Sri Lankan families torn apart by war

updated 9:11 p.m. ET May 26, 2009

MANIK FARM, Sri Lanka - Lakshmi Rasamy reached through the barbed wire enclosing this displacement camp, grabbed her mother's hand and wept for her four children who were killed in the last spasm of fighting in Sri Lanka's civil war.

Around her, other camp residents searched the crowd outside for their loved ones and spoke of families split apart by the chaos, of sons detained by the military, of illness, injury and death.

While Sri Lanka celebrates its military victory over the Tamil Tiger rebels after a quarter-century of warfare, nearly 300,000 ethnic Tamils who were driven from their homes and trapped in the war zone are struggling to come to terms with the scars of the fighting.

Most of them have been corralled into Manik Farm, a 1,400-acre lot of former scrubland that has been turned into what the U.N. describes as the world's largest displacement camp, housing 210,000 people in endless rows of white tents.

Like dozens of other smaller camps in the north, Manik Farm is surrounded by coils of razor wire and rows of barbed wire. Those inside are barred from leaving, a restriction that has generated strong criticism from international rights groups who say the displaced should be free to choose where they want to live.

Movements restricted
"We are holding them here for their own safety," military spokesman Brig. Udaya Nanayakkara said during a military-led tour of the camp Tuesday. "We don't want anyone to come here and set off a bomb."

Slideshow   Victory in Sri Lanka Sri Lankans celebrate the government’s defeat of Tamil Tiger rebels in a brutal final battle. more photos

Other officials say the war refugees must be screened to weed out any remaining rebels from the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam who may be hiding among them.

But the restrictions have also kept families apart and left the barbed wire fence between those inside the camps and their relatives who lived outside the war zone.

U.N. humanitarian chief John Holmes called on the government Tuesday for more freedom of movement for those now in camps, family reunifications and rapid resettlement of people forced from their homes. "If that does not happen, then very serious questions will have to start being asked," Holmes told reporters at U.N. headquarters in New York.

Rasamy, 45, sat in the dirt with tears pouring down her cheeks as she held hands through the rows of barbed wire with her mother outside the fence. She told her of the final days of the war, her escape from the battle zone five days ago and the death of four of her five children in the violence.

A nun, who gave her name as Sister Madeleine, had received a note that her sister's family was in the camp and came here in hopes of seeing them for the first time in two years. But after five hours and repeated announcements over a camp loudspeaker, she was still waiting.

Nearby, Veluppilla Selvaraj, 39, scanned the crowd for his mother and sister. He was given emergency leave from his job as a security guard in Saudi Arabia to try to find them. "I was here yesterday and the day before and the day before. I am still searching," he said.

Many in the camp said they lost their families in the chaos and violence of the final days of the war and their flight across the front lines. Some held formal family photos taken at wedding celebrations, pointing to those relatives who were missing.

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