The 22 October 1996 UTHR Bulletin entitled The Vanni: A People Crushed Between Cycles of Violence, refers to Veppankulam camp at which those travelling from the North to Colombo stay until their identity has been cleared.

A mid-November 1996 article in the Colombo-weekly newspaper The Sunday Times refers to the Veppankulam Welfare Centre (10 Nov. 1996).

According to a mid-April 1997 Weekend Express article, the town of Vavuniya had in April 1997 eleven "Transit Welfare Camps": Veppankulam B, Vappankulam A, Good Shed Camp, CE Poonthoddam, Poonthoddam GTMS, Poonthodam (Muslim M.V.), Saivapragasa (New Bldg), Navalkulam (New Bldg), Tamil M.V. (New Bldgs), Poonthoddam 11 (C.C.T.M.), and Velikulam M.V. (19-20 Apr. 1997). Please note that the Weekend Express article spelled the camp names (Veppankulam B, Vappankulam A). differently. The populations at these 11 camps were referred to as "floating population" and not as refugees in the conventional sense of the word (ibid.). The article also reported that the food and shelter needs of the "inmates" of these 11 Transit camps "appear ... to be met," but the inmates were not given 4-hour passes to leave the camps for the town, nor were ICRC or UNHCR permitted to "engage in relief activities" within the camps (ibid.).

More recent information on Veppankulam Camp in Vavuniya could not be found among the sources consulted by the Research Directorate.

This Response was prepared after researching publicly accessible information currently available to the Research Directorate within time constraints. This Response is not, and does not purport to be, conclusive as to the merit of any particular claim to refugee status or asylum. Please find below the list of additional sources consulted in researching this Information Request.

The Sunday Times [Colombo]. 10 November 1996. "5,375 Displaced Sent Home from Vavuniya." [Internet] http://walawe.stanford.edu/suntimes [Accessed 6 Oct. 1998]
UTHR. 22 October 1996.

The Vanni: A People Crushed Between Cycles of Violence.

Weekend Express. 19-20 April 1997. "The Troubled Landscape of Vavuniya-A Survey." [Internet] http://www.is.lk [Accessed 6 Oct. 1998]

Consortium of Humanitarian Agencies (CHA), Colombo. CHA Newsletter. Bi-monthly. July/August 1997-March/April 1998.

Country Reports on Human Rights Practices. Yearly. 1997, 1998.

Sri Lanka Monitor [London]. Monthly. April-September 1997, June-July 1998.

Tamil Centre for Human Rights,(Garges les Gonesse, France. 1998. Appeal to the 54th UN Commission on Human Rights, Geneva: The Situation Report. (WWW)

Electronic sources: Internet, IRB Databases, REFWORLD.

Non-documentary Sources: Unsuccessful attempts to contact two oral sources.