Colombo to issue finger print ID to Vanni civilians in custody

[TamilNet, Monday, 01 June 2009, 11:23 GMT]
All members of IDP families including children of over ten years of age who were forced to flee Vanni and detained by the Colombo government in Vavuniyaa internment camps are to be issued with special identity cards with their finger prints. Police with officials of the Presidential Secretariat are currently engaged in implementing the scheme.

Officials said the issue of special identity cards is to facilitate their resettlement and rehabilitation smoothly.

The issue of special identity cards will take place in internment camps in a staggered manner, they further said.

Last month, Sri Lankan President Mahinda Rajapaksa appointed Chief-of-Staff of the Sri Lanka Army (SLA) Maj. Gen. G.A. Chandrasiri as the Competent Authority Officer in charge of resettlement of Tamils from Vanni in alleged barbed-wire 'internment camps'. Maj. Gen. Chandrasiri is assisted by three Sinhalese Government Agents from Kandy, Pollonnaruwa and Anuradhapura districts as Coordinating Officers to handle the affairs of the Tamil IDPs.