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Australians in Sri Lanka refugee camps

by lalith | June 4, 2009 at 06:02 am

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Australians in Sri Lanka Refugee Camps

June 4, 2009 - 9:34PM Sri Lanka has identified six foreign nationals, including Australians, among tens of thousands of war displaced civilians held in state-run camps in the island's north, a minister said on Thursday.

Three Australians and one each from Britain, the Netherlands and Norway had crossed over to government-held areas after escaping from the war zone in the island's northeast after the defeat of the Tamil Tiger rebels last month.

Human Rights Minister Mahinda Samarasinghe told AFP that the six foreigners of Sri Lankan origin will be screened for links with the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE).

The family of the British national, a woman identified as Danilvany Gnanakumar, has already been in touch with the British High Commission in Colombo to secure her release.

Danilvani Gnanakumar had entered the country in February 2008 and has overstayed her visa. She has worked as a medic in the rebel area for a period of time. She is supposed to be quoting a troubled married life being the reason for her to go back to Sri Lanka. She is still being questioned.

The three Australians, the Dutchman and the Brit are being interrogated at this time. It is very possible that these foreign passport holders will come out with much wanted information.

People in the IDP camps are still being interrogated. It is the consensus of opinion that there may be more foreign passport holders and also terrorists among those who are yet to be interviewed.

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israeli.agent

at 06:23 on June 4th, 2009

This is a positive development, obviously.

This is a clear indication that diasporans, at least some of them are willing to come back and help the county out. Maybe these 6 are the traiblazers of the lot. They can work as brand ambassadors for the cause.

.Agent.

sathyajith

at 09:08 on June 4th, 2009

Very interesting developments there!

ShriCU

at 22:22 on June 9th, 2009

Brand ambassadors ....Who is going to pay them?

lalith

at 23:23 on June 9th, 2009

Expatriate Tamil youth who volunteered to work for the tsunami victims in the Vanni have returned with tales of being introduced to (1) Prabhakaran and (2) to arms and ammunition during their short stay. They were recruited by the Tamil Rehabilitation Organisation (TRO) – a front organisation of the LTTE set up collect monies from the Tamil expatriates. The sympathetic youth volunteers were enticed by the TRO agents abroad and shipped to Vanni in the aftermath of tsunami. The youth initially considered this an adventure or a fun thing. But they have come back home with unexpected experiences.