President tells UN Sec Gen:

IDP resettlement within 180 days

The Government is already working on a plan to resettle most of the Internally Displaced Persons (IDPs) within 180 days, President Mahinda Rajapaksa told UN Secretary General Ban Ki-Moon during a meeting at the President’s House in Kandy on Saturday.

The Government is already giving the highest priority to the issues raised by the UN Secretary General Ban Ki-moon with regard to the massive influx of IDPs, held hostage by the LTTE, and matters that have arisen following the defeat of LTTE terrorism, said President Rajapaksa at the meeting.

The Secretary General, who met the President after a visit to IDP relief villages in Vavuniya earlier on Saturday, said progress must come in three critical areas such as immediate humanitarian relief, followed by reintegration and reconstruction, leading to a sustainable and equitable political solution in Sri Lanka.

Responding to the Secretary General’s observation that progress on all these areas must proceed in parallel, with the least delay, President Rajapaksa said these areas had already been recognized as those needing the highest priority, and that work was already in place to address them.