President announced capturing Sampur at an SLFP conference

Defence Affairs spokesman, Minister Keheliya Rambukwella, told the BBC that he did a mistake on Sunday when he said HSZ yet to be established.

"I was not communicated with the details when I was in Geneva," he told BBC Tamil Service.

President Mahinda Rajapaksa has signed a special Gazette notification HSZs in Muttur (east) and Sampur on 30 May.

Special Gazette notification

The LTTE-controlled areas were captured by Sri Lanka military, last year.

Sri Lanka government signed agreements to establish Coal Power Plants in the area in December, 2006.

HSZs in Sampur and Muttur East : From a line drawn along the Eastern Coast of Sri Lanka joining the villages of Foul Point, Illankanthai, Kalladichanei and Uppural ; South : From a line drawn joining the villages of Uppural, Selvanagar, Thoppur and Pachchanoor ; West : From a line drawn along the Western Bank of the Kaddaparichchan Aru, joining the villages of Pachchanoor, Kaddaparichchan South, Muttur and the Kaddaparichchan Aru Estuary ; North : From a line drawn along the the Southern Beach of Koddiyar Bay, joining Kaddaparichchan Aru Estuary with the villages of Sampoor, shell Bay and Foul Point

The boundaries of the HSZs are as follows according to the government Gazette notification:

Residents in the areas have strongly protested government plans to establish HSZs in their ancestral lands.

"Now they say they have clered the areas from LTTE. So , those left should be civilians. Why don't they allow us to resettle now," a refugee from Sampur questioned.

Asked whether civilians will ever be allowed into the HSZs, minister Rambukwella said the government is still finalising their plans.

"As there some concerns, the modalities have not been decided yet," Keheliya Rambukwella said.