The United Nations recently announced that internally-displaced persons (IDPs) in Sri Lanka, housed in refugee camps since the time they fled their homes during the final and fatal offensive against the LTTE, can now go back to their homes. The questions are whether they still have homes to go back to and how safe is it for them to go back.

The Sri Lankan government has earned harsh international criticism over the news that the squalid Tamil refugee camps were actually prison camps where harsh interrogation has been conducted on Tamils suspected to have been connected to the eradicated LTTE. Criticism against the country’s human rights abuses have largely come from the West.

‘Despite mounting evidence of abuses in Sri Lanka, the response from Western countries was initially weak, though eventually several governments, including the United States, the United Kingdom and France, raised their voices. They strongly condemned indiscriminate attacks and urged a humanitarian corridor for civilians trapped in the war zone.’ Sri Lanka, however, has been dismissing such criticism, confident and proud that the government has finally expunged the violent insurgent group LTTE.

Sri Lanka has, instead, turned to mostly Eastern countries for support, while ignoring all criticisms from the West. Countries with significant records in human rights abuses such as China, Pakistan, Burma, Libya, Cuba, Venezuela, and Iran have been sympathetic to the Sri Lankan government, as well as commending the government’s policies, and pledging to aid the country.

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Via Foreign Policy in Focus