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UN:
DISPLACED FOR 10 YEARS, SRI LANKANS FIND NEW HOMES UNDER UN-BACKED
PROJECT: 03/10/2007 (MaximsNews Network)
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UNITED NATIONS - / MaximsNews Network /
- 03 October 2007 -
More than 360 displaced families have been
given new homes in northern Sri Lanka under a United Nations-backed programme
after spending a decade in overcrowded welfare centres for internally displaced
persons (IDP).
The
Government allocated half an acre of land per family in the first two relocation
sites, while the UN High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) funded the
construction of houses with donor support. A further 135 houses were completed
by the UN Development Programme (UNDP) under an Australian-supported scheme.
Overall
365 families received housing certificates and keys to their new homes at a
handover ceremony in Vavuniya district last week ¬ – 100 families at the
Kankankulam relocation site, 130 at Kalmadu and 135 at Manipuram.
“We
are very happy living here,” said an IDP who came from Mullativu division, one
of the main hotspots of the conflict between Government forces and the
separatist Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE). “We feel safer than in
Pavatkulam IDP village, where we lived for about 10 years.”
His
family had been forced to leave their village in 1999 for Mannar district in the
north-west, but they were later forced to flee again to Vavuniya.
“During
our displacement, we lost our house and our livestock. We had nothing until we
were allocated land and a new house in Kankankulam village,” he added, looking
happily at his new property.
There
are many more displaced Sri Lankans who have been living in Vavuniya’s welfare
centres and IDP villages for more than a decade. For most, the conflict in
northern Sri Lanka means that returning home is still not an option due to
concern for physical safety and the lack of access to livelihoods. Under these
circumstances, relocation is the most appropriate durable solution.
Since
2006, UNHCR, in collaboration with local authorities and other humanitarian
agencies, has been building entire villages in Vavuniya district and helping
hundreds of people to re-establish their lives. It will continue to advocate
with the Government to identify suitable land where long-term IDPs can be
relocated, providing them with an opportunity to start a better life in their
own home.
The
UNHCR office in Vavuniya is working with local authorities and other
humanitarian agencies to open a new relocation site in Cheddikulam division next
year to host another 300 IDP families who cannot return to their areas of
origin. Meanwhile, displacement continues amid fighting further north, with some
15,000 people fleeing their homes
Labels: United
Nations, U.N.,
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MaximsNews.com, An Independent Voice from the
U.N., provides commentary and analysis from
leading world figures: King Abdullah II
(Jordan), HRH Prince Zeid Ra'ad Zeid Al-Hussein
(Jordan), Sir Brian Urquhart, Hans Blix, Amb.
Richard Holbrooke, Anwar Ibrahim, Bianca Jagger,
Dr. Nafis Sadik, Shashi Tharoor, Thoraya Ahmed Obaid, Noeleen Heyzer,
Masood Haider, Kerry
Kennedy, Ian Williams, Stephen Schlesinger, Sen.
Timothy E. Wirth, Marc Morial, Amb. Jayantha
Dhanapala (Sri Lanka), Amb. Pierre Schori
(Sweden), Amb. William H. Luers, Susan Roosevelt
Weld, Rory Kennedy, Mehri
Madarshahi, J. Michael Adams, Gloria Feldt,
Jeffrey Laurenti, Rodney D. Smith, Ashley
Bommer, Rory
O'Connor, Genevieve Stamper, Max Stamper and
others.
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