"வன்னியில் இருந்து வரும் மக்களுக்கு 3 ஆண்டு கால திறந்த வெளிச் சிறைத்தண்டனை வழங்கப்பட்டு அவர்களை "நலன்புரிக் கிராமங்கள்" என்ற பெயரில் சிறைகளில் அடைத்து வைக்க சிறீலங்கா அரசு திட்டம் தீட்டியுள்ளது.

விடுதலைப்புலிகளின் கட்டுப்பாட்டிடம் சுருங்கி வரும் நிலையில் இந்த அதிர்ச்சி தரும் அறிவிப்பு வெளியாகி இருப்பதுடன்.. வன்னி மக்களின் பூர்வீக நிலத்துக்கு என்ன நடக்கப் போகிறது என்பது பெரிய வினாக்குறியாக இருக்கிறது..!

வடபகுதியை சிங்கள மயமாக்கும் திட்டத்தின் கீழ் பெரும் இன அழிப்பு ஒன்றுக்கான முஸ்தீவாகவே இதனைப் பார்க்க வேண்டியுள்ளது.

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செய்தி ஆதாரம்:

Refugees to be in "welfare villages" for 3 years

The government is planning to house 200,000 civil war refugees at five huge "welfare villages" -- complete with post offices, banks and libraries -- where they are expected to stay for up to three years.

The draft plan, which the government has circulated among international aid groups and donors recently, surfaced as tens of thousands of civilians fled the northern battlefield where there is heavy fighting between the security forces and the LTTE.

Government preparations appear to lend support to Red Cross estimates last month that 250,000 civilians were trapped in the war zone but the government said the number was less than half that number, and gave a much less dire assessment of the potential humanitarian crisis.

Aid workers and Western diplomats had expressed concern about the treatment of the ethnic Tamil civilians in the camps and were 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 remaining Tiger cadres.

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 5,600-square-mile de facto state in the north and boxed them into a 58-square-mile 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, according to the plan said.

The Associated Press obtained copies of the document separately from two aid groups and a Western diplomat.

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 Wanni.

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.

Center for Policy Alternatives Executive Director Paikiasothy Saravanamuttu 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.

In meetings with government officials over the new proposals, international aid groups raised concerns the camps would be run by the military and residents would not be allowed to leave, an aid official who took part in one of the meetings said.

He spoke on condition of anonymity for fear of losing access to the camps.

The government however played down many of those concerns and said the camps would keep civilians safe.

Human Rights Ministry Secretary Rajiva Wijesinha said the camps would be run by the government but the military would have "great involvement."

"There is a very clear security threat and we are not going to play games with the lives of our people," he said.

Human Rights Minister Mahinda Samarasinghe told journalists on Tuesday the camps would not be detention centres but would provide residents with education and vocational training.

"I am quite sure those who are there will be at least happy to be there because they are out of a dangerous environment," he said.

The aid official said aid groups had demanded full access to the camps and said they would only make a three-month -- not a three-year -- commitment.

Diplomats and aid workers also expressed concerns about the lack of monitors to ensure everyone is registered and treated properly at the areas where the civilians are initially screened when they cross into government territory.

Mr. Wijesinha said the plan was for a "worst-case scenario and the government did not believe the number of displaced would be as large as stated in the proposal and hoped to resettle the civilians far faster than two to three years.

He said the population would have to stay out of the Wanni for some time so troops could clear mines and finish fighting the LTTE.

"There's going to be little pockets of LTTE for a little bit longer. With those security considerations taken together, it's going to be a little bit slower to resettle the civilians,” he said.

The government proposal calls for creating four villages, totaling nearly 1,000 acres, in the Vavuniya district and a fifth 100-acre camp in the neighboring Mannar area.

The plan speaks of villages having 39,000 semi-permanent homes, 7,800 toilets and 780 septic tanks, as well as parks, post offices, banks, stores and about 390 community centers with televisions and radios.

One agency chief familiar with the plan said it would be very expensive operation. Not only would the government and aid groups have to feed, clothe and house the residents, but since most of the civilians are farmers, the economy would suffer as their fields lay fallow.

A second proposal called for the construction of 40 schools to hold an expected 86,171 students. That plan asked international donors to fund everything from a photocopying machine for each school to instruments for the school band, at a total cost of about US$14 million. (AP)

dailymirror.lk

Edited February 12, 200916 yr by nedukkalapoovan

"வன்னியில் இருந்து வரும் மக்களுக்கு 3 ஆண்டு கால திறந்த வெளிச் சிறைத்தண்டனை வழங்கப்பட்டு அவர்களை "நலன்புரிக் கிராமங்கள்" என்ற பெயரில் சிறைகளில் அடைத்து வைக்க சிறீலங்கா அரசு திட்டம் தீட்டியுள்ளது.

அதேமாதிரி யாழ்மாவட்டத்தை சேர்ந்தவர்கள் 15வருடங்களாக சிறையில்தானே...

அதேமாதிரி யாழ்மாவட்டத்தை சேர்ந்தவர்கள் 15வருடங்களாக சிறையில்தானே...

அது இருக்கட்டும்.. இத்திட்டங்கள் தொடர்பாக மேற்குலக ராஜதந்திரிகளுக்கு போய் சேர்ந்த ஆவணங்கள்.. ஏன் எங்கட எம்பிமாருக்குப் போகல்ல. அவை எல்லாம் பிரிட்டன்.. கனடா.. சுவிஸ் என்று அசைலம் அடிக்கிற பிளானில இருக்கினம் போல..!

