GIVETHEIDPSWHAT THEYWANT: JVP

Internally Displaced People (IDPS) who were originally living in the Mullathivu Coast and were engaged in fisheries as a livelihood have been resettled in an inland village Thimbili in the same district by violating the UN Convention on the status of refugees, JVP charged yesterday.

JVP Propaganda Secretary Vijitha Herath told a news conference yesterday that these people were made to resettle in a 400 perch land. These people he said were unable to restart their livelihood as they are made to resettle in an area which is far from the coast.

“This, he said “is not ‘resettlement’ but ‘relocation’ ‘according to the UN Convention,” he said alleging that forests have been cleared to resettle the IDPS.

Mr. Herath said what the

These people are unable to restart their livelihood as they are made to resettle in an area which is far from

the coast

internally displaced persons (IDPS) want is to go back to the villages in which they were residing earlier and this is the very thing they have told the Indian Parliamentary delegation that visited Menik farm recently.

Therefore he said talks on power devolution which go beyond the 13th Amendment to the Constitution which the Indian delegation and the Sri Lankan government is talking of is useless as the war affected people in the North had not asked for any power devolution. “The govern- ment should not waste time giving assurances on devolving power and denying them from time to time and should understand the reality,” he added. Besides, the JVP Propaganda Secretary said it was the government which was paving the way for foreign intervention. He therefore said the recent visit of the Indian delegation was the second episode of the Geneva drama.

JVP Propaganda Secretary Vijitha Herath speaking to the media yesterday where he stressed those IDPS in the North should be allowed to go back to their original places of settlement. (Pic by Nisal Baduge)