Maximum relief to civilians in No Fire Zone

LAKSHMI DE SILVA

The Government had given maximum relief and assistance to the Tamil civilians who were still in the clutches of the LTTE in the no fire zone (NFZ). Though there were many obstacles. Government provided 23,000 metric tons of food to the Tamil civilians on April 7, Mass Media and Information Minister Lakshman Yapa Abeywardene said. The Minister was addressing a press conference at his ministry yesterday.

He said, even after the ICRC refused to take food to the North the Government used a vessel that was taking patients to send 30 metric tons per day to the civilians and the food was utilised not only by the civilians but also the terrorists.

The efforts taken by the Government were praised by visiting Japanese special envoy Yasushi Akashi who made his seventeenth trip to the North recently.

He had visited the welfare villages and saw for himself the relief measures and facilities provided to the IDPs by the Government. Akashi with his long experience was well aware of the situation of the Vanni and its displaced people and the Government's sincere efforts to comfort the IDPs, the Minister said.

The Government had thanked the Japanese government for its assistance and special envoy Yasushi Akashi for his statement made appreciating the role of the Government in providing relief to the IDPs of the north, he noted.

Already 122 families had been resettled in their original places of residence in Mannar district last Thursday and the second batch would be resettled on May 11.

As in the Eastern Province the Northern Province too would be developed and democracy revived.

The civil administration in the Northern Province would be re-established when the demining process was over and people resettled under the Uthuru Vasanthaya program headed by Senior Presidential Advisor and Parliamentarian Basil Rajapaksa, Minister Abeywardene said.