Mangala unable to comment on British media reports regarding IDP deaths............by Dasun Edirisinghe
Sri Lanka Freedom Party - Mahajana Wing leader Mangala Samaraweera told The Island yesterday that he could neither confirm nor deny reports being disseminated by a section of the British media that 1,400 deaths per week occurred at the IDP welfare centres in Wanni.
Samaraweera said that he was not in a position to comment on the report in issue because the government did not allow the opposition to visit IDP centres.
There are four IDP welfare centres in the Northern Province accommodating 300,000 people who had been displaced by the recently concluded war between the LTTE and the security forces. The Time Online (UK) on July 10, reported that the Menik Farm IDP camp had 1,400 deaths in a week. The report quoted MP Mangala Samaraweera as saying that the Sri Lankan government was changing the ethnic balance of the Northern area.
Responding to The Island queries, Samaraweera said that he stands by his comment but can’t comment on the number of deaths as he is not allowed to enter the IDP camps.
There is a case pending before Court where he and other political groups are seeking the removal of the government’s blockage to allow opposition MPs into the IDP centres, he said.
"There are no welfare camps. We can’t call them welfare camps. Those camps are ‘prisons’. The government has confined the Northern Tamil community in these prisons," he said.
He also said that there are no basic facilities for the people in these camps. "The Government has made this situation public. Displaying newspapers to journalists, he said that President Mahinda Rajapaksa had told The Hindu that the Lankan IDP camps are the world’s best while The Ravaya reports Presidential Advisor and Opposition Leader of the Colombo Municipal Council Vasudeva Nanayakkara describing them as ‘living hell on earth.’
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