Please see this:

http://www.channel4.com/news/articles/politics/international_politics/grim+scenes+at+sri+lankan+camps+/3126257

And this:
http://my.telegraph.co.uk/chandradavid/blog/2009/05/04/a_paradise_turned_into_kingdom_of_vultures?from_comment=true&message=WW91ciBjb21tZW50IGhhcyBub3cgYmVlbiBtYWRlIHB1YmxpYyE

Oh one more thing Keith. Regarding

don't think anyone actually thinks of these UN camps as concentration camps, not even those who call the war a campaign of genocide.

You must surely know that these camps are NOT run by the UN if you have really walked through them...please get your facts right...they are government controlled and government run camps. The UN has no involvement...well not yet at least...

Regarding the following statement by keith:
I don't think anyone actually thinks of these UN camps as concentration camps, not even those who call the war a campaign of genocide.

You are absolutely wrong. Not sure where you are getting this idea from. These camps are concentration camps that are managed by the military. We need monitoring missions. Noone should trust the SL government and especially not the SL army.
There are insider reports describing acts ranging from slavery, rape to forced abortion for Tamil women. The government is mentioning that they would keep refugees there for 3, 5 and even 10 years. I will tell you why. Why? If it is demining then the international community should focus sending money to aid the demining projects instead of aid to these concentration camps. This aid is just freeing up more and more money for SL to buy arms and kill more and fill up these camps with more Tamils . Children who grow up in these camps (if they survive that is) will not develop like ordinary kids. Parents are killed in the war and a dependancy on handouts. No employment, no permission to leave the camps or receive visitors. Imagine the mental state the people in these camps are in. Meanwhile the SL government will go on resettling Singhalese thugs into the Tamil areas who will ensure that any Tamils if they ever get to live in their homes again are kept quite and under control. To many this may sound unbelievable but Tamils who lived there in the 80s and 90s will nto what I am talkign about. This is the strategy that the SL government has been following. Also diluting the Tamil population in the East will give them an added advantage when it comes to elections. As if that is even required since we are not really represented in parliament by a fair number!
Please think before judging...extend your horizons a little at least

Dear Keith,
I am very glad to read that you have visited Sri Lanka and the refugee camps there. However the content of your last post is by all means very deceptive to the average reader. You have portrayed some theories that are part of the Sri Lankan propaganda as the ultimate truth. Your personal interpretation of the situation in Sri Lanka is definitely far from reality.

The first paragraph itself is ridiculous. It is an absurd statement that you did not see a single man in the refugee camps!!!!! The military very often separates women and children from men. You must have certainly entered the area for female refugees. Also you should realize that there are 3 zones currently. The war zone, the so called ‘rehabilitation’ zone containing the camps and the SCREENING ZONE. Noone knows what is going on in this particular ‘screening’ zone. There have been no reports and no one is permitted in there.

We Tamils know how the SL militiary handles Tamil people especially young Tamil men since we have experienced it first hand. Any able bodied Tamil man is a threat to them, potentially a fighter or a future fighter for the Tamil Tigers. Even Tamil men in southern Sri Lanka get taken for questioning by the police or the intelligence agency and never return. You think the army is going to let go of such a great opportunity to do away with Tamil men during this war where they are not being questioned for any of their actions?

Those ‘credible, independent reports’ that you are mentioning are all prepared interviewing refugees inside the camps run by the SL military. Even people living in their homes in Southern Sri Lanka fear to speak out dreading the actions of the government’s para military forces. You really believe that you will obtain reliable information from people caught up in the camps dependent on the hand outs from the military? Be realistic!

Why do you think the Sri Lankan government is not permitting media and aid agencies into the war zones? What do they have to hide? Why is the media not allowed to talk to any of the refugees freely? Those few that are permitted to interview need to be accompanied by Sl soldiers. Why?

Human shields, forced recruitment, child soldiers – they ARE creations of government propaganda!!!!

The Sri Lankan government’s thank you note to the Maori party in NZ is just a great example of how they continuously work towards distracting the world of the Tamil’s legitimate right for self-determination. It is a cheap and laughable attempt.

Over 30 years of oppression and discrimination has to come to an end. A peaceful united Sri Lanka is a dream that will never become true. Successive Sri Lankan government have not kept their promises to the minority Tamil people. Numerous riots have shown the attitude of an average Sinhala person. My own family was outed by Singhala people that they thought were their friends 1983. Women were raped and children killed. Amnesty International and other entities such as the New York based Genocide Prevention project have stated that Sri Lanka is carrying out genocidal acts against the Tamil race.

After all this, you expect the Tamils would opt to be governed by the same government that has been marginalizing and trying to wipe them out for the past 30 years? The 2006 peace process is an example that the Sri Lankan government would never want to give the Tamils any equal rights. Just as we thought the Tamils were actually getting somewhere the SL government backed out of it and opted for war.

Yes, there is no single placard asking the tigers to let the civilians go since we Tamils know them better than anyone else in this world. They are our family, our brothers and sisters who are fighting for us, for our rights. We are not going to be deceived by the Sri Lankan government the same way as the international community is.
A ceasefire will save our kith and kin that are dying. The government has been stating for months that there are only a few hundred LTTE fighters left. Yet they have killed almost 7000 Tamil civilians during this period. Is this a fair price to pay for a few hundred Tamil Tigers? Would they continue this attack if these civilians were Sinhalese? I tell you they wouldn't! There would be an uproar all over Sri Lanka. But afterall these are just Tamil lives so the rest of the country is happy to watch this killing spree continue.

We the Tamil diaspora are the only voice for those who are suffering in Vanni. The Tamils in southern Sri Lanka are restricted since they have to safeguards their own lives. Even here in New Zealand you will see Singhala people showing up to protests with cameras zooming in on all attendees. I assume they are trying to come across as a threat. It is laughable really. We will continue to do everything in our power to end this war . What we need is the commitment from the Sri Lankan government to negotiate with the Tamils and come to an agreement that will result in a political solution instead of an artificially created united Sri Lanka. They themselves know that if that is the way there will never be peace and most importantly no dignity for the Tamils.