Sri Lanka begins final stage of resettlement process

Sri Lank has begun the final stage of resettlement process to resettle the remaining internally displaced person (IDP) families in the Northern Province.
The Minister of Resettlement Gunaratne Weerakoon has said that the remaining displaced persons in the Menik Farm Welfare Village in Vavuniya will be resettled within the next few weeks. Recently the government under the patronage of the Minister has resettled 994 IDPs belonging to 300 families who had been living in Menik Farm Village in Puthukudiyiruppu West in Mullaitivu district which had been cleared of mines recently. According to the Ministry, 266,695 displaced persons who had taken shelter in the Menik Farm Welfare Village in Vavuniya had been resettled under the Northern Resettlement programme. The government provides the required infrastructure and other essential services to the resettled people after their resettlement. The resettled families have been provided with all their requirements including the resettlement allowance, cooked meals and dry rations, according to the Resettlement Ministry. The Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA) has recorded that a total of 512 families comprising 1,481 members have been resettled in Mullaitivu district in the month of July. At the end of July, 5,443 IDPs (1,603 families), displaced after April 2008, remained in camps awaiting return to their areas of origin. Meanwhile, an additional 7,329 IDPs (1,981 families) displaced prior to April 2008, remained in welfare centers in Jaffna and Vavuniya districts. The Ministry says it has spent nearly 2 billion rupees for the resettlement process.