MADRAS, India, Sept 26 (AFP) - The Indian head of mission of the UN refugee agency Sunday said conditions were not conducive for Tamil refugees to return to their homes in strife-torn Sri Lanka.
Lennart Kotsalainen, while speaking at a seminar in southern Madras city, added that much also depended on the peace process in the island.
"It is anybody’s guess how slow or quick the peace process will be," he said.
There are an estimated 150,000 Sri Lankan Tamil refugees in India — about 66,000 of them in different camps run by the Tamil Nadu state government, while the rest are on their own.
The refugees fled to India over years of fighting between Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE) rebels and the Sri Lankan security forces.
The LTTE suspended peace talks with Sri Lankan authorities in April 2003 but a ceasefire continues.
Kotsalainen said with its "limited contact" with the refugees, the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) had been able to help repatriate about 2,500 refugees since mid-2002, though some 12,000 had managed to make their own way home.
While a majority of them were prepared to return home only if conditions improved, "even now with the unsettled nature, there is a minority of refugees ready to go back," Kotsalainen said.
