EC confirms no food shortage in IDP camps

by Shanika Sriyananda

The European Commission (EC), which commended the good cooperation between the government and the humanitarian agencies in handling relief programs, emphasised the need of providing more protection to IDP camps and avoiding 'forceful' resettlements.

"There is no food shortage in Vakarai now. Temporary shelters and other basic necessities have been provided by the government with the cooperation of the international humanitarian agencies. Humanitarian work is going on smoothly in Vakarai", the Head of the EC Humanitarian Aid Department (ECHO) David Verboom said.

According to Verboom, the EC's two major concerns are providing further protection for IDPs in refugee camps and stop resettling the displaced people without their consent.

"We have reports that some factions, including the Karuna faction, searching LTTE cadres in IDP camps. They suspect that LTTE cadres have entered government controlled areas with the IDPs. But our concern is that these camps should be safe places with no killings, no guns and no harassments", he added.

Verboom told the Sunday Observer that the EC hoped that these IDPs would not be resettled in an adhoc manner without listening to them. According to the EC, there are over 40,000 displaced persons in Vakarai.

"It is important to launch resettlement programs according to their choice.

These people do not want to go back to the conflict areas as they fear living there", he said adding that forceful resettlements are not happening in a big way in Vakarai but need to design the resettlement programs to give priority to IDPs to select the environment that they wish to live.

He said that the 'Go and see' visits which, take the community leaders to the areas which were selected to resettle the IDPs, would be an ideal concept for a proper resettlement program. "The same concept applied in Mutur will be the right approach that would help the IDPs to select safer places of their choice to live", he said.