Continued detention of IDPs endangers future political stability: Pascoe

[TamilNet, Saturday, 19 September 2009, 04:11 GMT]
“Keeping these persons in the camps is breeding resentment and endangering the future political stability of Sri Lanka,” United Nations Under Secretary General of Political Affairs Lynn Pascoe told reporters Friday night in Colombo after meeting President Mahinda Rajapakse, sources in Colombo said. The UN too reflected the same sentiments saying that the political stability of Sri Lanka is jeopardized due to rising resentment among the Internally Displaced Persons (IDPs) detained in the camps, the sources further said. While Mr. Pascoe was expressing his concerns of future stability of the [unitary state of] Sri Lanka, the UN administration of Ban Ki-moon in New York, was seeking to control its message and limit questions, to turn the tide of negative coverage of its handling of Sri Lanka, Inner City Press reported.

The UN administration has been widely criticized for weak handling of civilian deaths and detentions in Sri Lanka.

In the meantime, Lynn Pascoe, the visiting UN Under-Secretary General, has said that early resettlement of the IDPs, access to the camps, greater transparency and accountability on humanitarian issues were the matters that needed urgent attention.

Mr. Lynn Pascoe who met Sri Lanka’s President Mahinda Rajapakse Friday to present the letter from Mr. Ban Ki-moon outlining the concerns of the international community on the situation of Internally Displaced Persons (IDPs) and other related matters, said that he had raised the issue of the early release of the IDPs and their freedom of movement with the Sri Lankan President.

"It is frustrating to live in such conditions and therefore the people should be allowed to return to their original homes at the earliest. The security concerns of the government are understandable but at the same time the people must also be taken into serious consideration", Pascoe has said.

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As Rajapaksa Says Pascoe Praises His Actions, UN Refuses Questions, Shuts for Weekend