Indian parliamentary delegation urges Sri Lanka resettle displaced

(April 20, 2012) An Indian parliamentary delegation, currently on a six-day visit to northern Sri Lanka, on Wednesday urged the government of the island nation to resettle the 200,000 internally displaced people still left in camps following the end of the country's civil war. "We would like to draw attention to a request we made about resettling the war displaced to their original homes," said N S B Chinthan, a member of the Indian lower house of parliament. Sri Lanka's Minister of Resettlement Gunaratne Weerakoon, who accompanied the 12 lawmakers of India in their visit, said that the 6,500 war-displaced Tamils still in the camp would go home by June this year. The delegation that also visited a refugee camp in Settikulam, will meet Sri Lankan President Mahinda Rajapaksa as well as representatives of the country's main Tamil parties. Between 1983 and 2009, Sri Lanka was plunged in a bloody civil war between the government and rebels from the Liberation Tamil Tigers of Elam (LTTE), who fought for an independent state in the country's predominantly Tamil Northern and Easter Provinces. Rapidly, the war turned into an ethnic conflict that ended with a crushing defeat of the rebels in 2009. A United Nations report, which accused Sri Lanka of war crimes, estimated at least 40,000 civilians were killed as a result of air strikes in the last phase of the war. Despite the end of hostilities, some 200,000 people remain in refugee camps.