The resettlement process of  persons temporary accommodated at welfare camps in Vavuniya is in full swing and as of today, the Government has resettled 40,000 civilians in their place of origin, Minister of Mass Media and Information Anura Priryadarshana Yapa said today (24).

Minister Yapa reiterated that the de-mining process cannot be completed overnight as the whole process has to be carried out delicately and in conformity with international standards to ensure that there is no threat after the return of civilians to their villages.

“We have provided adequate facilities for the IDPs in  transitional centers. Our efforts  have been commended by the internationally recognized bodies such as UN. So there is no reason for us to bother on what UNP says as we have understood that they are in a mission to hoodwink the public for their personal gains.” , cracked minister Yapa.

“No one is talking about the deprivation of human rights of innocent civilians when they were under the tyranny of LTTE,” Minsiter recalled..

While repeatedly rejecting the baseless allegations of Mangala Samaraweera who now suddenly  insists  the necessity of resettling these people at once, Minister Yapa emphasized that Samaraweera had not understood the ground reality in the region or he is either attempting to twist the real situation in favor of his political agenda.

It is the duty of a responsible Government to ensure that these people who are temporally accommodated in welfare camps are returned and resettled in a safe and secured area, he said adding “in this regard the demining process has to be done very carefully to make sure that mistakes are not made.

“It is a time consuming effort. We have deployed all the possible resources to demining the area. New demining machines have been deployed. Specially trained dogs are on the ground to detect the places mined. . After that it has to be provided an ‘air conditioned’ atmosphere for a certain period of time to uphold its ‘sense of smell’, Minister elaborated.

“Although it has passed 14 years since the war in Croatia has ended still the demining process is not completed,” he added.

Minster Anura Yapa further said that there has to been a clear screening process to identify the LTTE cadres living in these camps as they have to be enrolled into rehabilitation programmes.

“By now we have given an extensive rehabilitation programmes to some of these ex-LTTE combatants and some are ever privileged to leave for foreign jobs,” he said.

In reply to a query raised by a journalist, Minister Yapa said that it was factual that some ‘Garments’ have shutdown but it does not mean that the whole Garment industry is in a catastrophe as new investors have put up fresh ‘Garments’ in the country expanding the industry further.

“He said that although the UNP clams 500 garments under BOI has shut down we only have 370 garments registered under the BOI,” Minister said.