Impending Disaster for the IDPs if they are released

Monsoon rains in the Vanni

On the fifteenth of August, at the the hallowed feast of Madhu, the Right Reverend Archbishop Malcolm Ranjith called for the "the immediate release of the IDPs". Top officials of the US government, probably still following the briefings of Robert Blake, have stated that "Release from confinement is an issue that friends of Sri Lanka continue to raise." The Island Editorial on the 21st of August has reviewed some of these calls to release the IDPs, and stated some of the ground realities in very clear terms.

The ostensible reason for the new call for the immediate release of the IDPs is that the Menik Farm area is flooded. Additionally, we are told that there is no reason to keep the young and the old in the camps. So, are they suggesting forcible separation of the young and the old from their families? If the Vanni villages are to be reconstructed, surely it is the able bodied who should be released, while the young and the old are retained and cared for in the camps! Read more ...