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Statement by Bradman Weerakoon, Secretary to the Prime Minister and Commissioner General for Co-ordination of Relief, Rehabilitation and Reconciliation, delivered at the 43rd session of the Executive Committee of the UN High Commissioner for Refugees.

May I at the outset express our complete satisfaction at the way in which UNHCR conducts its operations in Sri Lanka and in this regard convey on behalf of the Government of Sri Lanka our warm appreciation to the High Commissioner Ruud Lubbers and his staff both at headquarters and the field.

Almost 15 years ago in 1987 UNHCR was invited to my country and has since then worked assiduously in partnership with successive governments to alleviate the misery of those uprooted from their homes owing to armed conflict. Sri Lanka has been unique in many ways for providing humanitarian assistance. It was well known during the conflict-ridden days in my country that the government maintained facilities and an administrative set up even in areas under rebel control to deliver regular humanitarian assistance. In addition to UNHCR, the ICRC and many international NGOs notably MSF operated freely and with governmental backing throughout these areas.

The long and at times particular experiences of UNHCR with IDPs in Sri Lanka have initiated significance policy and programmatic thrusts that have enhanced the organisation's work worldwide. In this sense, Sri Lanka has been both an arena for consolidation of its protection mandate and a laboratory for innovation such as in the concept of Open Relief Centres. Our joint experience of managing protection issues relating to the internally displaced have undoubtedly contributed to the evolution of the now widely acknowledged United Nations Principles on Internal Displacement.

I wish to take this opportunity to thank the international community in particular several donor governments for providing assistance so readily to the UNHCR for its important and at times pioneering work in Sri Lanka.

In my country the armed conflict which has now been ended with a permanent ceasefire facilitated by the Government of Norway last February had gone on almost uninterrupted for over two decades. It has resulted in the displacement of nearly 1.5 million people. Some 733,000 persons are among those yet internally displaced on our soil. Another 66,000 are reported to be in refugee camps in India. The balance 700,000 form a substantial diaspora of migrants stretching across the countries of Western Europe, North America and Australia.

With the dawn of peace in February thousands of IDPs (as of today 180,000) have voluntarily left their present habitations - either in welfare centres maintained by the State or in the homes of friends and relatives - and are seeking resettlement back in the towns and villages they left several years ago. Our immediate humanitarian needs related to all IDPs - among them a high proportion of women and children and female headed families - now seeking to re-establish their accustomed productive livelihoods in conditions of peace, dignity and security.

Their resettlement involves a wide spectrum of needs - at times, demining of their lands; provision of basic equipment for farming and fishing; restoration of community support, primarily, schools and health care; and even legal help to establish ownership over homesteads left abandoned for several years.

Following the steady implementation of the Ceasefire Agreement of February last which has already given our people over seven months of peace.

two weeks ago , on the 16th of September, with Norway's facilitation, we initiated formal discussion with the LTTE in Thailand. We discussed in depth the urgent need to address the difficult humanitarian situations in the north and east and agreed that the most immediate priorities were.

* Stepping up humanitarian mien action, and

* Accelerating resettlement and rehabilitation of internally displaced persons.

With regard to mine action, critical for the resettlement of the uprooted, I am pleased to inform this forum that not only has a National Mine Action Authority been initiated but as our Prime Minister declared at the 57th session of the UNGA on the 18th of September, Sri Lanka will be reviewing its position on the Ottawa Convention with a view to becoming party to it as confidence in peace accrues. In the meantime defining work has commenced with several actors now in the mine Action/clearance Programme.

The magnitude of needs, including humanitarian mine action and the linked process of the resettlement of over 200,000 IDP families which are presently being assessed, are, as can easily be imagined, enormous.

Following a request in April to the UN Secretary General by our Prime Minister, a high level needs assessment mission to Sri Lanka accepted the primacy of dealing expeditiously and effectively with the resettlement of the internally displaced. The overall relief and rehabilitation effort calls for not only physical structures such as health care facilities, schools, irrigation systems, community buildings, industrial units and road networks to be repaired, but for the human resources to be restored to build back sorely needed institutional capacities.

Much of this we intend to do ourselves but the urgency of the peace dividend, which those affected by the conflict are clamouring for, makes the early support of our international friends imperative. In this regard, the contribution, both moral and material, of the international community will be invaluable. UNHCR has appealed for supplementary support to expand its programme in Sri Lanka in view of the changed conditions following the ceasefire and return to normalcy. The Government of Sri Lanka emphatically supports this call and looks forward to the continued support of the donor community.

I sincerely believe that we have reached the end of our long search for the establishment of peace in Sri Lanka.

There are undoubtedly substantial issues to be addressed as we move forward with the political negotiations with the LTTE. But all indications are that the point of no return to violence as a method of resolution of differences - has been reached, and passed. The decisions reached at Thailand underline the fact that henceforth the Government will act jointly with the LTTe in resolving the practical problems that yet confront the people.

Take for example the agreement at the talks in Thailand to establish promptly a Joint Committee to deal with the issues relating to High Security Zones with the aim of enabling the return of displaced persons to their areas of origin. The Joint Committee will consist of senior representatives of both sides, including military personnel. This should release substantial space fore resettlement and agricultural production especially in the densely populated Jaffna peninsula.

The second major decision at the Thailand Talks was for the establishment of a Joint Task Force for Humanitarian and Reconstruction activities. The Joint Task Force will constitute a partnership between the Government of Sri Lanka and the LTTE and will have responsibility for the identification, financing and monitoring of urgent humanitarian and reconstruction activities in the North and East.

This formal incorporation of the LTTE into a partnership for rehabilitation, and development, lays we contend, a firm foundation on which a durable peace can be constructed. Such an institutional arrangement will not only benefit all ethnic communities in the North and East but will greatly facilitate the work of UNHCR and all donor agencies operating in the area.

Mindful of the vital need for coordinating the relief, rehabilitation, and reconciliation effort the Government last June initiated a policy and operational framework that brings together all the stakeholder including the international community and the community based agencies of the LTTE. This process will underpin and strategically support the peace negotiations now under way. As the Commissioner General for coordination of the Relief, Rehabilitation and Reconciliation project (The Triple R), I have the privilege of assisting this process under the personal guidance of the Prime Minister. The value of the location of the coordinating function in the office of the Prime Minister is self evident.

In the medium and long term, once pace is established in my country, we expect our economy to boom, buoyed by the strength of the high physical quality of life enjoyed by the people of Sri Lanka. We expect large scale infrastructure developments, both donor and private sector sponsored, to act as a catalyst for this process.

Such developments, we anticipate, would lead towards the return of many Sri Lankans who have found refuge abroad either by their own choice or through voluntary assisted return programmes. In the near term we also intend to make arrangements for the return of Sri Lankan refugees domiciled in india. For this purpose, at an opportune time we will commence discussions with both the UNHCR and the Government of India to establish a suitable programme for their return.

However, Mr. Chairman the multi - faceted task of rebuilding and reconciling is too large for Sri Lanka to handle on her own.

The generous support of the international community which has brought us to the threshold of peace must continue and grow. That will surely ensure the success of the process on which we are now firmly launched.

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