Sri Lanka pledges to resettle most of the refugees in 6 months

The UNP yesterday called on the government to carry out investigations to determine the truth of the reported death of 62 internally displaced persons (IDPs) in welfare camps within a 16-day period.

The party quoting a national Tamil journal, said 11 school children were among the dead. It claimed none of the dead IDPs had been identified and alleged the deaths were due to a shortage of food.

The statement said “it is an insult to Sri Lankan society based as it is on the Buddhist precepts of Metha, Muditha and Ahimsa”.

The party in its statement added that if the reports were true they should not be covered up, as it could lead to a serious human rights issue.

Tamil civilians displaced due to the war with the LTTE will soon be resettled in their places after the landmines recovered by the army were cleared, Sri Lankan President Mahinda Rajapaksa has said.

 

Colombo (PTI) Sri Lankan Foreign Minister Rohitha Bogollagama on Tuesday assured the Parliament that three lakh Tamil civilians displaced due to conflict with the LTTE would be "resettled shortly".

Nearly three lakh people have been displaced in northern Sri Lanka as a result of the military's just-ended offensive against the Tamil Tigers.

"We are taking care of them. They will be resettled shortly," the Foreign Minister told the House, even as Prime Minister Manmohan Singh asked Colombo to "show imagination and courage in meeting the legitimate concerns and aspirations of the Tamil people to live their lives as equal citizens."

COLOMBO, June 9 (Reuters) - Sri Lanka sent more than 2,000 people back to their home villages in the island nation's northwest on Tuesday, two years after they were displaced by the war with the Tamil Tiger separatists.

"We are relieved to be back in our village and houses, even though they're damaged. We were in the camps for two years and it was a very hard life there. We were not allowed to go out and no relatives were allowed to come in," said Julius Ranaweera, 25.

COLOMBO, May 23 (Xinhua) -- Sri Lankan president Mahinda Rajapakse said Saturday that the government will resettle most of the civilians displaced by the civil war within 180 days.

    Rajapakse told the visiting UN Secretary General Ban Ki-moon that all resettlement will be done under internationally-accepted norms, said a statement issued by the presidential office after the two leaders held talk in the central town of Kandy Saturday afternoon.

    "This would require ensuring the safety of the IDPs (Internal Displaced Person), as well as their rehabilitation, and providing them with new skills for successful livelihood," the statement quoted Rajapakse as saying.

    Ban told Rajapakse that progress must come in three critical areas such as immediate humanitarian relief, followed by reintegration and reconstruction, leading to a sustainable and equitable political solution in Sri Lanka.