UN Rep meets Champoor uprooted families

[TamilNet, Thursday, 16 September 2010, 05:14 GMT]
The Champoor Displaced Persons Welfare Association (CDPWA) on behalf of around six thousand five hundred persons of about 1,300 uprooted Tamil families from Moothoor east Wednesday handed over a memorandum to Neil Buhne, the UN Resident Representative and Human Coordinator appealing to him to take steps to ensure their early resettlement in their traditional villages now being declared as high security zone by the Sri Lankan forces and acquired for the proposed coal mine power plant with the assistance of the Government of India.

Mr. Neil Buhne led group of representatives of UN agencies on a three day visit to the Eastern province that commenced on Tuesday.

On the second day of their visit, the UN team inspected the transit camps at Thoappor and Ki'liveddi in Moothoor DS division where the uprooted families are sheltered.

The president of the CDPWA, L.Nageswaran, handed a memorandum to Neil Buhune while the UN team was inspecting the transit camps on their way to Batticaloa via Verukal river.

Tamil families from Champoor, Koo'niththeevu, Choodaikkudaa, Champukazhi and several other areas in Champoor division fled from their homes in the 2006 military operation launched by the Sri Lanka Army and sought refuge elsewhere including in Batticaloa district. They were brought back and sheltered in transit camps in Thoappoor and Ki'liveddi thereafter.

The Sri Lankan forces and the government have refused permission for them to resettle in their traditional villages under the guise of high security zone.

Lands belonging to the Tamil families have been earmarked for the proposed construction of Indian funded coal power plant.

For the last five years, the uprooted families have been undergoing untold hardships without basic facilities for their survival. Hence the association on behalf of the families appeals to the UN to take into consideration their plight and ensure their early resettlement in their traditional villages, the memorandum states.

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