There are nearly 300,000 IDP'S in SRI LANKA. The cause, I am sure, we all know. But let me remind us all that the reason was the war with the LTTE (The Terrorist Group) that was beaten after 28 years of destruction.
Why 300,000 people? Well the facts are these: When the LTTE terrorists were withdrawing their fighters they not only took themselves, but at gunpoint took men, women and children with them as Human Shields. Now the point to be made is these people had no food, homes, sanitation, medical care etc, etc. While the Terrorists were fighting the Government forces these people were left on their own to fend for themselves. So the Sri Lankan government had to feed all these people taken forcibly by the LTTE. Not only that in addition to food, the Sri Lanka government has to sent them medicine, fuel, and other necessities for life. But unfortunately most of the food and other supplies were taken by the Terrorists. So here was a war fought by two sides and from one side the government has to feed both sides!
The World Food Program was responsible for this. What a WAR!
I have not heard one word from the Human Rights Groups about the IDP's when the war was was been going on. Now again the Human Rights Groups and some US bureaucrats are shouting that the IDPS should be resettled sooner that the government of Sri Lanka is taking too long.
Lets look at some facts in the US: Hurricane Katrina hit New Orleans 4 years ago and caused total havoc, displacing many millions of people. What has happened since then in New Orleans? According to Amy Liu of the Brookings Institute and Nigel Holmes (as published in the NYTimes of August 28, 2009) there were 198,232 Households receiving mail before Katrina, and today only 152,904 households are receiving mail. Before Katrina the Labour Force was 638,912, and today only 534,451. There were 129 Pubic Schools before Katrina, and today only 86. Daily transit riders were 71,543, and today only 31,007. In Orleans Parish alone there are 62,557 abandoned houses today out of 213,066 total houses. This tells the difficulty resettling people back into their own hoses after a natural catastrophe. If the worlds most powerful country take all that time, then surely Srilanka is doing a remarkable job resettling ite people after such a terrible war.
Please give Sri Lanka time and resources and sure they will do a better job than the US is doing in New Orleans.