By Walter Jayawardhana

Malcom Bruce , Liberal Democratic member of the delegation of British parliamentarians who visited the Sri Lankan IDP camps , on his return praised the Sri Lankan government for doing an extremely good job under pressure to shelter 135,000 Tamil civilians who escaped areas held by the terrorists and called the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE) a group of terrorists who killed their own people.

Interviewed by Edward Strouton for BBC’s Today (Radio 4) Bruce who has been the Chair of the International Development Select Committee since 2005 in the House of Commons said, “We have got credible evidence that the civilians were threatened and shot at ” by the terrorists of the LTTE not to leave the war ravaged area that prevented them from leaving since they were with children.

When Strouton asked why he was referring to “Tamil Tiger rebels” in a “loaded” statement as ƒÆ’‚¢ƒ¢-¡‚¬ƒ”¹…”terrorists’ the experienced parliamentarian to indicate they are terrorists in deed said they have killed Tamil politicians in and out of the government and they have got credible evidence the LTTE have threatened and shot at civilians preventing them from escaping until the Sri Lanka Army assisted them to escape.

The only concern about the camps were that the authorities did not get down UN agencies fast enough to assist the camps and help themselves.

He said one cannot blame Sri Lanka for trying to get rid of terrorism from the country as “until you rid terrorism you cannot build a united Sri Lanka.”

Malcom Bruce said they got the opportunity of visiting the Northern IDP camps of where the Sri Lankan government was trying to accommodate a sudden inflow of 135,000 civilians escaping from the areas held by the terrorists. He said an unknown number between 10,000 and 100,000 are still trapped in between the security forces and the LTTE as hostages. The Sri Lankan security forces are trying to find ways of taking the terrorists with the least collateral damage to the civilians, he said.