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Friday, November 06, 2009 - 6.24 GMT |
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IDP figure
continue to reduce |
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The
number
of
conflict-displaced
people
in
northern
Sri
Lanka
dropped
dramatically
in
recent
weeks to
about
157,000,
compared
to about
288,000
in June
and
another
60,000
people
are
slated
to go
home
over the
next few
weeks,
states
the Sri
Lanka
Embassy
in
Washington,
in its
latest
Country
Report
of Nov
05.
The
majority
of the
IDPs
will be
resettled
by end
of this
year,
according
Mahinda
Samarasinghe,
Minister
of
Disaster
Management
and
Human
Rights.
Those
who have
been
resettled
have
gone to
their
native
communities
in the
Ampara,
Batticaloa,
Jaffna,
Mannar,
Trincomalee
and
Mullaithivu
districts,
the
report
further
stated.
The
Financial
Times
quoted a
Western
diplomat
in
Colombo
stating:
“We
weren’t
really
expecting
such a
sudden
acceleration
in
returns.”
The
Financial
Times
reported
that the
diplomat,
“confirmed
the
government’s
figures,”
and that
Rishad
Bathiudeen,
Sri
Lanka’s
Resettlement
Minister,
“told
the
Financial
Times
that
3,000
were
being
sent
home
every
day,”
stated
the Sri
Lanka
Embassy
in
Washington.
The
government
provides
resettled
families
with
household
goods,
kitchen
utensils,
agricultural
tool
kits,
six
months
dry
rations,
an
initial
payment
of
Rs.5,000,
a
shelter
grant of
Rs.25,000,
roofing
sheets,
land
preparation
cost of
Rs.4,000
per
acre,
provision
of seed
paddy,
fertilizer
and
transport
facilities.
Landmines
have so
far been
cleared
from all
of the
main and
secondary
roads in
the
north.
De-mining
units
are now
moving
onto
access
roads
and into
villages,
where
the LTTE
buried
mines as
they
retreated
to
prevent
people
from
returning
to their
homes.
Seven
nations
are
helping
Sri
Lanka
with
de-mining.
The
United
Nations
must
certify
that
villages
are safe
from
landmines
before
residents
can
return,
the Sri
Lanka
Embassy
in
Washington
further
stated.
On
Wednesday
Nov 4,
President
Mahinda
Rajapaksa
visited
a
village
of
re-settled
IDPs at
Thunukkai
in the
Mullaitivu
District,
once the
stronghold
of the
LTTE.
The
President
was
warmly
received
by the
people,
as the
first
ever
Head of
State to
visit
that
area
from the
time of
independence
in 1948.
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