The government will take full responsibility for the expulsion of hundreds of ethnic minority Tamils from Sri Lanka’s capital, the Prime Minister said on Sunday, after rights groups and donors warned the move would heighten tensions in the war-torn nation.

“I express regret regarding the shifting of people from here to various other places,” Prime Minister Ratnasiri Wickramanayake said at a news conference in Colombo. “That should have never been done.”

“The government accepts responsibility,” he said, adding that it will not happen again.

Last week, government forces rounded up 376 Tamils who they described as temporary residents in Colombo, and sent them home to the north and east as a security precaution amid a worsening ethnic conflict that has claimed more than 5,000 lives in 19 months.

The US government, human rights groups, opposition lawmakers and peace-broker Norway roundly condemned the expulsions, calling them divisive and likely to make matters worse.

On Friday, the Supreme Court ordered an end to the expulsions and President Mahinda Rajapakse called for an inquiry into the matter.

Authorities then transported 186 of them back to Colombo, while the others elected to return to their hometowns, said Rohan Abeywardana, a senior police official.

Wickramanayake said on Sunday all citizens had the constitutional right to live anywhere in Sri Lanka without threat or intimidation.

Asked what disciplinary action the government would take in the matter, he declined to speculate.