COLOMBO, Oct 4, 2009 (AFP) - More than 2,000 temporary shelters for civilians displaced in Sri Lanka's recently-ended ethnic war were destroyed by gale force winds, a press report said Sunday.
The damaged shelters were part of camps where 250,000 people remain detained after government troops defeated the separatist Tamil Tiger rebels in May, the Sunday Times here said.
The storm damage increased concern for the welfare of the Tamil civilians who have endured primitive conditions in the state-run camps, the newspaper said.
There was no immediate comment from government officials managing the centres, which they describe as "welfare villages."
The United Nations said last week that 255,500 men, women and children were held in the camps and that only 7,800 had been allowed to return to their homes or stay with relatives.
Sri Lanka's government, which promised the UN it would re-settle all people displaced during the decades of war by January, says the camps are necessary as the detainees must be screened in the search for former Tiger fighters.
Source: Agence France-Presse (AFP)
