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| Monday, 3 January 2005 |
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Politics | |
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| Immediate rehabilitation, relief for tsunami victims by Rajmi Manatunga The Government yesterday announced the establishment of several structures to provide immediate relief and rehabilitation to persons affected by last week's tsunami disaster. It has been decided to set up special Management Structures for each camp in the country sheltering people affected by the disaster. These structures will come into place from today. "These structures will be headed by the military and will comprise officials from the Social Services Ministry and other Government representatives," Director Operations of the Centre for National Operations (CNO) Dr. Tara de Mel said. She said the objectives of these structures will be to obtain correct information about the situation, ensure the proper channelling of resources to the respective areas and thus regularise the process of providing relief to victims of the disaster. Among the other structures to be set up are a special desk for children affected by the disaster and a special unit on education entrusted with the responsibility of rehabilitating schools affected by the tsunami. "The special desk for children will deal with a number of issues including identifying places where displaced children are being kept, set up children's homes and provide counselling for traumatised children. Institutions like the National Child Protection Authority (NCPA), College of Paediatricians and College of Medical Practitioners will work with this unit," Dr. de Mel added. According to the Director, last Sunday's disaster has left around 180 schools in the country completely or partially destroyed. The principal task of the desk on education to be set up today will be to rehabilitate these schools. Commenting on rumours of a fresh tsunami that continue to cause panic among the public, Dr. de Mel assured there was no such cause for alarm. "We have now established links with the United States Seismic Activity Monitoring Unit and with the local media. If there is a danger immediate steps will be taken to warn the public," she said. Commissioner General of the Relief, Rehabilitation and Reconciliation Ministry Harim Peiris said the Government responded immediately to the needs of the disaster-hit North and East. "The Government Agents in those areas who already had experience dealing with issues like internal displacement were instructed and given authority to take all required measures. Obviously there were shortcomings in the entire operation since we were not geared for a disaster of this magnitude," he said. Peiris said the Government was still awaiting a formal response from the LTTE to participate in the relief and rehabilitation program at national level. Army Spokesman Brigadier Daya Ratnayake assured that there was no security threat in the North and East owing to the destruction of a number of camps of the security forces by the tsunami. "A large number of camps in the coastal areas of the North and East were affected by the tidal waves. But we took steps to restore them the same day," he added. |
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