization by the Sinhalese majority. But while an estimated 100,000 gathered
for the feast of Our Lady of Madhu on Saturday, the nearby villages stood empty, their
residents stuck in displacement camps, among the 300,000 other Tamil civilians who
escaped from the war zone. Bishop Thomas Soundaranayagam of the nearby Jaffna diocese
complained the people of the area were not there at the feast as they were all in
refugee camps behind barbed wire like prisoners. Heavy rains began two months ahead
of monsoon season in northern Sri Lanka, battering camp residents living in tents
and makeshift shelters. Aid workers say water is scarce in the camps and disease spreads
quickly. Colombo’s new archbishop, Malcolm Ranjith, called on the authorities to
begin resettling the people. “This a beautiful occasion but there are some people
who have not been able to come here,” he said. “If they had come this feast would
have been much more beautiful and an occasion of unity” archbishop Ranjith added.