Recent actions of the Government, include the restoration of North-South access through the A9 and the gradual resettlement of detained IDPs. The National Peace Council holds that these are long overdue yet commendable policy shifts and steps towards the reunification of Sri Lanka and its people. While these actions extend a conciliatory hand towards the Tamil minority, the large scale destruction of infrastructure in their home areas and certain administrative obstacles may impede the realization of their purpose. There are reports of IDPs in camps still remaining subject to restrictions on their movement. Travel on the A9 highway by public transport continues to involve long delays due to the requirement of travelling in convoys.
Freedom of movement for the displaced population needs to go beyond allowing them to leave the camps but be reinforced by providing essential survival assistance. Resettlement plans, while accelerated, have not completely addressed all the needs of returning IDPs, with the most serious lapses occurring in the lack of adequate access to reliable information, food, shelter, safety, and healthcare. The financial resources placed in the hands of those resettled are also meagre compared to what they have lost and what they need to begin to rebuild their lives. Administrative and policy-based shortcomings such as these can sow the seeds of dissatisfaction which a more compassionate policy could dispel.
In order to provide for their basic human needs it is crucial that all available resources both local and international, are immediately mobilized towards the alleviation of their conditions. Civil society including international NGOs can play an important role as was shown following the tsunami. There are so many calls on the funds of the government which is facing a fall in revenues due to the global recession. NPC believes that productive collaboration between civil society and the government would also address the current deficiencies in the implementation of reconstruction and rehabilitation. We appeal to the Government to enact a transparent policy on providing civil society with free access to the Vanni and the Jaffna peninsula, including resettled lands, so that it may assist in the reconstruction programs under the direction of the Government.
Governing Council
The National Peace Council is an independent and non partisan organisation that works towards a negotiated political solution to the ethnic conflict in Sri Lanka. It has a vision of a peaceful and prosperous Sri Lanka in which the freedom, human rights and democratic rights of all the communities are respected. The policy of the National Peace Council is determined by its Governing Council of 20 members who are drawn from diverse walks of life and belong to all the main ethnic and religious communities in the country.
