Colombo: With a smile on their faces, over 1,100 displaced Tamils on Wednesday boarded buses to return to their homes in north-eastern Sri Lanka, the first to be allowed to leave for their towns and villages from the IDP camps after curtains came down on the 30-year-old civil war.
Men, women and children, clutching their few
belongings in canvas bads, boarded buses from the camps here
to return to Trincomalee, Ampara, Batticaloa and Kantale.
At a colourful ceremony in an IDP camp in Vavuniya,
Senior Presidential Adviser Basil Rajapaksa presented gift
packs of food and clothes to the people.
This is part of the government's efforts to resettle
the displaced Tamil civilians in their towns and villages
after the civil war ended in May with the death of LTTE
supremo Velupillai Prabhakaran.
According to officials, 190 people from Ampara, 320
from Batticaloa, 292 from Trincomalee, and 634 from Kantale
were today taken to their areas in buses.
They will be able to live in their homes from the next
few days after getting due security clearance from authorities
concerned.
"The Government's dedicated intention is to resettle
the displaced persons and restore their livelihood swiftly in
their domiciled villages while implementing the massive
development drive," Rajapaksa said.
The government has said it would allow resettlement
once the areas captured from LTTE were cleared off landmines.
In a move to speed up resettling the displaced
civilians, the Government will resettle nearly 4,500 civilians
now living in welfare villages in Vavuniya to the east and the
Jaffna district.
The Sri Lankan government will also take steps to
resettle another 3,020 displaced civilians to their villages
in Jaffna district.
Bureau Report
First Published: Wednesday, August 05, 2009, 20:28