Tens of thousands of Sri Lankan civilians held in state-run camps following the island's ethnic conflict were allowed to walk free Tuesday, ending their internationally-condemned detention.

Men, women and children were given their first opportunity to leave the northern Manik Farm complex since their incarceration over seven months ago.

But many of them, their homes and villages destroyed in the country's long ethnic war, were expected to continue living in the camps.

N. Thirugnanasampanther, the senior civil servant in the area, said that since the gates were thrown open, many people had already left. "Transport out of the camps is a problem, but people seem to be very happy," he said.

The United Nations had led international criticism of the camps, which it said were collective punishment for ethnic Tamils on whose behalf the Tiger guerrillas fought their 37-year-long guerrilla war.

Officials said over 100,000 out of about 130,000 still held in the camp complex 250 kilometres (160 miles) north of the capital Colombo left the camps on Tuesday, albeit temporarily for many of them.

"We have not received any assistance from the authorities to go and see our relatives, but this is better than being locked inside," one detainee, E. Thavamani, told local reporters as she waited for a bus.

There was a flood of requests to leave the camps and visit friends and relatives, but many people were held up due to a lack of transport and cash.

The camps held 280,000 people at their peak in May, when fierce fighting between government forces and Tamil Tiger rebels ended with the Tiger leadership being wiped out.

Screen for rebels

The government said the mass detention was needed to screen for rebels and because mines had to be cleared from their villages.

V. Pushpavathi, 38, said she had been given permission to leave her camp for a week, but was told that she would lose state aid for re-settlement if she did not return.

"I want to go back to my village in Kilinochchi (the former rebel political capital), but I don't have any money for the journey," she said.

"But I want to make use of this opportunity to go and visit some relatives who are living close by."

Under intense international pressure, the government has promised to close down all the camps by the end of January.

Some 11,000 people are still being held as rebel suspects and were not allowed out their detention camps, officials said.

Independent journalists were not allowed into the camps on Tuesday and the government maintained its ban on reporters based outside the region from travelling to the northern district of Vavuniya.

Journalists have been given guided tours in the past but only under strict military supervision.

The UN and international aid groups had criticised conditions inside the tightly guarded facilities, with three families often forced to share one small tent meant for six people.

Drinking water and toilets were scarce and many of the temporary shelters flooded when it rained, according to detainees and some local officials.

A few Tamils petitioned the Supreme Court and had their relatives freed from the camps, while cases filed by opposition politicians to lift a ban on their visiting the camps are still before the courts.

"We have started a new phase of our re-settlement programme from today," said G.A. Chandrasiri, the governor of Sri Lanka's Northern Province. "We have turned all the IDP (internally displaced people) camps into open camps."

Chandrasiri said people were free to leave and return at will, and would be given time to decide whether to return to their villages -- many of which were flattened in the fighting and are still surrounded by minefields.

The UN estimates that up to 100,000 people were killed in Sri Lanka's separatist conflict, which began in 1972 when the Tamil Tigers took up arms demanding an independent homeland for the island's ethnic Tamil minority.