500 Vanni IDPs to be settled in the islets of Jaffna against their wish

[TamilNet, Tuesday, 15 September 2009, 05:05 GMT]
500 Internally Displaced Persons (IDPs) detained in the Sri Lanka Army (SLA) internment camps in Vaviniyaa were brought to Jaffna Monday and efforts are being made to settle them in the abandoned houses in the islets of Jaffna that are in the full control of Sri Lanka Navy (SLN), sources in Jaffna said. In the name of resettlement Vanni IDPs are being just relocated from the internment camps in Vavuniya against their wish to another area which is strictly controlled by another armed force, the SLN, civil society sources in Jaffna said.

The group of 500 IDPs are to be taken to Kaarainakar and Veala’nai in the islets of Jaffna, controlled by the SLN, Monday night, the sources said.

Meanwhile, 568 Vanni IDPs, including 74 Jaffna University students brought to the SLA internment camp in Kaithadi are still held there.

A Tamil political party in the government is said to be behind this resettlement plan, the sources added.

People in the islets of Jaffna who were displaced from their villages due to SLA offensives in 1990 had been living in Vanni for nearly 19 years and now they are to be held in areas controlled by the SLN.

This move is made by the government with the intention of holding the IDPs under the strict control of the SLN where they are to be held prisoners indefinitely, the sources said.

The IDPs who had been taken and resettled in Nedunththeevu earlier are subjected to various harassment and restrictions by the SLN, the civil society sources said.