Human Rights Watch slammed Sri Lanka's government Tuesday for the pace at which it is releasing 270,000 war displaced people being detained in government-run camps.
The government earlier this year said it would release 80 percent of those being held by the end of the year, but later halved that number and said all would be released by the end of January.
Those being held are minority Tamils who were forced into the camps after fleeing the final months of the government's decades-long war with the Tamil Tiger rebels earlier this year. Rights groups have repeatedly condemned the detention as an illegal form of collective punishment and excuse for keeping Tamils locked up.
The international community has also called on the government to speed up the release.
The government says it is trying to release some of the civilians, but the process is slow because they need to be screened for rebel ties and mines have to be removed from their villages in the former battle zone.
"It is well past time to release civilians detained in the camps," Brad Adams, New-York based Human Rights Watch's Asia director, said in a statement Tuesday. "Sri Lanka's international friends should tell the government that they will not accept any more broken promises."
The military-run camps are overcrowded and sanitation is poor. Rights groups fear conditions will become dire when monsoon rains start in the coming weeks.
Resettlement Minister Rishard Badurdeen said the government has expedited the process and more than 30,000 people have already been sent home.
"We can't take a risk by sending people to their villages which are full of land mines," he said, adding that the government was speeding up the demining process as well.
He said 58,000 people will be resettled by the end of October and more than 100,000 by the end of the year.
President Mahinda Rajapaksa last month promised the United Nations that all displaced people would be returned home by the end of January.
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