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COLOMBO — A human rights group on Tuesday urged Sri Lanka to release hundreds of thousands of war refugees from camps hit by flooding over the weekend saying their lives were in danger from disease.
The floods have renewed fears that disease could break out among minority Tamils who have been living for months behind barbed wire, in tents and in makeshift shelters, while the military hunts down the last of the Tamil Tiger rebels it defeated in May.
New York-based Human Rights Watch called on the government to let people leave and move in with friends and family, saying it would instantly ease overcrowding and deteriorating conditions made worse by the start of the rainy season.
"The government has detained people in these camps and is threatening their health and even their lives by keeping them there during the rainy season floods," said Brad Adams, the group's Asia director. "This is illegal, dangerous, and inhumane."
Monsoon season starts in two months, and aid workers fear it will cause severe disease outbreaks.
The U.N. said Monday that flash floods inundated parts of the Manik Farm camp, damaging or destroying 1,925 shelters. It said nearly 100 toilets were underwater, and water in the camp was stagnant and contaminated.
Manik Farm is the largest in a string of displacement camps located near the former battlefield in the north. Access is heavily restricted.
Human Rights Watch said a camp resident, 30-year-old Aanathi, told the group her tent quickly flooded, destroying what little she had. Her neighbors were suffering as well.
The government says nearly 1,000 people have been moved to higher ground within the camp.
Resettlement Minister Rishard Badurdeen said those affected by the floods were safe and given food, water and other amenities.
The government says it can't release the Tamil civilians until it finishes screening them for potential rebel fighters, and until their lands are de-mined. Rights workers say that process seems to be dragging on.
Between 80,000 and 100,000 people were killed since the civil war began in 1983 over a movement for a separate state for the Tamils.
