Tamils slowly leaving refugee camps

By Simon Santow's for The World Today
It seems there is hope for Tamils stuck in squalid refugee camps after being displaced by the conflict raging in Sri Lanka's north for more than two decades.

Ever since the long-running civil war there ended six months ago, Sri Lanka's government has been under pressure over an estimated 300,000 people made homeless by the fighting.

But the head of Humanitarian Affairs for the United Nations, John Holmes, has just visited the refugee camps and says more than half of those who were staying there have been able to move home.

Mr Holmes and the United Nations have been at loggerheads with the Sri Lankan Government but Mr Holmes says now there is a more encouraging tone coming from the UN.

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