UN Pledges Support for Returning Sri Lankans
2009-11-20 11:18
John Holmes, the United Nations Under Secretary General for Humanitarian Affairs and Emergency Relief Coordinator, was visiting the island nation of Sri Lanka on Thursday.
Holmes has been assessing the resettlement and release of people displaced by civil war between government forces and Tamil Tiger rebels.
[John Holmes, UN Emergency Relief Coordinator]:
"It is very clear that the displaced people are very glad to be going back to their homes and we hope that process continue as it indeed appear set to do with some speed in the next couple of months. And we hope also that the fundamental issue that we've raised in many occasions before that is the need for the freedom of movement of the displaced people whether they are in the camps or elsewhere.”
Data from the Ministry of Disaster Management indicates that Sri Lanka has released over 150,000 Tamil war refugees from concentrated and military-run camps as of Thursday.
Over 132,000 people are now living in the camps.
More than 90 percent of those released were being held in the Manik Farm camp which Holmes toured on Tuesday.
[John Holmes, UN Emergency Relief Coordinator]:
"I welcome very much the recent pace of release and returns of internally displaced people from the camps. It is very good to see, as the minister was saying, the number of people in the Manik Farm camp, the main camp, is now just under half of what it was at its peak.”
Rights groups said that the people in the camps were treated poorly and were being kept there longer than necessary.
Top U.N. officials have acknowledged the government's effort in the long process of resettling the refugees.
U.N. officials say they will push for the freedom of Tamil refugees to move about the country freely.
