This morning the Sri Lankan government began letting thousands of refugees leave the camps where they’ve been held since the country’s 25-year war with the Tamil Tigers ended last May. According to news reports the government said the Tamil civilians who had been held in the camps would be allowed free movement but would be required to register with local authorities. Some 300,000 people had been displaced by the war.

Jesse Hardman was a reporter here at WBEZ. He’s also been Worldview’s World Cup Commentator for the past two years, and writes the blog Put Me in the Game. Most recently he spent a year doing media training in Sri Lanka, working with local reporters on a project to improve access to information for people who’d been displaced by the war. His group of reporters produced a daily radio show called Lifeline. In order to gather material for the program, they went to the areas where those who’d been displaced by the war were living. Jesse talks to us about what the mood was like in the country when the civil war ended.