"In utter despair I am writing this appeal to you to convince you that your intervention at this stage is indispensable, if the country is to maintain its dignity and honour," said Tamil United Liberation Front (TULF) President V Anandasangaree in a letter to Rajapaksa.
"The country's credibility lies in your decision to order the immediate release of certain categories of Internally Displaced Persons and to follow it up soon by re-viewing the problem of the remaining IDPs," he said.
"At present, they are virtually kept under compulsion without any justification, giving them the feeling that they are kept in an open prison with too many restrictions and not in a welfare centre," Anandasangaree wrote in the letter.
The TULF President, a strong critic of the LTTE, urged Rajapaksa to visit some of the camps to assess the situation.
"I am acting on the assumption that many happenings in the IDP Camps are not brought to your notice. Seeing is believing and a visit to some of the IDP Camps by you is long over due," he said.
Published 12 July 2009, 08:06 IST