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People above 60 released from camps: Rajapaksa

COLOMBO: Sri Lankan President Mahinda Rajapaksa has said his government has released all people above 60 from the temporary camps for the war-displaced while 40,000 children are being given education. Nearly 15,000 people above 60 had reported in the camps.

The government on Monday said it would appoint a special group headed by Attorney-General Mohan Peiris PC to address human rights issues and report to the Cabinet.

Mr. Rajapaksa said at least 80 per cent of the IDPs would be resettled prior to the December-end deadline. He said his government had given a new life to LTTE child soldiers by rehabilitating them in vocations of their choice at the rehabilitation camps.

He said the LTTE denied education to young children in the north and east by recruiting them as combatants to fight a useless war and urged the people to rebuild the nation as the LTTE had been crushed.

The government said it would involve representatives from key stakeholders such as the Ministries of Disaster Management and Human Rights, Foreign Affairs, Justice and Law Reforms, the Attorney-General’s Department and the Police Department in the rights group.

“The decision to appoint a special group has been arrived at by the Inter Ministerial Committee on Human Rights (IMCHR), chaired by Disaster Management and Human Rights Minister Mahinda Samarasinghe, at its 24th meeting held on July 17, 2008. It is to submit their reports to the Cabinet through Minister Samarasinghe,” it said. A release by the Disaster Management and Human Rights Ministry said the government had launched several initiatives to implement the voluntary pledges it made.

It also implemented the recommendations of the working group it accepted during the U.N. Human Rights Councils Universal Periodic Review process in May 2008, in keeping with international obligations.

The themes and issues of priority are clarification of outstanding cases of alleged disappearances dating from the 1980s, an urgent plan to address alleged instances of torture and abductions/disappearances, co-ordination with key government focal points on the alleged cases of extra- judicial executions and collation of information on the action taken, implementation of recommendations made by U.N. Special Rapporteur on torture, Manfred Nowak. A policy paper on the training of police officers in the area of human rights and finalisation of consultation on the proposed National Action Plan for the Promotion and Protection of Human Rights is being developed.

In another statement, the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) said it had closed its offices in the Eastern Province in Akkaraipattu, Batticaloa, Mutur and Trincomalee.

The closures, which took place on July 17, follow the recent announcement that the ICRC was scaling down its operations.

“The ICRC reaffirms its commitment to meet the humanitarian needs of those directly or indirectly affected by the recent conflict.”

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