Rs. 150m allocated to provide relief to people of Muttur

KOTTE: The Government has allocated Rs. 150 million to provide relief to people displaced in Muttur owing to terrorist attacks and ensure their safe return to their homes.

Minister A. H. M. Fowzie who co-ordinates and oversees the relief programme told a media briefing in Parliament yesterday that the Government has taken steps to fulfil the necessities of the 40,000 displaced persons.

Around Rs. 2.5 million has already been allocated to provide food to the displaced who are presently accommodated in the Kinniya, Kantale and Negombo areas.

Addressing the conference convened by Government Ministers representing the Muslim community, Fowzie said that the resettlement of the displaced in Muttur and the reconstruction of the Muttur area damaged by LTTE will commence within one month.

"We hope to complete all reconstruction and resettlement and resettlement activities within six months.

Under the programme, the damaged houses in Muttur will be repaired together with the hospital and schools which were partially destroyed by the terrorist attacks," he said. The Minister said that the Government will set up special security posts at identified spots in Muttur to protect the people from possible LTTE attacks.

According to him, several Middle East countries have already expressed willingness to provide assistance to rebuild Muttur. The Government has made available free bus and boat services to the displaced to facilitate their return to their areas.

Minister A. L. M. Athaullah said that the LTTE attacks on Muttur were planned, pre-meditated and had nothing to do with the Mavilaru issue.

"Even in the past the LTTE was of the same opinion when they chased over 120,000 Muslims away from the North, East in 1990," he said. He said it was not only the Muslim and Sinhala communities that are at the receiving end of LTTE atrocities.

"Even Tamil civilians are killed and harassed by the LTTE. They have assassinated a number of eminent Tamil leaders. Therefore, all communities in the country should rise against LTTE terrorism," he said.

Athaullah further said they have taken steps to inform the international community of the atrocities committed by the LTTE against Muslims.

The group of ministers met representatives from Middle East states on Thursday and the Netherlands Ambassador yesterday to explain the situation in the East.

They said that around 50 bodies of civilians from Muttur who were brutally killed by the LTTE have already been recovered.