Lanka plans to house war refugees for 3 yrs

Sri Lankan troops declared a new safe zone for civilians Thursday as they battled to finish off the island's drawn-out ethnic conflict, the defence ministry said.
Concern has mounted for tens of thousands of non-combatants trapped in the war zone, with the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) saying hundreds of civilians have already been killed.
Men, women and children were asked to move to a 12-kilometre (7.5 mile) stretch of coastline as troops advanced on the remaining Tiger rebels, the ministry said.
The new safe zone meant that the government was scrapping a previous 35-square kilometre (13 square miles) designated no-fire area.
Sri Lanka is preparing to house 200,000 civil war refugees at five huge "welfare villages" complete with post offices, banks and libraries where it expects them to stay for up to three years, according to a government plan.
The draft plan, which the government has circulated among international aid groups and donors in recent days, surfaced as tens of thousands of civilians fled the northern battlefield where Tamil Tiger rebels and government forces have been waging heavy battles.
The government's preparations appear to lend support to Red Cross estimates last month that 250,000 civilians were trapped in the war zone. The government says the number is less than half that, giving a much less dire assessment of the potential humanitarian crisis.
Aid workers and Western diplomats have expressed concerns about the treatment of the ethnic Tamil civilians in the camps and are worried the proposed plan would keep the displaced from returning to their homes while the military spends years searching the jungles and villages for the last remnants of the Tamil rebels.
The rebels have been fighting since 1983 for an independent state in the north for minority Tamils marginalized for decades by governments dominated by the Sinhalese majority.