Opposition Leader Ranil Wickremesinghe yesterday accused the Government of deliberately keeping the tens of thousands of Internally Displaced people (IDP)s inside camps in the north and said the manner in which the government was collecting money by exploiting them was scandalous.
Ranil Wickremesinghe |
“What are you going to do with all the money if you are going to keep IDPs in the camps? You are going to tax the Sri Lankan people; you are going to exploit the IDPs to get money and who is going to pocket this money? This has become scandalous in Sri Lanka and outside,” Mr. Wickremesinghe told the Sunday Times.
However Human Rights Minister Mahinda Samarasinghe said that the government was committed to its programme of resettling 80 percent of the IDPs by December. “The government has launched the 180-day resettlement programme and will stick to it,” he said.
In the Letter of Intent (LoI) with the IMF, the Government also reiterated its aims to resettle 70-80 percent of the IDPs by the end of the year. “The government has moved quickly to develop a post-war reconstruction plan. The immediate priority is addressing humanitarian needs of the estimated 280,000 IDPs,” the LoI said.
But the UNP leader said yesterday the basic requirements of the IDPs had not been met and people were dying inside the camps. “The government says the numbers are same as those who die outside the camps in similarly populated areas but in cities and villages how many children die because basic facilities were not available?” he asked.
Mr.Wickremesinghe said the causes of death showed that this was not something natural but due to a lack of food and basic medical attention in the camps.
He said doctors working in the camps were frightened to talk because they would be taken in and detained by the government.
He said opposition parties which took part in an adjournment debate on the IDP issue in Parliament recently were not satisfied with the answers given by the Government.
The Opposition Leader said the IDPs had requested the Government to give them money so that they could sustain themselves during one cultivation period and after that could live on their own. They also could have contributed to the agriculture production in the country and to bringing down the cost of living.
He said there was no objection to the Government saying that it wanted to identify the LTTE members in the camps. “The security forces have said there are around 10,000 LTTE members, of whom about 9,000 have been identified. If this is so why can’t the rest of the families be released?Why are you holding them?” he asked.
TheUNP leader warned that opposition parties would have to carry out a campaign to allow the displaced people who were Sri Lankan citizens to come out of the camps.
He said the Government was giving the country a bad name in the international community.
Minister Samarasinghe said that as a court case was pending on the opposition petition seeking permission to visit the IDP camps, he would not comment on the issue. |
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