"Free movement of IDPs after all LTTE cadres apprehended"

There is reliable information that LTTE cadres have infiltrated refugee welfare centres and as such, the Government has to take utmost care in permitting even the limited freedom of movement of the IDPs until these elements were identified and apprehended under the ongoing screening process, said Disaster Management and Human Rights Minister Mahinda Samarasinghe on Friday at the Hotel Taj Samudra. Over fifty percent of the 270,000 IDPs have already been registered and the rest will be registered and screened. The Government cannot take any chance given the LTTE propensity to cause maximum carnage among the civilian population by launching terrorist acts, he said.

Minister Samarasinghe was delivering the keynote address after inaugurating the two-day seminar on "Winning the War to Winning Peace: Postwar Rebuilding of Society", jointly organised by the Regional Centre for Strategic Studies (RCSS) and the Centre for Security Analysis (CSA),Chennai.

The issue of the freedom of movement of IDPs was currently before the Supreme Court, he said adding that the Government bears a responsibility to the rest of the people of Sri Lanka to care for their safety. This decision was taken after careful scrutiny of the rights of the IDPs and the rest of the population. Read more ...