Palitha Kohona, secretary to the foreign affairs minister, says de-mining measures are under way in Jaffna and Port Mullaitivu.
The Sri Lankan government plans to immediately rehabilitate the lakhs of internally displaced civilians in the northern parts of the country, where the last leg of the war against the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Elam (LTTE) was waged, culminating in the death of LTTE chief Velupillai Prabhakaran.
“We have certainly initiated the reconciliation, reintegration and developmental process in order to bring our people into the mainstream. There are thousands of internally displaced people we have to care for until they are ready to go back to their villages,” Dr Palitha Kohona, secretary to the minister of foreign affairs told DNA.
Currently, the first priority is to clear the mines in this area and ensure that the villagers return to their homes. “We will take measures to de-mine the villages in the areas of Jaffna and Port Mullaitivu. We will rehabilitate the people, restore electricity and water supply and the irrigation system, repair schools, clinics and people’s homes, so that we can send them back to their houses and they can be economically active again,” Kohona said.
He confirmed that the Sri Lankan government plans to hold elections at the earliest in the northern parts, which were previously LTTE strongholds. “We are also trying to re-establish democratic institutions in these areas, which had collapsed in the last 20-25 years. Elections will be held in Jaffna and Port Mullaitivu in the next couple of months,” Kohona added.
Meanwhile, army sources have refuted claims made by the European Union that innocent children and women civilians were killed by the Sri Lankan army, and that war-crime trials are on the anvil.
“We would like to ask where the EU got this information from. It is interesting that the deaths which we haven’t seen on the ground, they seem to have seen from Europe. Let me tell you that soldiers on the ground have not seen the bodies of the children or women,” a Sri Lankan army source said.
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