Four-stage resettlement on way

The process of resettlement and rehabilitation of civilians fleeing the LTTE areas will focus towards making their emotional, social and economic positions more secure with a four-stage plan to ensure that they were resettled in their original villages and towns at least by April this year, Senior Presidential Advisor and parliamentarian Basil Rajapaksa said when he briefed the Secretaries of Ministries, on Thursday (12).

Seeking the cooperation of the Secretaries in providing facilities to the large number of civilians who had come to the government administered areas of the north, Rajapaksa said along with initial security and health screening they are provided with an energy pack to revive them after their exhaustive and risky journey to freedom from the LTTE. They will be provided with a hot meal and snacks on the first day or two. Thereafter they will be transported to transit camps in Vavunia to be housed in schools and other centres. The IOM and UNHCR will be providing more shelters.

Further security checks will be made while the health screening will be conducted by the Health Ministry personnel with supplementary nutrition provided by persons needing it. Full food requirement will be provided for these people.

These were temporary measures and well equipped villages are being constructed in the Menik Farm and (also in Mannar) under a directive of President Mahinda Rajapaksa who had a first hand knowledge of disaster relief when he visited the affected communities in China after the devastating earthquake in that country.

The villages will have schooling, bank and postal facilities with international as well as community centres for the benefit of the civilians who had fled the LTTE terror, Basil Rajapaksa said.

With the experience gained in the Eastern Province the Army will be starting the de-mining operations in the north but the task would be more difficult as the area had been under the control of the LTTE over a long period and the terrorist group had indiscriminately mined many areas and as in the east UN certification of safety will be sought before these civilians are resettled in their own villages and towns, he noted,

The government had already begun planning and negotiations for the rehabilitation of the infrastructure of the north with a project aimed at building a second road through the A32 highway with a bridge at Pooneryn to link the Jaffna peninsula with the south. Providing electricity, roads and other community facilities and rehabilitation of irrigation reservoirs and canals had already begun in some areas of the north but these areas had been reduced to empty shells by the terrorists over the years, he noted.

The process of resettlement of the civilians in their own areas would take place within two months but there would be some pockets where rehabilitation would be difficult so soon as the experience of the east had shown. But all efforts towards resettlement of the majority of the displaced civilians including those that had been displaced on earlier occasions by terrorist activities will be made even while a small number may take over a year to be resettled due to practical difficulties, he said.