தமிழ்நெட், புதினம் தவிர கொழும்பு தமிழ் ஊடகங்களும் இது தொடர்பில் மூச்சும் விடேல்ல. துரோகிகளான சங்கரி.. டக்கிளஸ்.. கருணாதான்.. பிழைப்பைப் பார்க்கிறாங்க என்றால்.. எமது ஊடகங்களுமா.. சிங்களவனுக்கு அடிமையாகிவிட்டன. :)

Edited February 12, 200916 yr by nedukkalapoovan

வாங்கோ வெளிநாடுகள், ஐநா ...மற்றும் மனித உரிமை ஆர்வலர்கள்...முந்தித்தான் உங்களால உண்மைத்தன்மையை சொல்ல ஏலாது...இப்ப என்ன நடக்குது எண்டு பார்த்து சொல்லுங்கோவன்

யாழ்ப்பாணத்தில் உள்ளவர்களுக்கு ஏற்றப்பட் நிலையிலும் பார்க்க இது மிகவும் கொடுமையானது.

சரியான திட்டமிடலுடன் இது அரங்கேற்றப்படுகிறது. தமிழ் மக்கள் உணர்வுகள் அற்று அடிமைகளாக இருப்பதற்காகவும் எதிர்காலத்தில் அவர்களுக்கு சுதந்திர சிந்தனைகள் வராமல் இருப்பதற்காகவும் மிகவும் நுனுக்கமான திட்டம் இது.

Barbed wire villages raise fears of refugee concentration camps

Jeremy Page, South East Asia Correspondent

Sri Lanka was accused yesterday of planning concentration camps to hold 200,000 ethnic Tamil refugees from its northeastern conflict zone for up to three years — and seeking funding for the project from Britain.

The Sri Lankan Government says that it will open five “welfare villages” to house Tamils fleeing the 67 sq mile patch of jungle where the army has pinned down the Tamil Tiger rebels.

The ministry in charge says that the camps, in Vavuniya and Mannar districts, will have schools, banks, parks and vocational centres to help to rehabilitate up to 200,000 displaced Tamils after a 25-year civil war.

It also says that it will be compulsory for people fleeing the area to live in the camps until the army — which will guard them — has screened them, hunted down the Tigers and demined the area. The camps will be ringed with barbed wire fencing and, while those with relatives inside will be allowed to come and go after initial screening, young and/or single people will not be allowed to leave, it says.

It originally proposed holding them for up to three years, but after protests from the UN refugee agency now says that it hopes to resettle 80 per cent by the end of the year. “Of course, it will not be voluntary — we need to check everyone,” Rajiva Wijesinha, the Secretary of the Ministry of Disaster Management and Human Rights, told The Times. “This is a situation where we’re dealing with terrorists who infiltrate civilian populations. Security has to be paramount.” He said that it was the only way to prevent Tiger suicide attacks like the one that killed 20 soldiers and eight civilians on Tuesday.

Indian and Sri Lankan Tamil MPs expressed outrage and urged the international community not to fund the camps without direct oversight and independent media access. “These are nothing but concentration camps,” said Raman Senthil, an Indian Tamil MP. “Why should they be in camps? If they are citizens they should be rehabilitated straight away.”

Mano Ganeshan, a Sri Lankan Tamil MP, said: “I don’t want to say concentration camp yet, but they’re already detention camps and military grilling stations. They should be run and monitored by the international community.” Suren Surendiran, of the British Tamils Forum, said that the camps were “like the detention centres where the Jews were held in World War Two”.

Robert Evans, a Labour MEP who has visited Sri Lanka as chairman of the European Parliament Delegation on Relations with South Asia, said: “These are not welfare camps, they are prisoner-of-war cum concentration camps.” Human Rights Watch called the camps “detention centres” and said that they violated UN guidelines on internally displaced people, which say they can only be detained or interned under exceptional circumstances. “The Sri Lankan Government has not demonstrated that such circumstances exist,” said Charu Hogg, a Human Rights Watch spokeswoman.

Amnesty International said that the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights obliged Sri Lanka to refrain from arbitrarily depriving any person’s right to liberty. “The Government wants international assistance but not international standards,” said Yolanda Foster, Amnesty’s Sri Lanka expert.

President Rajapaksa said last week that the army was within days of defeating the Tigers, and rejected international calls for a ceasefire. The Government says that 32,000 civilians have fled the conflict zone in the past week and are being processed at 13 temporary camps. Amnesty describes those as “de facto detention centres” and accuses the army of taking hostages by allowing people to leave only if a relative stays behind. The Government says that Amnesty, Human Rights Watch and international aid agencies are prejudiced towards the Tigers.

For that reason, Professor Wijesinha said, the Government would limit aid groups’ access to camps and allow journalists to visit only on government tours. He said that President Rajapaksa’s office drafted the original proposal two weeks ago and circulated it to foreign embassies and aid agencies to raise funding. “There’s talk that the British will provide a couple of million pounds,” he said.

Britain’s Department for International Development denied that, saying: “Prolonging the displacement of this vulnerable group of people is not in anyone’s interests. There is no UK government money going into the camps.”

The United Nations refugee agency, UNHCR, said that the Government revised its proposal after concerns were raised over the three-year detention period. A new version was committed to resettling people as soon as possible, said Sulakshani Perera, a UNHCR spokeswoman. She said Basil Rajapaksa, the President’s brother, had said it would not be compulsory for anyone to enter the camps.

-http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/news/world/asia/article5721635.ece