(September 17, 2009) The U.N.'s political chief promised to press Sri Lanka to speed
up the release of nearly 300,000 Tamil civilians held in displacement camps since
the end of the civil war, the United Nations said. U.N. Undersecretary-General for
Political Affairs B. Lynn Pascoe, who began a visit to Sri Lanka on Wednesday, also
said he would urge the government to address allegations of human rights abuses during
the fighting. International rights groups have said holding the civilians in military-run
displacement camps since the country's civil war ended in May is an illegal form of
collective punishment and urged the government to let them live with relatives, friends
or host families in the area. Aid workers fear conditions will become dire in the
camps when monsoon rains start next month. The government says it cannot release the
civilians until it finishes screening them for potential rebel fighters left over
from the war, and until land mines are cleared from their villages in the north. Pascoe
plans to see the refugee camps to «obtain a firsthand view of the situation of internally
displaced persons,» the U.N. office in Colombo said in a statement. Pascoe will also
meet President Mahinda Rajapaksa and will focus discussions with him and other government
officials on «the resettlement of internally displaced persons, political reconciliation
and the establishment of a mechanism of accountability for alleged human rights violations
in the context of the conflict, » the U.N. said. He will also hold talks with political
and civil society leaders during his three-day visit, it said. Pascoe said Monday
that the U.N. was «particularly concerned» about the nearly 300,000 Tamils detained
in the military-run camps and wants them out and home «as soon as possible. »