"Free movement of IDPs after all LTTE cadres apprehended"

by P. Krishnaswamy

There is reliable information that LTTE cadres have infiltrated refugee welfare centres and as such, the Government has to take utmost care in permitting even the limited freedom of movement of the IDPs until these elements were identified and apprehended under the ongoing screening process, said Disaster Management and Human Rights Minister Mahinda Samarasinghe on Friday at the Hotel Taj Samudra. Over fifty percent of the 270,000 IDPs have already been registered and the rest will be registered and screened. The Government cannot take any chance given the LTTE propensity to cause maximum carnage among the civilian population by launching terrorist acts, he said.

Minister Samarasinghe was delivering the keynote address after inaugurating the two-day seminar on "Winning the War to Winning Peace: Postwar Rebuilding of Society", jointly organised by the Regional Centre for Strategic Studies (RCSS) and the Centre for Security Analysis (CSA),Chennai.

The issue of the freedom of movement of IDPs was currently before the Supreme Court, he said adding that the Government bears a responsibility to the rest of the people of Sri Lanka to care for their safety. This decision was taken after careful scrutiny of the rights of the IDPs and the rest of the population.

"The Government's ultimate goal is the return of the IDPs to the areas in which they originally resided. The process requires ensuring that these areas must be cleared of the vast caches of weapons that our forces are recovering everyday. To facilitate this process, basic infrastructure must be put in place which will sustain the restored communities. Economic life must be restarted. A return of traditional livelihoods must be ensured. Income generating activities from small and medium industry, services, agriculture and fisheries must be recommenced. If people of the conflict areas are to face the future with any degree of confidence, public facilities and institutional edifices providing essential services must be made available on par with those in the rest of country. It is also necessary to empower them to take charge of their own lives and not be continuously dependent on humanitarian assistance and relief.

"My ministry has with the assistance of the Sri Lankan representation of the UNHCR put in place a strategy of Confidence Building and Stabilization Measures which will sustain and help the resettlement process by building capacities and confidence among the key actors in the resettlement process - IDPs, government officials, security forces and host communities in areas of return.

"Another major post conflict challenge is the reintergration of ex-combatants into civilian life.

In support of the Wadakkin Wasantham initiative and the attempts at normalization and reconciliation launched by President Mahinda Rajapaksa, my Ministry has, after wide consultation, recently completed a national framework proposal on reintergration of ex-combatants into civilian life" he said.