IDPs resettlement: Govt's priority

Shirley WIJESINGHE

The Plantation Industries Minister D.M. Jayaratne said that the resettlement of displaced persons is one of the priorities of the Government and it is being implemented in a special manner. Minister Jayaratne added that the resettlement cannot be implemented haphazardly.

After the creation of an independent environment where they could live freely, the Government does not hope to detain the IDPs in camps even for one minute.

He was communicating with the IDPs during a visit to a number of relief villages in Vanni recently.

The Minister said that a sum of Rs.250 million is being incurred per day by the Government for the people in the IDPs camp. This is heavy expenditure to the Government.

"The Government of Sri Lanka has given a fine example to the entire world through their process of uprooting terrorism," Minister Jayaratne said.

Jayaratne said that if someone holds the opinion that the victory over LTTE terrorism is an achievement of only Sinhala, Buddhists, it is incorrect.

Every ethnic group, Sinhala, Tamil, Muslim and Burgher suffered from terrorism.