Sri Lanka: displaced Tamils seek missing family

Of all the hardships in this sprawling displacement camp, people most bemoan not knowing what happened to relatives who disappeared in the chaos of the decisive battle that ended the prolonged war between the Sri Lankan military and Tamil Tiger rebels.

Scores of ethnic Tamils clustered on both sides of the barbed wire perimeter Tuesday seeking news of their families. Some said they return day after day without success. Many held wedding photographs or portraits of their loved ones, hoping someone would recognize them.

A military-sponsored tour for journalists to a small corner of the camp revealed scenes of heartbreak and misery among the 200,000 displaced crammed into the vast tent city hastily constructed on scrub land.

Tens of thousands more war-displaced people are scattered in smaller camps near Vavuniya, which used to be the army's northern garrison on the edge of the territory ruled by the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam. The United Nations says together the camps house nearly 300,000 internally displaced people in wretched conditions.

One woman said her 2-year-old son was shot in the head while they were fleeing the unrelenting shelling and gunfire from both sides. When she reached Sri Lankan lines, she gave the child to soldiers who promised to take him to the hospital.

She's heard nothing of him since.

On Tuesday, the U.N. high commissioner for human rights demanded an independent investigation into atrocities committed in Sri Lanka's civil war.

Navi Pillay recommended to the U.N. Human Rights Council that both the Sri Lankan government and the Tamil Tigers be investigated over the high civilian death toll since December.

Pillay said the government has an obligation to respect humanitarian law even when protecting people from terrorism.

Sri Lankan Ambassador Dayan Jayatilleka said it was "outrageous" to suggest the government should be investigated, saying it was like asking the victorious allies of World War II to accept a war crimes tribunal for the atomic bombing of Hiroshima.

Pillay's call for an investigation lacks support in the 47-nation council.

Back at the displacement camp, Veluppilla Selvaraj, 39, said he was given emergency leave from his job as a security guard in Saudi Arabia to try to find his mother and sister. "I was here yesterday and the day before and the day before. I am still searching," he said.

The Sri Lankan military has refused to release the internal refugees, saying they must be screened to weed out any Tamil rebels who may be hiding among them. Access for international aid agencies has been restricted for the same reason.

Many told reporters about relatives taken away for questioning who so far have not returned.

"They are calling most of the Tamils LTTE," said a man who identified himself as Seevalingam, a former worker at the hospital at Killinochchi, once the rebel capital. He feared the displaced masses would be held here a long time.

The United Nations has called Manik Farm the world's largest displacement camp. U.N. Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon said after his own visit last week that he was saddened and moved by the experience.

Aid agencies have warned that a lack of sanitation and adequate medicine was allowing disease like hepatitis to spread.

Indeed, many of the inmates interviewed at Manik Farm said their children were suffering from diarrhea and other illnesses that stem from tainted water. One woman held up her baby who she said had diarrhea for three days. When she took him to the camp clinic the doctor said the child was fine and sent her away, she said.


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