Showing posts with label resettlement. Show all posts
Showing posts with label resettlement. Show all posts

Monday, September 14, 2009

Resettlement of IDPs: West of A9 first 14,000 acres ready to receive civilians by end Oct. Camp population down to 237,000 by end of this week

The government is planning to resettle as many internally displaced persons as possible in the area west of the A9 before tackling resettlement in the Vanni east. The army is of the opinion that all its efforts should be directed at clearing the western part of the Vanni in keeping with the original plan, though some have called for simultaneous resettlement of the displaced on both sides of the A9.

Northern Province Governor Major General (retd) G. A. Chandrasiri yesterday said that the army and five demining agencies had been engaged in mine clearing operations in the Yodawewa area.

In a brief interview with The Island, the former Jaffna Security Forces Commander said the recent deployment of ten mine clearing machines bought from Slovakia and Croatia would help them clear the area (approximately 7,000 acres) north of Yodawewa by the third week of October. Read more ...

Haphazard resettlement will endanger IDPs’ lives -- Keheliya

President Mahinda Rajapaksa was not ready to go by the agendas set by foreigners regarding the resettlement of IDPs, Foreign Employment Promotion and Welfare Minister and State Defence Spokesman Dr. Keheliya Rambukwella told the media in Kandy yesterday (13).

The minister said he granted that there were difficulties besetting IDPs in their temporary shelters but everything possible was being done to make their stay comfortable and to resettle them speedily. He said Sri Lanka could do without unsolicited advice from foreigners in carrying out those tasks for her own people. Read more ...

Sunday, September 13, 2009

More than 2,000 apply to take in IDP relatives

Vavuniya and Jaffna District Secretariats have received more than 2,000 applications from the relatives of the IDPs, after the Resettlement and Disaster Relief Services Ministry informed the general public that the relatives of the IDPs can apply for the release of those residing in camps.

“Many people have been handing forms over to us since September 10 and so far we have received approximately 1,000 applications,” said Vavuniya District Additional Government Agent T. Sampanthan. “These applications are readily available outside the District Secretariat office and in shops. Also, relatives can prepare them even at home,” he added.

Sampanthan said that they will hand over the applications to the security forces, with their observations and recommendations as soon as possible. He could not give a timeline as to when these IDPs can be reunited with their relatives, since a thorough background check has to be carried out first. “After we look at the applications, we do background research and hand over the applications to the Security Forces Headquarters, Vavuniya with our remarks and the security establishment will take the final decision,” he said. Meanwhile, an official of the Jaffna District Secretariat told The Nation that they have also received around 1,000 applications: “There is a lot of enthusiasm about this,” he said. Read more ...

Thursday, September 10, 2009

SRI LANKA: Government to release IDPs to relatives

Internally displaced persons (IDPs) in camps in Sri Lanka’s north will be released to their relatives, and the government expects the majority to be resettled by early next year, says a minister.

Sri Lanka’s Minister of Resettlement and Disaster Relief Services, Rishad Bathiudeen, told IRIN on 10 September that President Mahinda Rajapaksa had made the decision to allow the IDPs to live with their relatives, with effect from this week.

Bathiudeen said the government could not say how many people would be released, but that it would consider all applications from relatives outside the camps.

“If the application comes, we will attend to it,” said Bathiudeen. Read more ..

Official Government Announcement

Monday, August 31, 2009

Northern rehabilitation moves fast

Thirty-five to forty percent of the 180 day 'Wadakkin Wasantham' (Northern Spring) resettlement and rehabilitation program spearheaded under the leadership of senior Presidential Advisor Basil Rajapaksa MP has been completed, with 35 villages in Vavuniya now ready to receive IDPs for resettlement, Vavuniya GA Ms.P.S.M.Charles told the Sunday Observer. Statements relating to 100,000 prospective resettlers among the IDPs have already been forwarded to the security forces and the respective GAs for their confirmation and the resettlement process will begin immediately on receipt of the confirmations, she said.

Under the 'Wadakkin Wasantham' program IDPs will be resettled in Vavuniya, Jaffna, Mannar, Batticaloa and Trincomalee areas, she said.

