Colombo has failed to bring normalcy to Northeast - FJDMA

[TamilNet, Sunday, 15 June 2003, 11:08 GMT]
The Federation of the Jaffna District Minibus Association (FJDMA) Sunday told the United National Front (UNF) government that it has failed to create a conducive situation in the northeast province enabling the internally displaced families to return to their villages. "Instead the government is insisting on maintaining the high security zones in residential areas according to the agenda of its military," the Federation said in a statement, Jaffna sources said.

Tens of thousands of internally displaced Tamil families were expecting to return to their own villages and cultivate their fertile lands sixteen months ago when the Government of SriLanka (GoSL) and the Liberation Tigers (LTTE) signed a truce agreement. However the government has not shown interest in alleviating the difficulties of the Internally Displaced People (IDPs) by removing the HSZ in the northeast province. The government appears to be dictated by the agenda of the military in maintaining the HSZ in the province, the statement said.

The Sub Committee on immediate rehabilitation and humanitarian needs (SIHRN), which was created to expedite rehabilitation and reconstruction of the war-ravaged northeast, is now defunct. The Sri Lanka government, which obtained a mandate for the establishing an interim administrative council in the northeast in the 2001 general election, is now taking cover behind the present constitution to abandon its election pledge, the statement said.

The undertaking given by the Prime Minister Mr.Ranil Wickremasinghe at the Japan donors' conference is ambiguous. The setting up of an interim administrative structure with powers to formulate and implement development, reconstruction and rehabilitation projects with the LTTE at the helm would help to salvage the peace process from its present impasse, the Federation of JDMAS said in its statement, sources said.