SLN constructs new internment camps in the islets of Jaffna

[TamilNet, Tuesday, 22 September 2009, 05:06 GMT]
Sri Lanka Navy (SLN) stationed in Kaarainakar, Oorkaavatu’rai and Veala’nai are hastily engaged in constructing new internment camps to detain Internally Displaced Persons (IDPs) from the islets of Jaffna held in Vavuniyaa and brought to the islets. Around 1500 IDPs brought from Vavuniyaa in two stages and handed over to SLN are undergoing untold difficulties being held by the SLN, sources in the islets said.

The government had brought these IDPs, originally from the islets of Jaffna, saying that they will be allowed to settle in the abandoned houses of people who fled the area during the 1990 and subsequent offensives by government forces.

SLN based in Kaarainakar is erecting new camps in Thoappukkaadu and Viyaavil villages close to its camps so that the IDPs are always under their control.

SLN is making similar arrangements also in Oorkaavatu’rai and Veala’nai in the islets of Jaffna, building new detention centres near its camps.

All the IDPs brought from Vavuniyaa and handed over to SLN, except some of them taken over by their relatives, are being held by the SLN.

The abandoned houses in the islets have been robbed of the tiles and other structures by the SLN in the past and are not suitable for locating the IDPs.

Meanwhile, though the IDPs from the islets now living in Jaffna town and its outskirts do not want to get back and detained by the SLN, Sri Lanka Army refuses permission to them to continue to live in the places where they are now, sources in Jaffna said.