IDPs belonging to the Kilinochchi and Mullaitivu districts would not be resettled immediately for reasons of their own security, she said. Read more ...

Thursday, August 27, 2009

Govt.’s delay to resettle IDPs politically motivated – Mano

The President of Parliamentarians For Human Rights, Mano Ganeshan yesterday said that the secret behind the Government not resettling the IDPs was to make use of their 175,000 or more votes to the Governments advantage at any forthcoming Presidential or Parliamentary elections.

The Leader of the Democratic Peoples Front (DPF) made this assertion at a briefing of local and foreign media on the "Other side of the story of Internally Displaced Persons in Sri Lanka", at Hotel Nippon in Colombo yesterday.

"The IDP camps in the North are symbols of shame and a disgrace to our proud Sri Lankan history". Nowhere in the world could one witness or hear of internally displaced people being put behind barbed wire in camps. This does not happen in Gaza, Palestine, Afghanistan or Iraq, but only in the country where major religions as Islam, Christianity, Buddhism and Hinduism are followed and preached. Read more ...

Tuesday, August 25, 2009

Govt. to resettle 5,864 IDP families before August 31

The Government has decided to resettle 5,864 IDP families who had fled their villages in Sampathnuwara in Mullaitivu due to LTTE threats, before August 31, Presidential Secretariat sources said.

Minister of Nation Building, Susantha Punchinilame said that following President Mahinda Rajapaksa’s directive that there should be no delay in resettling the IDPs, the process is now being handled within the 180-day Uthuru Vasanthaya program.

A meeting chaired by senior Presidential Advisor and Head of Presidential Task Force Basil Rajapaksa, MP, was held at the Mahaweli Community Training Centre in Anuradhapura in July and it was decided that the Weli Oya IDPs should be resettled before August 31.

The Survey Department has launched a survey of these areas from August 20 and 50 million rupees had been set aside to resettle these 5864 IDP families of whom 3364 families were registered settlers whilst 1500 families were unregistered families. Read more ...

No visible progress in bringing reconciliation to SL

US Assistant Secretary of State Robert Blake could be ‘way off the mark’ when he questions Sri Lanka’s progress in resettling and rehabilitating the IDPs of the North but has given the country and its political leadership something to deeply ponder over and be concerned about when he says that they are very wanting on the question of bringing reconciliation to Sri Lanka.

Ideally, there should be rapid progress in the screening of IDPs and their resettlement but this operation is fraught with risks on account of the possibility of quite a few former LTTE cadres masquerading as civilians. Admittedly, the screening process has to be carried out with considerable circumspection in view of this risk and the state could not afford to be careless on this score, lest ex-LTTE members mingle with the population segment in question and pose a future security threat to the state. Read more ...

Friday, August 21, 2009

Over 59,000 families resettled in past months

Re-settlement and Disaster Relief Services Minister Rishad Bathiudeen told Parliament yesterday the Government has re-settled 59,608 displaced families in Batticaloa, Trincomalee, Mannar, Ampara and Jaffna Divisional Secretariat (DS) divisions during the past few months.

According to figures, 35, 766 families have been re-settled in Batticaloa DS division while 22,068 families have been re-settled in Trincomalee DS division. The Government has re-settled 669 families in Mannar, 51 families in Ampara and 1,054 families in Jaffna DS divisions.

The Minister said the number of persons displaced in 2009 is 288,938. Of these total number of displaced persons, 224,394 persons have been sheltered in six Relief Villages set-up in the Vavuniya district.

This includes 19,690 persons in the Kadiragamar Relief Village, 47,202 persons in Ananda Kumarswamy Relief Village (Zone 01), 65,210 persons in Pon Ramanadan Relief Village (Zone 02), 44, 496 persons in the Arunachalam Relief Village (Zone 03), 42,316 persons in Relief Village (Zone 04) and 5,480 persons in Relief Village (Zone 05). Read more ...

Jaffna IDP resettlement nearing completion

The resettlement of Internally Displaced Persons in some of the Peninsula villages is nearing completion. The area has been cleared of all mines prior to the resettlement. It was essential to get the clearance certificate from the UN before resettling the displaced people in the areas affected by mines, Social Services and Social Welfare Minister Douglas Devananda said.

