Government postpones closure of Tamil refugee camps and investigation of war crimes

(December 31, 2009) The Sri Lankan government is unable to fulfil its promise to complete the process of resettlement of displaced persons' from the camps in Vavuniya by the end of January and so at least 100 thousand Internally Displaced People (IDPs) will remain in reception centres. The delay was confirmed by Mahinda Buddhadasa Samarasinghe, Minister for natural disasters and human rights, thus breaking the promise made only one month ago by the Colombo government. Samarasinghe assured that "the government is working hard to complete the process as soon as possible." The so called "Go and See Visit" programme aims to allow the refugees to see for themselves the situation of the areas to which they refer and to leave it to their responsibility the choice to leave the camps or not. President Mahinda Rajapaksa has also postponed by four months the presentation of the results of government inquiry into human rights violations during the final stages of the war. The investigation was to answer questions from the U.S. State Department and was due on 31 December. The United States supported by the United Nations say that in the surge that led to the defeat of the Tamil Tigers, the Colombo army killed rebels who had surrendered. The accusation by the U.S. is supported by statements made in January by Sarath Fonseka, former head of the Armed Forces of Colombo.