Source: www.google.com
COLOMBO, SRI LANKA, August 27, 2009: Sri Lanka on Wednesday freed nearly 600 Hindu and Catholic priests who were held in internment camps with ethnic Tamils displaced by fighting between troops and separatist rebels, officials said.
The clergy were allowed to leave the camps in the northern district of Vavuniya, where 300,000 inmates are detained under tight security to be screened for remaining Tamil Tiger rebels.
“We are taking measures to free the remaining members of the clergy at the earliest,” said P.S. Charles, the senior civil servant in the area.
A total of 571 Hindu priests, six Catholic priests and two nuns were allowed out, she said, adding another 220 were still in the camps.