Dionne Walker has written for the Associated Press on the appearance of Sri Lankan Ambassador today at GSU, titled, "Ambassador: Sri Lanka working to resettle Tamils.":
Ambassador Jaliya Wickramasuriya, speaking to an audience in a police-guarded library at Georgia State University, denied allegations that ethnic Tamils are being held in welfare camps against their will and insisted that "the truth of Sri Lanka is not always the news stories you see." He said the government is working to get the Tamils back into their homes within six months.
According to a BBC report filed from Colombo on June 11th:
UN concern over Sri Lanka camps
The UN expressed concern about the permanent nature of the shelters being put up in these camps.
The official, Mark Cutts, said that nothing less than a new city had been created at Manik Farm, the massive complex of camps where he worked for the past month as a senior co-ordinator.
He said bulldozers were working constantly to clear jungle and that phone lines, schools, banks and even a cash machine had been built. He said this was "phenomenal" but described government plans to replace tents with more permanent structures as a "big worry".
According to AP, at the GSU Ambassador also said:
However, releasing them to return to their homes isn't simple, he said, because rebels have peppered the countryside with explosives.
"It would be criminal to send people back to villages and land riddled with mines," said Wickramasuriya, adding the threat is also why journalists haven't been welcomed to the conflict area.
But BBC reported from Colombo on Jun 1st:
Sri Lanka Tamils 'facing misery'
"The theory that the area is heavily landmined cannot be accepted because I am in touch with a number of people. So, when I ask them they tell me where the landmines are placed. They are local people. According to them, 75% per cent of the area is not at all landmined,"
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