SRI LANKA: UN calls for clear IDP resettlement plan

COLOMBO, 21 July 2009 (IRIN) - A detailed plan to resettle almost 300,000 internally displaced persons (IDPs) in Sri Lanka is needed to sustain donor assistance, the UN says.

Thousands of Tamil civilians are in some 35 government camps in the northern districts of Vavuniya, Mannar, Trincomalee and Jaffna after fleeing fighting between government forces and the defeated Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE), who had been fighting for an independent homeland for more than two decades.

“It’s very important that there be clear plans and time lines for people to return,” Neil Buhne, the UN country head, told IRIN in Colombo.

“I think it is going to be difficult to sustain the financing [for relief measures] over a long period if you have 300,000 people in there [in IDP centres] for months and months, stretching into a year,” Buhne warned. “The first stage in reconciliation is how [IDPs] are treated. I think the government recognizes that, we recognize that, but it is a huge challenge.”

His comments followed a pledge by Sri Lanka’s President Mahinda Rajapaksa on 10 July to resettle up to 60 percent of the IDPs by November.

“We have a 180-day programme. That is our plan. In 180 days, we want to settle most of these people,” the president said, noting, however, “It's not a promise, it's a target.”

But aid workers on the ground have expressed concern that some of the facilities being erected in the camps appear more permanent than temporary.

On 9 June, more than 2,000 IDPs who had been displaced by the fighting over two years ago from Musalai, a village in the southwestern Mannar District, have returned home, the UN Refugee Agency (UNHCR) reported.

Nonetheless, before the bulk of the displaced can return, their villages will need to be de-mined, which does not look very likely at present.

“Only four of the nine mine action organizations presenting projects in the CHAP have received funding to date. The current funding levels are insufficient to adequately support the de-mining tasks allocated,” the CHAP review stated.