Resettling 70% of IDPs, Govt’s initial target

by Dhaneshi YATAWARA

The initial target of the Government is to resettle at least 70 percent of the Internally Displaced Persons (IDPs) within 180 days, President Mahinda Rajapaksa told the UN Under Secretary General for Political Affairs Lynn Pascoe during their meeting last week.

The President said that the resettlement of the IDPs depends totally on the de-mining process.

The President said that even sixteen years after its war, Croatia had still not completed the de-mining. “We do not intend to take so much time,” the President said. During the meeting with the UN Under Secretary the President said that he expects the entire resettlement process to be completed by the end of next January.

“A terrorist group lays mines indiscriminately and at a time when terrorism has been eliminated no one is there to show the master plan to carry out our de-mining process.

Thus it is a complicated and serious issue,” a senior official of the Presidential Secretariat said highlighting the assistance the Croatian Government is extending. Of the ten new de-mining machines five are from Croatia.

“The new Croatian Ambassador Dr. Boris Velic had told President Rajapaksa that Croatia had gained wide experience in de-mining after sixteen years,” he said.

The Government’s concern is to let these people live safely and not resettle them just for the sake of it. Mines would injure any person, be it a child or an elder. These people should never be victims of terrorism again,” the official said. “Showing high numbers in resettlement does not indicate its success,” he said.