Resettlement to commence after demining Thiriyai village

[TamilNet, Saturday, 10 August 2002, 09:20 GMT]
Five hundred and thirteen displaced Tamil families are to be resettled in Thiriyai village in the Trincomalee district in the first stage during September after demining is completed. "The Prime Minister has allocated five million rupees for the resettlement in addition to 3.5 million rupees already allocated," said Mr.R.Sampanthan, Trincomalee district parliamentarian addressing a top level conference held Friday evening at the Trincomalee district secretariat. The Government Agent Mr.N.H.K.Nelumdeniya presided.

National list parliamentarian Mr.K.Thurairatnasingham, Contingent Commander of the Navy in Nilaveli Jayantha de Silva, Project Director of the (NECORD) North East Community Restoration and Development organisation funded by the Asian Development bank Mr.K.Lankanesan, acting head of the UNHCR in Trincomalee Mr.David Del Cante and leading member of the LTTE in Trincomalee Mr.Rajesh and representatives of the Thiriyai displaced families also attended the conference also participated in the discussion.

Local heads of armed forces, government departments, and non-governmental organisations in the Trincomalee district attended the conference, which worked out a programme to resettle the displaced in Thiriyai stage by stage.

At the commencement Trincomalee MP Mr.Sampanthan briefed the history of Thiriyai village. "There were 1399 Tamil families lived in Thiriyai. They were displaced in 1985 violence. Following the Indo-Sri Lanka pact about 1017 families returned to the village. Again in 1990 violence except about sixty families others had left the village. In 1995 the rest also were displaced," said Mr.Sampanthan.

Now five hundred and thirteen displaced families had come to Trincomalee and living in temporary huts at Nilaveli with the hope of returning to their lands in Thiriyai, Mr.Sampanthan.

"They should be provided with the necessary facilities to rebuild their lives. They should be rehabilitated to lead a respectable and decent life," stressed Mr.Sampanthan.

UNHCR representative Mr David Del Cante said before the commencement of the resettlement programme, the village should be ensured free of mines and other explosive devices. He said a team of demining experts is expected to arrive in Trincomalee by the end of August to demine Thiriyai village.

It was agreed at the conference to start the resettlement of the displaced after demining the village. Local heads of government departments were asked to prepare estimates immediately to start several development projects in the sphere of education, health, electricity supply, irrigation and postal services.

Mr.Sampanthan appealed to local heads of government departments to take every step to resettle the displaced before the northeast monsoon begins in time to start their paddy cultivations in their paddy lands after twelve years.