Court halts expulsion of Tamils

Human rights groups have condemned the evictions

Sri Lanka's Supreme Court has ordered the authorities to immediately halt any further evictions of minority Tamils from the capital, Colombo.

Hundreds of Tamils were expelled from the city on Thursday by the government.

They have arrived in a town close to the front line that divides government and Tamil Tiger rebel-held territory.

A defence ministry spokesman said nearly 400 Tamils were expelled because they were part of a plot by rebels to set off bombs in Colombo.

The police have offered no evidence against any of the evicted Tamils.

Later on Friday, President Mahinda Rajapakse ordered the country's top police officer to explain why the Tamils had been forced out of the capital.

Mr Rajapakse's office said he was prepared to take disciplinary action against any government official found to have exceeded their authority.

'Ethnic cleansing'

The Supreme Court's interim order came after a non-governmental organisation Centre for Policy Alternatives filed a complaint that the police action was a violation of fundamental rights.

"The court will hear the case on 22 June and in the meantime, the police inspector general has been restrained from carrying out any evictions of Tamils," news agency AFP quoted a court official as saying.

Human rights group The Free Media Movement in Sri Lanka has condemned the expulsions saying they are tantamount to ethnic cleansing.

Police said that Tamils who were in the capital "without valid reasons" were made to board buses bound for the north and east of the island on Thursday.

The police said the crackdown was part of continuing efforts to stop the Tamil Tigers infiltrating the capital city of 600,000 people.

The government says the move is necessary for the safety of Tamils

They also said the measure was being taken for the safety of the Tamil community amid a rash of abductions across Colombo blamed on the rebels and the security forces.

A statement released by the government said that the evictions were made "without communal considerations".

The Tamil Tigers have so far not commented on the evictions, but mainstream Tamil political leaders have condemned it.

"This operation is a very bad example," Tamil political leader Dharmalingam Sithadthan told the AFP news agency.

Many ethnic Tamils complain they have been deliberately targeted by the security forces, detained and searched.