Sri Lanka evicted hundreds of minority ethnic Tamils from the capital today and sent them back to the war-torn north after citing security concerns.
The move comes as the military battles Tamil Tiger rebels in the east. A military spokesman said fighting continued today, as Japan's special peace envoy visited camps for war-displaced families in the area.
In Colombo, police packed 376 Tamils deemed without valid reasons to be in the capital into buses, most of them headed towards the northern district of Vavuniya, the front line of the war.
The inspector-general of police for Colombo, said the ethnic Tamils were being sent back to their villages for their own safety. There have been a series of abductions blamed on state security services and Tamil Tiger rebels.
Police also want to stop insurgents infiltrating the capital.
Officials said most of those evicted would cross over into Tamil Tiger-held territory and that the Tigers had agreed to let them cross defence lines.
Parliament was suspended for nearly two hours as Tamil and minority parties protested, while analysts condemned the eviction as a violation of human rights, with one likening it to a form of ethnic cleansing.
The move comes after a series of suspected Tamil Tiger bomb attacks in the capital in recent months as a conflict that has killed nearly 70,000 people since 1983 deepens.