Material for Office SAKAMOTO in JP

Sri Lankan PM regrets Tamil expulsions
By BHARATHA MALLAWARACHI -- Associated Press Writer
(Updated Sunday, June 10, 2007, 11:26 AM)

COLOMBO, Sri Lanka (AP) The government will take full responsibility for the expulsion of hundreds of ethnic minority Tamils from Sri Lanka's capital, the prime minister said Sunday, promising it would not happen again.

The expulsion of 376 Tamils was initially described as a security precaution amid a worsening ethnic conflict that has claimed more than 5,000 lives in 19 months, but it was roundly condemned by rights groups and donors, as well as the United States.

The government returned 186 of those expelled to Colombo and others chose to return to their hometowns, police said.

"I express regret regarding the shifting of people from here to various other places," Prime Minister Ratnasiri Wickramanayake said at a news conference in Colombo. "That should have never been done."

"The government accepts responsibility," he said, adding that it will not happen again.

On Friday, the Supreme Court ordered an end to the expulsions and President Mahinda Rajapakse called for an inquiry into the matter.

About a quarter of Colombo's 800,000 residents are Tamils, and about another 200,000 - including those expelled - are temporary residents.

Tamil rebels have been fighting since 1983 for a separate homeland for Sri Lanka's 3.1 million minority Tamils away from the capital in the north and east, following decades of discrimination by successive Sinhalese-majority governments. The armed conflict has killed about 70,000 people.

Wickramanayake said Sunday all citizens had the constitutional right to live anywhere in Sri Lanka without threat or intimidation.

Violence has spiked in the Indian Ocean island in recent months, despite a 2002 cease-fire and multiple attempts by European and Japanese envoys to persuade the government and separatist Tamil rebels to return to peace talks.