Political motive behind bringing Vavuniyaa IDPs to the islets of Jaffna

[TamilNet, Wednesday, 23 September 2009, 04:33 GMT]
Sri Lanka government has political motives in detaining afresh the Internally Displaced Persons (IDPs) held in the internment camps in Vavuniyaa, in the islets of Jaffna in new camps under the control of Sri Lanka Navy (SLN), so that these IDPs could be made to vote for it in the general election next year, civil society sources in Jaffna said.

Already around 1500 IDPs have been brought to the SLN camps in the islets of Jaffna in two stages and a third batch of 500 IDPs are to be brought from the internment camps in Vavuniyaa Thursday, sources in Jaffna said.

These IDPs, originally from the islets of Jaffna, are brought saying that they will be allowed to settle in the abandoned houses in the islets.

But in reality the majority of them are being held in SLN camps while new special camps near SLN bases are being hastily erected to detain these IDPs.

Though some of them had been taken in care by their relatives the others are to be held in the new internment camps indefinitely, the sources said.