He told The Island that as Chairman of Jaffna Special Task Force he had been assigned to resettle a large number of people in Navatkuli, Kaithady and Maravanpulo villages.

Minister Devananda said that his aim was to resettle the IDPs in their original places as quickly as possible. For the last 10 years all infrastructure facilities in the area had been destroyed due to a devastating war. Read more ...

Tuesday, August 18, 2009

IDPs would not be resettled until threats to their lives removed – CDS Gen. Fonseka

Resettlement of those in the welfare camps will not be haphazardly carried out although some groups demand it, Chief of the Defence Staff General Sarath Fonseka told the Mahanayake Theros of Malwatte and Asgiriya yesterday (17).

General Fonseka, after paying homage to the Sacred Tooth Relic, called on the prelate of Malwatte Most Venerable Tibbatuwawe Sri Siddhartha Sumangala Thera and on the prelate of Asgiriya most Ven. Udugama Sri Buddharakkitha Thera.

The visit marked the third month of liberating the country from LTTE terrorism.

Disclosing the current situation on the rehabilitation activities in the North General Sarath Fonseka told the prelates those in the IDP camps could not be resettled in their former homesteads because of security risks.

There are many more land-mines to be removed besides those in the welfare camps should be scanned since there are terrorists among them. At least five or six LTTE cadres are identified every week, General Fonseka said. Read more ...

Displaced to be resettled in Mahaweli System L

An area south of Nedunkerni and Kebettigollewa has been identified for resettlement of about 1,500 to 2,000 displaced families before the end of this year.

“We hope to increase this to 25,000 families immediately thereafter by developing agriculture and livestock breeding to uplift the living standards of these families in Mahaweli System L,” said Mahaweli Authority of Sri Lanka Director General Dharmasiri de Alwis.

He said before developing agriculture, attention should be paid to developing irrigation. “We decided to facilitate the development of the systems such as H, B, C, D and L under the Mahaweli Ganga Development Project (MGDP),” de Alwis said.

More than 125,000 families in systems H, B, C and G will be resettled. In 1988, the Government decided to add another system under the Mahaweli Authority of Sri Lanka in settling families providing opportunities by utilizing Mahaweli water. Later this system and the development area was called system L which is among the 13 systems under MGDP,” he said. Read more ...

Thursday, July 23, 2009

Resettlement delayed until LTTE cadres rounded up – Mahinda S.

Resettling of the displaced people now living in welfare camps would be delayed till all LTTE cadres among them are apprehended and separated from them, Human Rights and Disaster Management Minister Mahinda Samarasinghe told Parliament yesterday (22).

"The security forces have detected LTTE cadres who entered the welfare camps and live among the displaced people. They believe some more are there and with the information obtained from those under interrogation further apprehensions have to be made. There is no way of commencing resettlement until this process is over," he said during his reply in the adjournment debate on the plight of Internally Displaced Persons, moved by JVP Parliamentary Group Leader Anura Kumara Dissanayake. Read more ...

Friday, July 17, 2009

Rajapaksa: committed to reconciliation

Sri Lankan President Mahinda Rajapaksa has told U.N. Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon that his government remains committed to the resettling and rehabilitating the nearly three lakh war displaced in the north of the country in the shortest possible time.

The issue of the war displaced, conditions in the relief centres and the need for reconciliation among all communities were discussed at the bilateral meeting between Mr. Rajapaksa and Mr. Ban on the sidelines of the 15th NAM Summit at Sharm-El-Sheikh in Egypt.

Mr. Rajapaksa told Mr. Ban it had only been eight weeks since the liberation of Tamil civilians from the LTTE and that the government had demonstrated it was doing its best to ease conditions in the relief centres and they would improve further day by day. Read more ...

Sunday, July 12, 2009

Talks with Indian leaders yield results

The Indian government has set apart Indian Rs. 500 crore (SL Rs. 11.9 billion) for North East reconstruction and resettlement of IDPs in the annual Budget, Finance Minister Pranab Mukherjee unveiled in Indian Parliament recently.

