Sri Lanka is preparing to house 200,000 civil war refugees at five huge “welfare villages” — complete with post offices, banks and libraries — where it expects them to stay for up to three years, a government plan said.
The draft plan, which the government has circulated among international aid groups and donors in recent days, surfaced as tens of thousands of civilians fled the northern battlefield where Tamil Tiger rebels and government forces have been waging heavy battles.
The government’s preparations appear to lend support to Red Cross estimates last month that 250,000 civilians were trapped in the war zone. The government says the number is less than half that, giving a much less dire assessment of the potential humanitarian crisis.
Aid workers and Western diplomats have expressed concerns about the treatment of the ethnic Tamil civilians in the camps and are worried the proposed plan would keep the displaced from returning to their homes while the military spends years searching the jungles and villages for the last remnants of the Tamil rebels.
The rebels have been fighting since 1983 for an independent state in the north for minority Tamils marginalized for decades by governments dominated by the Sinhalese majority. In recent months, the military has swept the rebels out of much of their 14,500km2 de facto state in the north and boxed them into a 150km2 strip of coastal land in the northeast where they hope to crush the group.
The draft proposal estimates 40,000 to 50,000 internally displaced families totaling more than 200,000 people would flee the war zone. The “welfare villages” would be set up to house them for two to three years, the report said.
After being searched for weapons, the war refugees are being taken to 15 temporary transit camps located in schools and other buildings just south of the de facto state the rebels once ruled in a region known as the Vanni.
The government initially barred aid workers from the transit camps without explanation but has given them far more access in recent days as the need for international assistance grew.
The government eventually plans to move all the civilians into five more permanent camps south of the war zone.
Rights groups and analysts have raised a number of concerns over the plan.
Paikiasothy Saravanamuttu, executive director of the Center for Policy Alternatives think tank said a long stay in displacement camps could frustrate the displaced, exacerbate ethnic tensions and “lead to a strong reinforcement of Tamil nationalism.” In December, Human Rights Watch criticized the government’s treatment of the fleeing civilians, saying it was arbitrarily detaining them in camps that were little better than prisons.
The military is to begin conscripting civilians next year, Cambodian Prime Minister Hun Manet said yesterday, citing rising tensions with Thailand as the reason for activating a long-dormant mandatory enlistment law. The Cambodian parliament in 2006 approved a law that would require all Cambodians aged 18 to 30 to serve in the military for 18 months, although it has never been enforced. Relations with Thailand have been tense since May, when a long-standing territorial dispute boiled over into cross-border clashes, killing one Cambodian soldier. “This episode of confrontation is a lesson for us and is an opportunity for us to review, assess and
The United States Federal Communications Commission said on Wednesday it plans to adopt rules to bar companies from connecting undersea submarine communication cables to the US that include Chinese technology or equipment. “We have seen submarine cable infrastructure threatened in recent years by foreign adversaries, like China,” FCC Chair Brendan Carr said in a statement. “We are therefore taking action here to guard our submarine cables against foreign adversary ownership, and access as well as cyber and physical threats.” The United States has for years expressed concerns about China’s role in handling network traffic and the potential for espionage. The U.S. has
IDENTITY: A sex extortion scandal involving Thai monks has deeply shaken public trust in the clergy, with 11 monks implicated in financial misconduct Reverence for the saffron-robed Buddhist monkhood is deeply woven into Thai society, but a sex extortion scandal has besmirched the clergy and left the devout questioning their faith. Thai police this week arrested a woman accused of bedding at least 11 monks in breach of their vows of celibacy, before blackmailing them with thousands of secretly taken photos of their trysts. The monks are said to have paid nearly US$12 million, funneled out of their monasteries, funded by donations from laypeople hoping to increase their merit and prospects for reincarnation. The scandal provoked outrage over hypocrisy in the monkhood, concern that their status
A disillusioned Japanese electorate feeling the economic pinch goes to the polls today, as a right-wing party promoting a “Japanese first” agenda gains popularity, with fears over foreigners becoming a major election issue. Birthed on YouTube during the COVID-19 pandemic, spreading conspiracy theories about vaccinations and a cabal of global elites, the Sanseito Party has widened its appeal ahead of today’s upper house vote — railing against immigration and dragging rhetoric that was once confined to Japan’s political fringes into the mainstream. Polls show the party might only secure 10 to 15 of the 125 seats up for grabs, but it is