UN envoy visits Tamil refugee camps

A United Nations human rights expert on Friday visited Sri Lanka's military-run detention camps, where nearly 300,000 displaced Tamil refugees have been held for the last months.

Walter Kaelin, the UN secretary-general's representative for the human rights of internally displaced persons, was visiting camps in the northern Vavuniya and Mannar districts, where civilians have been held since the end of the country's civil war in May.

The Sri Lankan government quoted Kaelin as saying that its efforts to fulfil the needs of the displaced people were at a "commendable level," but the UN did not immediately comment on their own findings.

Kaelin arrived late Wednesday in the Sri Lankan capital, Colombo, and met with authorities Thursday to discuss the plight of the refugees. He planned to meet with government officials again after he had visited the camps.

International rights groups have been pushing for Sri Lanka to open the camps and allow those people who can go home to do so. They have said holding the civilians is an illegal form of collective punishment.

The government has said it is screening the hundreds of thousands of refugees for potential separatist fighters who participated in the civil war.

The UN helps fund and manage the camps, but the organization has become increasingly concerned that the screening process is taking too long and that conditions in the camp, particularly sanitation, are worsening.

Last week the UN's political chief, Lynn Pascoe, visited Sri Lanka and expressed concern over the slow pace in returning civilians to their homes.

Sri Lankan President Mahinda Rajapaksa promised Pascoe the displaced people would be returned home by the end of January.

Tamil Tigers militants fought the Sri Lankan government for 25 years to create an independent homeland for ethnic minority Tamils, who have faced decades of marginalization by the country's ethnic Sinhalese majority. The government crushed the insurgency in May, after more than 70,000 people had been killed in the violence.