Bindunuwewa camp to be relocated to Vavuniya

[TamilNet, Monday, 11 December 2000, 01:43 GMT]
Prison authorities in Sri Lanka are planning to establish a new rehabilitation camp in Vavuniya to replace the camp at Bindunuwewa in Bandarawela which ceased to function following the brutal murder on the 25th October of this year of more than 24 Tamil prisoners housed in the camp, said sources.

Twenty one young prisoners are to be brought to the Vavuniya camp, sources added. However, it is not known where the young inmates are currently being held.

The Vavuniya camp will function under the Youth Services Council, the same way the Bindunuwewa camp functioned, sources confirmed.

Sources close to the project said that the land for the construction of the new rehabilitation camp has already been chosen and that the building permission has been requested from the Security Division.

Following the massacre at Bindunuwewa camp, several Human Rights Organizations and noted social activists strongly urged the Peoples Alliance(PA) government to provide extra security to Tamil prisoners being held at prisons and detentions centers located in predominantly Sinhala areas in the South.