Top UN official visits camps housing Sri Lanka’s conflict-displaced

(Nov.18,2009): The top United Nations humanitarian official began his visit to Sri Lanka on Tuesday, with a stop at camps housing some of the civilians uprooted during the country’s decades-long conflict. He went to see what progress has been made in terms of releases and the remaining problems. The three-day visit is the fourth to the country this year for Under-Secretary-General for Humanitarian Affairs, John Holmes. He has raised the issue of internally displaced persons (IDPs) with officials on several occasions. There were more than 270,000 displaced people staying in closed camps after the conflict between the Government and the separatist Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE) ended in May. The UN High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) estimates that about 163,000 are still there. The residents in the camps in Jaffna that Holmes visited on Tuesday, continue to suffer from a lack of freedom of movement. They are hoping for an early return to their homes, or release from the camp, according to the UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA). Holmes, who is also UN Emergency Relief Coordinator, also spoke to some of the 60,000 recent returnees to Jaffna, who were happy to be out of the camps but continue to face problems, including separation from family members, and lack of means of livelihood.
Holmes also met the local government officials in Jaffna and was updated on the progress in the de-mining exercise to facilitate the return of IDPs to their areas of origin.
On Wed.Holmes was in Vavuniya, where most of those who fled the violence have been staying. He will return to the Sri Lankan capital, Colombo, to meet government officials and representatives of non-governmental organizations (NGOs) working in the country.