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Unlock the Camps in Sri Lanka

A quarter of a million displaced Sri Lankans who are being held in de facto detention camps are facing a humanitarian disaster as monsoon rains threaten to flood camps. They cannot leave the camps, which are overcrowded and lack basic sanitation facilities.

Call on the Sri Lankan government to immediately allow the displaced civilians freedom of movement: those who wish to leave the camps should be free to do so. Urge them to place the camps under civilian, not military, management and to allow aid agencies, journalists and human rights observers full, unhindered access to the camps to carry out their functions and prevent possible abuses. Read more »

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Basil Rajapaksa - Senior Advisor to the President of Sri Lanka

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Urge your friends and family to take action to help the imprisoned children of Sri Lanka. Share this link: http://bit.ly/4xm9qS

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Dear (recipient name),

The Sri Lankan government continues to fail to deliver basic services to camps set up in the Vavuniya District in the north-east that were created following conflict in the area. The camps remain overcrowded and lack basic sanitation facilities. As a result, rivers of water cascaded through tents and forced camp residents to wade through overflowing sewage during heavy rains in September. Monsoon rains are expected to start soon, threatening to flood the camps again and to worsen the living conditions even further.
 
Early in 2009, over 280,000 civilians fled the war zone in northeast Sri Lanka as the Sri Lankan military reconquered all the territory held by the opposition Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE), thus ending the 26-year-old conflict. Since the conclusion of hostilities in mid-May, the displaced civilians have been held in overcrowded, military-run internment camps. The Sri Lankan government will not allow the civilians to leave the camps until a screening process to detect suspected LTTE fighters among the civilians has been carried out. At least 250,000 of the civilians - including 50,000 children - remain trapped in the camps to this day. While some progress had been made on providing basic needs, much still needs to be done on the right to health, food, water, family reunion and access to relatives. Aid agencies, journalists and human rights observers have not been given full access to the camps. Without independent monitors in the camps, the civilians are at risk of human rights abuses from the security forces.
 
I call on the Sri Lankan government to immediately allow the displaced civilians freedom of movement:  those who wish to leave the camps should be free to do so.  The camps should be placed under civilian, not military, management. Aid agencies, journalists and human rights observers should be promptly provided with full, unhindered access to the camps to carry out their functions and prevent possible abuses.

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