Colombo, Aug 11: A Tamil group complained today that outsiders have overlooked the plight of 500,000 Tamil refugees in Sri Lanka's northeast displaced by a 19-year civil war, as hundreds of protesting Tamils disrupted a visit by a government minister to the area. Today's comments by the Mullaitivu People Front came after New York-based Human Rights Watch and London-based Amnesty International, as well as the United States, accused the Tamil Tiger rebels of recent atrocities.

"More than half a million Tamils are still living in refugee camps and many die of starvation and lack of proper medical facilities," said the Mullaitivu People Front in an e-mailed statement.

The organization, which claims to represent minority Tamils, is based in the rebel-held port of Mullaitivu, 280 kilometers northeast of Colombo. The organization said it was "dismayed and shocked" to see that Amnesty International and Human Rights Watch failed to note the refugees in their latest reports on Sri Lanka.

Meanwhile, John Amaratunge, Sri Lanka's Interior and Christian Affairs Minister, who visited Jaffna peninsula yesterday, was forced to cancel his visit to the secretariat there after hundreds of people representing the Jaffna Missing Persons Guardians' Association and the Displaced Persons Association protested his visit, the Tamilnet web site said today.


Bureau Report