The Detention Camps
1. Why did the Government of Sri Lanka (GoSL) hold 300,000 Tamil civilians within internment camps in northern Sri Lanka once the war ended?
The GoSL cited three main reasons for detaining war survivors of which over 60,000 people are still living in squalid camps: the need to identify former combatants interspersed with the civilian population; the need to de-mine areas before civilians return to their original homes; and that their homes had been destroyed leaving nothing to go back to.
2. Is it true that vital humanitarian aid was withheld from civilians inside the camps – even from children and the elderly?
Yes. Several humanitarian organisations including the UN, Red Cross, Oxfam and MSF repeatedly asked for greater access to the camps to dispense basic emergency support; shelter, food and medical care. The UN now has limited access to war survivors and the government continues to make it hard for independent NGOs to provide psycho-social support (presumably because of what people will say about the past) and restricts access by NGOs who will not stay quiet about human rights abuses.
3. Why did Amnesty International, Human Rights Watch and other humanitarian organisations criticise the camps?
300,000 civilians were held in squalid camps being denied freedom of movement and expression. There was no credible explanation for the extreme cruelty these people were subjected to which included keeping children apart from relatives, detaining the elderly who could live with relatives and withholding medical aid .
4. What’s happened to the people who were released from the camps?
A year after the end of the war, most are living a bleak life amid reports of the army appropriating properties and of the government redeveloping land for tourist and industrial purposes. Very few have been able to access their original land and homes as vast areas are still under military control. Those in appalling ‘transit camps’ and ‘make-shift huts’ face the reality that they may never return to their original homes.
5. What about the former child soldiers and other ex-combatants being held in ‘special’ camps?
About 10,000 ex-combatants (equivalent to 55 Guantanamo Bays) are being held in 'special camps' and very little is known about their situation as the government has restricted all access even by lawyers. International law demands that ex-combatants be treated according to the Geneva Conventions but the Red Cross has had almost no access to these camps since July 2009. There have been reports of torture, other forms of abuse and extra-judicial killings.