Displaced Tamils resettle in Lanka

The number of displaced civilians in the relief camps in the North has now reduced to 197,255 from 2.88 lakh when the war with LTTE ended in May this year. Of the released civilians, 70,492 were being resettled in their places of origin by Monday, an official report said.

The group included the clergy, expectant mothers and university students who were resettled in several districts. A majority of them returned to their villages in the Jaffna district, the report said adding a group of about 3000 was dispatched to Jaffna on Monday for resettlement. A total of 41,685 Internally Displaced Person's (IDPs) were released last week for being resettled in Vavuniya, Mannar, Mullaittivu and Killinochi.

Each of these IDP families was given an assistance of SLR 5000 and SLR 20,000 as bank deposits. On an average around 4,000 IDPs were being moved everyday
to their homes after being released from the welfare camps. As many as 12,095 families were being resettled - 2,583 in Vavuniya, 2,644 in Mannar, 4,415 in Mullativu and 2,453 families in Kilinochi.

Meanwhile, resettlement process in Kilinochi has started, the release said adding inaugural ceremony related to the process in the former LTTE administrative capital took place recently. Many buildings there were damaged when the soldiers took control of it in January this year and civilians were prohibited from entering Kilinochi until the resettlement commenced due to the area being heavily mined by the LTTE. However, the Special Task Force for the development of North is expediting the demining process using most modern machinery in the region, it said.