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Durable Solutions
Progress Report
A weekly bulletin of the United Nations IDP Working
Group
May 20-26 |
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| IDP SPONTANEOUS RETURN |
United
Nations agencies conducted basic-needs assessments
in 214 Grama Sevaka divisions during the course of
the week to identify urgent requirements and coordinate
the UN’s response to the return of more than
71,000 internally displaced persons (IDPs) in seven
districts since Jan. 1, 2002. UNHCR meanwhile continued
to distribute non-food relief items, such as plastic
sheeting, cooking utensils, mosquito nets, towels
and soap, and plastic jerry-cans, in coordination
with government authorities, other UN agencies and
partners. |
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Data on IDP returnees
to Jaffna, Kilinochchi, Mullaitivu, Mannar, Vavuniya,
Trincomalee and Batticaloa districts was collected
using the Rapid Village Assessment Forms that had
been developed by the UN Inter-Agency IDP Working
Group. The rapid-assessment process will inform the
UN’s plan to support the management of IDP and
refugee spontaneous return for the remainder of 2002;
this will be presented on June 17 to the Local Development
Forum, which has been pushed back from June 5-6.
Preliminary analysis of the data collected through
the Rapid Village Assessment process indicates that
mines and unexploded ordinance (UXOs) present problems
to resettlement. While the majority of IDPs seem to
be regaining their property rights, there is a high
degree of destruction to original housing and facilities,
with the greatest damage in Mullativu and Kilinochchi.
Food rations are being distributed in most areas.
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| GEOGRAPHIC INFORMATION SYSTEMS |
Two UNHCR information
management (IM) specialists concluded their 10-day
mission in Sri Lanka on May 23, having assessed the
current IM capacity of UN agencies and discussed avenues
for improving coordination and planning within the
UN. Links and capacity-building opportunities with
government ministries and other humanitarian actors
also were explored in meetings held with the Ministry
of Rehabilitation, Resettlement and Refugees (MRRR),
the Census Department, the Resettlement & Rehabilitation
Authority of the North and the German non-governmental
organisation GTZ.
The consultants looked at how data from ongoing exercises
such as the IDP registration and the Rapid Village
Assessments can be integrated into a larger information-sharing
environment utilising Geographic Information Systems
(GIS) software technology. UNCHR has hired a GIS consultant
for three months to carry forward the work initiated
with the specialists on mission, aiming at the development
of a more sustainable capacity to manage data related
to IDPs and returnees.
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| IDP REGISTRATION |
The MRRR’s
registration of IDPs continued throughout the island,
with training of enumerators for the Colombo District
being conducted on May 24. The actual surveying of
IDPs has been completed in Kilinochchi, Mullaitivu,
Mannar and Vavuniya districts, with only the preliminary
tabulation of registration forms to be done. A preliminary
report on the survey is expected in June.
All persons currently living in the country who have
been forced or obliged to leave their homes because
of armed conflict, situations of generalised violence
or violations of human rights since 1983 are eligible
to register, as are formerly displaced persons who
have returned home after Dec. 31, 2000.
The MRRR has instructed
IDPs in the South, Central and Eastern parts of the
island, where registration has only recently begun
in some areas, to contact their Government Agents
for details about where and when registration will
be held. Registration in Colombo will be conducted
on weekdays during office hours at the Government
Agent's office on Dam Street, Colombo 12, and at the
Divisional Secretariat’s office on Vajira Lane,
Colombo 5.
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| REFUGEES |
UNHCR began final preparations to facilitate
the voluntary repatriation of three refugees from India
scheduled to return by plane on May 29. These persons,
one elderly man and two elderly women, are among a group
of 15 staying in south Indian government refugee camps
who UNHCR had agreed to repatriate urgently on humanitarian
grounds because of their vulnerability, based on criteria
such as age, physical and mental health, and availability
of family support.
More than 600 of the estimated 66,000 Sri Lankan refugees
living in government camps in south India have during
the course of the last year requested UNHCR’s
assistance to return. Of these, UNHCR is expediting
the cases of 85, including those mentioned above, on
the basis of assessed vulnerability. UNHCR facilitated
the voluntary repatriation of more than 100,000 Sri
Lankans from south India, in two waves corresponding
with low-level hostilities, between 1987 and 1995. |
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| CONTACT DETAILS |
| For further information on UN programmes
for returnees, please contact the following: |
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| Office of the UN Resident Co-ordinator:
Patrick Vandenbruaene, Humanitarian Adviser to the UN
Resident Coordinator. E-mail: patrick.vandenbruaene@undp.org |
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| UNDP (United Nations
Development Programme) – Mr. Mitchell Carlson,
Head of the Umbrella Project. Telephone: (94) 1 580691;
e-mail:
mitchell.carlson@undp.org |
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| UNHCR (United Nations
High Commissioner for Refugees) – Mr. Mike DeSisti,
Public Information Officer. Telephone: (94) 1 683968,
ext. 354; e-mail: desisti@unhcr.ch;
Internet: www.unhcr.ch
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| UNICEF (United Nations
Childrens Fund) -- Mr. Jean-Luc Bories, Head of Programme,
Children Affected by Armed Conflict. Telephone: (94)
1 551331; e-mail:
jlbories@unicef.org; Internet: www.unicef.org |
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| FAO (Food and Agricultural
Organisation) – Mr. James Breen, Emergency Co-ordinator;
Telephone: 580798/588537; e-mail: FAO-LKA@field.fao.org |
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| UNFPA (United Nations
Population Fund) --- Telephone: 580840; e-mail:
unfpa.lk@undp.org |
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| WFP (World Food Programme)
– Mr. Hakan Tongul, Assistant Country Director.
Telephone: 586244; e-mail: Hakan.Tongul@wfp.org |
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