IDP villages:

Human Rights Minister refutes false propaganda

by Shanika SRIYANANDA

Human Rights Minister Mahinda Samarasinghe Friday told a media conference that certain media reports about IDP welfare villages in Vanni carry highly distorted facts about the Government’s resettlement process and the plans to provide facilities for the IDPs. “These are written with a deliberate intention to tarnish the good image of the country”, he said. Denying the claim that these villages are concentration camps, Minister Samarasinghe said that the international personnel too were working in IDP villages together with the GAs.

“They are far from concentration camps, they are open camps... they are places where we welcome our international partners to complement our efforts put on behalf of the people living in those areas”.

“Help desks will be set up in these IDP villages and people can go and speak to the counsellors there. They can give the details of the family members who are not with them and this is to facilitate them to find their family members who are living in other camps and villages”, he said.

Minister Samarasinghe also said that the IDPs would not be kept there for years but resettled in the shortest possible time following the international standards.

“There are lots of work to be done before a proper resettlement. De-mining is the first priority and then basic infrastructure facilities should be restored while carrying out resettlement with the concent of the people, he said.

Meanwhile, the Security Forces Commander of Vanni Maj. Gen. Jagath Jayasuriya told the Sunday Observer that those media reports are an attempt to give a negative picture of the resettlement plans of the government. “Though these civilians were held like prisoners under the LTTE, we will not do so at all”, he said. Referring to an article titled `Barbed Wire Villages Raise Fears of Refugee Concentration Camps’ published by the Times of London, he said that the responsibility of the Government is to provide maximum security for the IDPs who crossed over to liberated areas and also to the LTTE cadres who abandoned the LTTE.