A government spokesman says Sri Lanka has sent nearly 10,000 war refugees back to their homes from government-run camps. Spokesman Senaka Ubesinghe says 9,920 displaced civilians have been taken home by bus to their villages in eastern and northern Sri Lanka Friday. The displaced are ethnic minority Tamil civilians who fled fighting during the final phase of a military offensive that ended the island's decades-old civil war in May. Since then nearly 300,000 people have been detained in military-run camps in the north. Authorities have so far resettled about 19,000 displaced people and the government has come under growing international pressure to release the rest.
