Colombo (AsiaNews) - 170 thousand homes are still needed for refugees of the bloody civil war in Sri Lanka, which lasted more than 30 years. Exactly one year after its end, 19 May 2009, the situation of thousands of people who lost homes and jobs, remains grave.
According to the Red Cross at least 260 thousand homes were damaged in the war.
Vinayagamoorthy Muralitharan, Deputy Minister for Rehabilitation and a former top-level leader of the defeated Tamil Tigers, last week said that "about 17 thousand homes are required in the east, the rest are needed in the North”. 170 thousand are needed to house all of the remaining refugees.
According to the deputy minister in the Wanni area alone there were 280 thousand refugees. The government has often replied that the program of resettlement of refugees had to wait for mine clearance in many areas of the north. But he says that 80% of the north has now been cleared of landmines.
73 thousand refugees still live in internally displaced persons camps in the north, often with minimal services and with little or no job opportunities, scraping by on what little is guaranteed by state and charitable groups, but without being able to plan any future.
Muralitharan notes that areas in Mullaitivu, Kilinochchi and Thunukkai have yet to be cleared of mines, but many refugees have already been able to return to northern Vavuniya, Mannar and some areas of Kilinochchi and Mullaitivu. However they need to be provided with homes with basic services: electricity, running water, but also schools and aid programs to resume work and normal living standards.
"In these areas, many agencies are active-he adds - such as the World Bank, USAID, the UN Agency for Refugees and Save the Children." The World Bank, thanks to the fund dedicated to the rehabilitation of the north and east, has already built 58 thousand homes, and has plans to build more.