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.
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