The Minister for Disaster Management and Human Rights, Mahinda Samarasinghe who will lead the Sri Lankan delegation to the HRC will show how the government has given utmost priority to resettlement and rehabilitation of IDPs and the speedy reconstruction of areas in the Northern Province to carry out this task.

He will explain the government's plans to resettle the 250,000 Internally Displaced Persons now sheltered in government-run welfare camps, in their original homes and the measures taken to provide livelihood and other facilities to them once resettled.

He will also inform the Council of government's plans to rehabilitate about 10,000 of former LTTE cadres and plans to reintegrate them into the society. Plans for economic development of the North and the East will also be discussed.

The Minister will also explain the government's stand on the Channel 4 video issue and the damage it has inflicted on the country's image at the sessions.

The Defense Ministry states 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.

According to defence.lk the Northern Province Governor Major General (retd) G. A. Chandrasiri has said that the army and five de-mining agencies had been engaged in mine clearing operations in the Yodawewa area.

The former Jaffna Security Forces Commander had told The Island newspaper that 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.

The machines had cost the taxpayer Rs.530 million with five machines each, being bought from Slovakia and Croatia and all of them deployed in the Yodawewa area. Each of these de-mining machines, remotely controlled by one person could clear 2,200 square meters and could also operate in difficult terrain. The army had committed 400 de-miners for the ongoing clearing operation.
He appreciated the work carried out by de-miners belonging to five foreign funded agencies alongside the army.

He said that once they cleared 7,000 acres north of Yodawewa, they could work out a plan for further expansion of operations in the surrounding area.

Maj. Gen. Chandrasiri said they were also in the process facilitating the return of civilians, the majority of them Muslims, to an area about 7,000 acres in size south of Yodawewa. He said that the bottom line was that by end of October approximately 14,000 acres would be ready to receive civilians, both south (South of the Vavuniya-Mannar main road) and north of Yodawewa. He said that the returning Muslims had been chased out of the area about 10 years ago.

He said that the support given by Basil Rajapaksa, MP as the head of the Task Force responsible for the resettlement and rehabilitation in the north had made their task easier.

Contrary to criticism, the government had released a sizeable number of people from welfare camps situated in the Jaffna peninsula and also Vavuniya region. He said that about 5,000 had been released from camps in the peninsula leaving about 5,000 at government-run camps. He said that action would be taken to explore ways and means of releasing the rest of the civilians as quickly as possible.

Commenting on welfare camps in the Vavuniya region, he said that the total number if persons held at camps would come down to about 237,000 by end of this week once they released about 10,000 persons as directed by the government. According to him, there had been 288,938 persons at welfare camps as at May 22, 2009. He said that by September 3, due to the resettlement programme this figure came down to 247,804 and a directive issued last Friday (September 11) to release 9920 would bring this down further. He expressed confidence that 9920 persons could be sent back to their villages within this week.

The former Army Chief of Staff said that clearing of Vanni east, particularly Puthukudirippu and its surrounding areas would not be an easy task due to heavy mining by the LTTE. He said that those who point out shortcomings and criticize government efforts in a post-LTTE era had turned a blind eye to extremely difficult conditions the de-miners, including those employed by foreign agencies are confronted with.