Human rights lawyers said another 10,000 are being held in hotels, universities and sports stadiums now being used as makeshift internment camps. Under state of emergency regulations in effect since June, suspects can be held indefinitely. The dead are victims of a spiralling duet of death. Human rights workers believe the government is pursuing an unofficial policy to eliminate an estimated 4,000 hard-core JVP members before the middle of the month. Last week Sri Lankan president Ranasinghe Premadasa announced he would hold a peace conference on September 13 to end the crisis.
Analysts say the current military operation is intended to force the insurgents to the conference.
Deputy Minister of Defense Ranjan Wijeratne told the Parliament. The Government operation now underway works something like a cluster bomb. If the security forces arrest 50 suspects, they presume at least 10 are JVP members. Thus, according to this logic, if they kill 10 people, they re sure to have killed at least one JVP member. Opinions here differ about the campaign s effectiveness so far.