U.S. concerned over Sri Lankan camps

COLOMBO, Sri Lanka — The United States on Monday expressed concern over hundreds of thousands of Sri Lankans displaced by war who are currently confined to military-run camps and pledged funds to help their resettlement.

Eric P. Schwartz, the U.S assistant secretary of state for refugees, on Monday announced $8 million to help hasten the resettlement and recovery process of some 280,000 people living in camps.

The displaced are ethnic Tamils who fled their homes at the height of a civil war between government forces and Tamil Tiger separatists, which ended in May after 25 years.

Schwartz spoke to reporters after visiting one of the camps, Manik Farm, in Vavuniya district in the north of the island nation. He said the U.S was "deeply concerned about a range of issues where further progress is essential."

"In particular the vast majority of displaced persons remain confined to camps," he said.

"Moreover there remain burdensome limitations on access to those camps for those international humanitarian organizations and others who are in a position to ameliorate the conditions faced by these victims of conflict," he said.

Schwartz said, however, President Mahinda Rajapaksa and other top officials have assured him of "significant and substantial returns" of displaced people to their homes over the next month.

Foreign diplomats and aid workers fear that the camps are actually internment camps where the displaced people are being held indefinitely.

Schwartz said he raised the issue with government officials who insisted that camps were only temporary.

He said the government also invited him back to observe the process of return and recovery. He said he hoped to do so.