Sri Lanka: Displaced Tamil families 'left in jungle'
The villagers say they were relocated to a patch of cleared jungle
Some Sri Lankan Tamils who left a vast displacement camp this week say they were "left in the jungle" with no means to rebuild their homes and lives.
The final 1,160 residents of the Menik Farm camp left on Monday.
But 110 families from one village, Keppapilavu, say they have been prevented from going home and were relocated to a patch of cleared jungle.
Sri Lanka's army spokesman rejected the allegations, adding most people were "very happy" with the help they got.
Hundreds of thousands of Tamil people were displaced in the final months of the 26-year civil war between Sri Lanka's army and separatist Tamil Tiger rebels.
Their quest to resettle has been a major struggle, reports the BBC's Charles Haviland in Colombo. Three years on, demining has enabled most to return to their home villages but many houses lie ruined, our correspondent says.
Complaints 'rejected'
A minority of the families haven't been able to go home at all because their land has been taken by the military or swallowed up in the government's high-security zones, our correspondent adds.
Of the 361 families who left Menik Farm on Monday, 110 belonged to a village called Keppapilavu. I spoke to some of these families by phone. According to their account, the army told them they could not return to their home village and that they would be relocated.
They were taken to a school building at Vattrapalai where they spent Monday night. On Tuesday morning, they were taken to Seeniyamoddai village where a jungle area was bulldozed to clear space for them close to an irrigation tank.
Once the jungle was cleared they were allocated land. They said they were not given any lights, no tents - they only had tarpaulin sheets for shelter. They spent that night in the open space where snakes and insects were also about.
On Wednesday night, they said, they were still without lights and lanterns and around 0400 it started to rain heavily. The winds blew away their shelters. Army soldiers helped families headed by women (widows) build temporary sheds on Monday, but others had to fend for themselves, they said.
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