Prime Minister tells UNGA: IDP resettlement will be quick
PRIME Minister Ratnasiri Wickramanayaka promised anew that his Government would quickly re-settle all the civilians in the IDP welfare centres but he said the country cannot risk its hard won security from terrorism by being negligent of terrorist combatants hiding among the civilians.He was addressing the United Nations General Assembly sessions in New York on September 26. Prime Minister Wickramanayaka told the UN the top priority of his Government was to meet the humanitarian needs of the nearly 280,000 civilians who were freed from the decades long hold of the LTTE terrorists.
LIKE our Army saved the Tamil people from terrorism they will also rebuild their settlements with irrigation tanks , irrigation ducts and roads to a better standard than they ever existed before said Uthuru Vasanthaya Project Chairman and Senior Presidential Advisor Basil Rajapaksa, MP at a ceremony handing over 101 heavy construction equipment to the Army to rebuild the Northern Province infrastructure easing the rapid development and resettlement of IDP's in welfare centres.
MORE THAN 23,000 persons have been released for return and resettlement in the Jaffna, Ampara, Batticaloa, Trincomalee, Vavuniya and Mannar Districts. A further 9,000 persons belonging to special categories have been handed over to persons or institutions that will care for them. These include orphaned children, members of the clergy and their family members, persons over 60 years of age, university students, public servants and their families, pregnant women and disabled persons. The government is aware that there are trained and formerly active members of the LTTE among the IDPs, Minister of Disaster Management and Human Rights Mahinda Samarasingha said at the 60th Session of the Executive Committee of the UN High Commission for Refugees in Geneva yesterday.
MILITARY, Air and Naval Attaché to the Embassy of Russian Federation Colonel Vladimir K. Chernenko called on the Commander of the Army Lieutenant General Jagath Jayasuriya in his office at Army Headquarters Colombo Tuesday (29). The Russian diplomat during this first official visit to the Army Headquarters conveyed his greetings and best wishes to the Commander on his appointment as the new Commander.
A MEDIA conference to enlighten the local and foreign media on the proposed “Wellness Resort for totally disabled War Heroes”, a new project initiated by the Seva Vanitha Army Branch (SVAB) in collaboration with the Sri Lanka Army was held at the Regency Hall at Mt. Lavinia Hotel Tuesday (29) evening with attendance of a host of journalists representing both electronic and print media. Mrs. Manjulika Jayasuriya, President SVAB the innovator of this worthy project presided over the conference organized to get media assistance to generate funds for this costly project estimated at over Rs. 100 million. Major General Mendaka Samarasinghe, Chief of Staff of the Sri Lanka Army addressing the journalists extended his sincere thanks to media on behalf of the Commander.....
MULLAITIVU: TROOPS of Police Special Task Force (STF) conducted search operations in the general area of PUTHUKUDIRIPPU in MULLAITIVU on a tip-off and recovered one hundred and eighty seven VHF Low Band communication sets, five PRC booster, one hundred and fifty I-com sets, six communication base station power suppliers, seven speakers, one VHF base station, four hand mikes, forty-seven receivers, ten Motorola communication sets, two battery chargers, one Cougar hand held battery charger, three base antennas, .......
ARMY TROOPS serving Pannai area in Kayts, Jaffna were prompt in rescuing five passengers aboard an ill-fated three-wheeler when it ran into a 20 ft precipice and turned turtle in the seas while it was negotiating a big pothole on the road. Two Army soldiers of 11 Sinha Regiment (V) manning the nearby roadblock at Pannai witnessed the gravity of the three-wheeler accident ahead of them, and rushed to the beach area where the vehicle remained struck having turned upside down. Those soldiers immediately removed all the five inmates.....
FOURTEEN Internally Displaced Persons (IDP) of four families were re-settled in their original homesteads on completion of de-mining and other infrastructure work in those areas under “Negenahira Navodaya”, the government’s development programme in the east. Troops of the 234 Brigade assisted the whole project from the beginning and provided transport to civilians up to their villages in Eravur Divisional Secretariat area from Battacaloa Sinhalese School in Kallady where they had been temporarily housed.