The Government will discuss with the visiting UN Humanitarian Affairs Chief Sir John Holmes on how the two parties could work closely in the post conflict phase in areas of rehabilitation of civilians and re-integration of ex-combatants into society, Human Rights Minister Mahinda Samarasinghe told The Sunday Times last night.
 |
| Sir John Holmes |
Sir John arrived in Sri Lanka yesterday for a three day visit as pressure mounted on the government to allow more UN involvement in the rehabilitation of displaced civilians.
Mr. Samarasinghe said the Government saw a definite role for the UN in the post conflict phase. “The displaced people will have to be rehabilitated, and ex combatants reintegrated to society. We also need to resettle the displaced people and provide them a livelihood with essential infrastructure facilities. In all these areas we believe the UN can be our partner,” Mr. Samarasinghe said.
Referring to the request to allow UN access to the conflict area, the minister said though in principle the Government was in agreement to such a visit, it had to be discussed in detail due to the security risks and logistical problems.
“When the UN made a request during the visit by the Secretary General’s Chief of Staff Vijay Nambiar there were an estimated 150,000 civilians in the No Fire Zone but since April 20, more than 109,000 have come over to government controlled areas.
The two main issues concerning this request now are security of the UN officials and access to this small area where the remaining displaced people are trapped,” the Minister said. He said the UN too would now have to decide whether its officials still wanted to go into this small area.
|
E-mail