“After the defeat of terrorism what is upper most in the mind of President Rajapaksa is to provide you with all possible facilities and resettle you in your original places of residence.

In most countries, the resettlement of Internally Displaced Persons (IDP) had taken decades and in some cases even a century, but President Mahinda Rajapaksa had initiated the resettlement of IDPs in a 180 day program and three batches with over 4,000 being resettled in the North and East on Wednesday”, he added.

The President had ordered the Task Force to resettle the IDPs in 35 villages in Vavuniya, in 45 villages in Kilinochchi and in 24 villages in Jaffna. He wants to have peace, amity and prosperity among all people and he had told the IDPs and the people of the North and East that the Government would give back all they had lost during the past 30 years other than the lives lost.

It had taken the Palestine 70 years and Bangladesh and Pakistan more than a decade to resettle some of their IDPs while in Europe some IDPs were resettled after a century. President Rajapaksa resettled 40,000 IDPs in 44 days in the East and had directed the rehabilitation and resettlement program immediately after the LTTE terrorism and any delay so far was due to land-mine clearing operations. This is not only a Sri Lankan but also a world record, the MP further stated.

"We would like to request the people of the North and the East not to be deceived again as the President's policy was reconciliation while doing everything possible for the IDPs," he noted.

Yesterday, 964 people of 387 families from the Menik Farm IDP village were sent for resettlement in Kantale, Trincomalee, Ampara and Batticaloa areas while 3,000 people were sent for resettlement in their villages in the Jaffna district also from temporary shelters in Vavuniya.

The IDPs were dispatched in 70 SLTB buses with dry rations, clothing and other utility material. Parliamentarian Rajapaksa thanked the members of the Armed Forces and public servants of the North for their dedication and efficiency in expediting the process of rehabilitation.

Rehabilitation and Disaster Relief Minister Rishard Bathiudeen, District Secretary Ms. Charles, officers of the Armed Forces and Government agencies were also present.