COLOMBO, Nov 04, 2009 (Xinhua via COMTEX) -- The Sri Lankan government said Wednesday that it has resettled almost half of the 280,000 Internally Displaced Persons (IDPs) so far in their native places in Jaffna, Mannar, Vavuniya and Tincomalee districts of the Northern and Eastern Provinces.
Minister of Resettlement and Disaster Relief Services Risath Bathiyutheen told reporters that about 150,000 IDPs displaced by the war against the rebel Liberation Tigers of Tamil Elam (LTTE) are still being accommodated at the government run welfare camps in the north.
Bathiyutheen said with the reduction of IDPs, the military run welfare camps which have been closed for anyone so far would be opened.
"The Sri Lanka government's 180-day program launched under the 'Uthuru Wasanthaya' (Regaining the North) project will end by January 31. The government expects to resettle all IDPs before that date. The only barrier to resettle the people is landmines. That is why the government has accelerated the demining program," Bathiyutheen said.
Nation Building Minister S. M. Chandrasena said the government is using 19 machines for demining in the North.
"There are another five machines to be received within the next few days. There were 1,000 army personnel engaged in the de-mining process along with those machines," said Chandrasena.
The LTTE had been fighting for more than two decades to carve out an independent Tamil homeland in the north and east before it was crushed by the troops in May.