This was another outcome of talks that President’s Senior Advisor Basil Rajapaksa, Defense Secretary Gotabhaya Rajapaksa and President’s Secretary Lalith Weeratunga held with the Indian leaders in New Delhi last month.

Minister Mukherjee in his Budget speech reiterated his government’s commitment to help Sri Lankan Tamils secure their democratic rights and fulfill their legitimate aspirations within the parameters of the country’s sovereignty and the Constitution. “Our External Affairs Ministry is closely working with the Sri Lankan Government towards this end,” Mukherjee who himself was a former External Affairs Minister told Parliament. Read more ...

Sunday, July 5, 2009

Discharge IDPs with own houses from Wanni camps, says TNA MP Srikantha

N Srikantha and other TNA lawmakers attended an all party conference held by the President for the first time in several years signaling thereby a change of heart in synch with the times. They appreciate the government efforts at resettling the IDPs but have their own views on how the work should progress. Read more ...

Sri Lanka: Vanni Emergency OCHA Situation Report No. 24

On 01 July, a team of Government officials assessed sites in Kilinochchi, Mullaitivu, Mannar and Vavuniya to plan possible resettlement in the near future.

Japanese envoy for Peace Building, Rehabilitation and Reconstruction in Sri Lanka, Yasushi Akashi, was in Sri Lanka this week to attend the Economic Summit. He also met with the President and senior Government officials to discuss humanitarian situation in Sri Lanka.

On 27 June, the first lady of Sri Lanka opened a new children's home (Siriliya Sewana) in Vavuniya for orphaned IDP children. Read more ...

Thursday, July 2, 2009

Sri Lanka: “The priority number one, two and three of the Government are the IDPs”

"The priority number one, two and three of the Government is to make sure the IDP's situation is taken and focused on" stated the Government Defence Spokesman Hon. Minister Keheliya Rambukwella at a media briefing held at the Media Centre for National Security premises this morning (30).

The Government has managed to accomplish all the goals that they set out to achieve by eradicating the cancer of terrorism from the country. He held that the Government forces have not only destroyed the military power of the LTTE but also the infrastructure of the LTTE. Over billions of dollars worth equipment that the LTTE smuggled in to wreck havoc in the country were destroyed by the troops. Now the primary focus of the Government is to ensure that the lives of our brothers and sisters of the North are back normal. Speaking further Hon Minister stated that the Government has a massive task ahead in respect of the internally displaced civilians'. There are many aspects that the Government has to consider apart from reinstatement; they must ensure that these civilians are counseled, morality should be rebuilt, children should be provided education, families should be bought together and their livelihoods should be established so that these civilians would not be a burden to the country. He stressed that if these objectives are not fulfilled it will leave an unconsidered corner in the humanitarian mission thereby tarnishing the success of the troops. Read more ...

Monday, June 22, 2009

India offers Rs. 5b for displaced persons - Thondaman

Minister of Youth Empowerment and Socio Economic Development and CWC General Secretary Arumugan Thondaman who recently went to India on a goodwill mission said that the Indian centre has pledged five billion rupees assistance to the Government towards the post conflict phase in rehabilitation, resettlement and welfare measures for Internally Displaced Persons (IDPs).

Tamil Nadu Chief Minister Muthuvel Karunanidhi and other leaders whom he met in Chennai also assured to assist the IDPs, he said.

During his meeting with the Tamil Nadu CM, he renewed President Mahinda Rajapaksa’s earlier invitation for the CM to visit Sri Lanka to see for himself the humanitarian and welfare assistance being extended to the IDPs and the invitation drew a positive response from the CM, Thondaman said and added that it was very likely that they will pay a visit soon. Read more ...

Monday, June 8, 2009

Third phase of resettlement of Sri Lanka's North to begin next week

The Sri Lankan government is beginning the third step of its resettlement process in Mannar next week.

The Ministry of Disaster Relief Services and Resettlement says they have scheduled the third step of the resettlement process to begin on June 9 at Silawathura area in Mannar District, where they hope to resettle 2120 displaced persons from 591 families. Read more ...