International   

Ban welcomes resettlement move

COLOMBO: U.N. Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon on Sunday welcomed the decision of the Sri Lankan government to allow greater freedom of movement to Sri Lankans sheltered in makeshift camps in the north of the country. Sri Lanka’s President Mahinda Rajapaksa had on Saturday directed the authorities concerned to complete the resettlement of war-displaced Tamil civilians by January 31.

On Saturday, senior advisor the President Basil Rajapaksa declared at a relief camp in Vavuniya that the government had made all the necessary arrangements to complete the resettlement by January 31.

He also said the restrictions imposed on the civilians in the IDP centres would be lifted on December 1 to enable them to move freely to any part of the region. Meanwhile, the government, in a statement, said it had dispatched equipment and machinery worth over Rs.2,200 million for the welfare and livelihood activities of resettled civilians since the resettlement process commenced this year.

The government has already resettled over 1,00,000 IDPs who had taken shelter in welfare camps in the Northern and Eastern provinces.

Human Rights and Disaster Management Minister Mahinda Samarasinghe had said on Friday said the number of IDPs remaining in welfare centres and hospitals in Vavuniya, Jaffna, Mannar, Trincomalee had come down to 1,36, 328 from nearly 2.8 lakh.

A statement by U.N. office said here that Mr. Ban encouraged Sri Lankan authorities to prioritise the return home of the remaining people. He also urged the government to continue working with the United Nations and its humanitarian partners to improve assistance programmes which support the return of IDPs and to ensure that best possible services were provided to those who go home.

Printer friendly page  
Send this article to Friends by E-Mail

Stories in this Section

Iran threatens unilateral action
29 dead in Indonesia ferry accident
Ban welcomes resettlement move
Death toll in coal mine blast rises to 92
China’s deadly mine accidents
Sikh to become first non-white BNP member
Another Lashkar suspect held in Dhaka

Copyright © 2009, The Hindu. Republication or redissemination of the contents of this screen are expressly prohibited without the written consent of The Hindu