Colombo, June 18: Sri Lanka will not permit visits
to government-run IDP camps housing 2.8 lakh displaced Tamil
civilians across the northern part of the country for personal
or political gains.
"The government will allow any interested party or group
to assist and help the Internally Displaced Persons (IDPs)
currently located in the welfare centres in the North, but
won't let anyone capitalise on their grievances," Media
Minister Lakshman Yapa Abeywardena said.
Speaking to reporters here yesterday, Abeywardena said
that there could be parties and NGOs demanding access to these
camps with the intention of gaining political mileage or
secure foreign funds for NGOs.
Such groups cannot be allowed because their intentions
are not genuinely motivated to assist IDPs, he said adding
that the step has been taken to prevent negative propaganda to
be spread against the country for now.
Meanwhile, main opposition United National Party (UNP)
senior leader and MP Gamini Jayawickrama Perera, MP Jayalath
Jayawardene together with SLFP (M) group Frontliner Mangala
Samaraweera and Democratic People's Front Leader Mano Ganeshan
and others, today filed a petition in the court stating that
the government had refused to allow them to visit the IDPs in
northern Sri Lanka.
Bureau Report
First Published: Thursday, June 18, 2009, 17:45