Peace in Sri Lanka

Durable Solutions Progress Report
The Bulletin of the United Nations Inter-Agency IDP Working Group
No. 5: August 6, 2002

Based on most recent estimates the UN Inter-Agency IDP Working Group continues to use the conservative estimate of 103,000-plus internally displaced persons (IDPs) who have returned home, relocated elsewhere or remain in transit since Jan. 1, 2002. The spontaneous movement of IDPs towards villages of origin continued during July in districts throughout the North and East. UNHCR continues to maintain that conditions are not yet right for large-scale, organised return of IDPs and refugees. In Jaffna, Trincomalee and north Vavuniya NFRI packages were distributed to more than 3,200 families since the beginning of June.

The IDP registration process is completing the enumeration stage and about to move into the data?entry stage. A company is currently being selected to enter the expected 250,000 registration forms into a database. This is not an insignificant step, requiring a team of one to two hundred data entry operators to enter each form twice to ensure a strict level of accuracy. This work will require two to three months and should be completed by November. Initially a representative portion of the forms will be entered to provide a snapshot of the IDP situation. The MRRR’s Policy, Planning and Co-ordination Unit is expected to generate a preliminary report containing information based on a random sample of 10 percent of the IDPs surveyed. This should be ready within three weeks of entry (around mid-September).

The UNDP met with both the GoSL (National Steering Committee) and National Mine Action regarding the establishment of guidelines pertaining to mine clearance and awareness. Progress has been made in relation to donor and partner co-ordination to mobilise additional resources and capacity building.

The nucleus of the National Mine Action Programme has established its presence in Colombo. The team consists of a Chief Technical Adviser, Mr Alex van Roy, who along with Ms Camilla Madsen, the technical adviser for Mine Risk Education, will be based in Colombo. The technical advisers at the field level are Ms Leonie Barnes who will be based in Vavuniya and responsible for the North Eastern area and the Vanni, and Mr Tim Horner who will be responsible for and based in Jaffna.

The National Mine Action Programme will be led by a National Steering Committee, and administered by the National Mine Action Office. The role of the office will be to accredit, license, coordinate and monitor activities relating to mine action. The office will serve mine action in Sri Lanka through advice and the provision of a positive environment for the conduct of mine action. Administration of this role will be devolved at the district level in Vavuniya and Jaffna where small district mine action offices will be established within the GA office. The National Mine Action Programme will work initially to locate mine-affected areas and identify priorities for mine action in relation to the movement of IDPs and for conflict-affected persons in those mine and UXO affected areas.

FAO reports based on a visit to Jaffna in July indicate that although there has been widespread destruction, deforestation and mine sowing, the state of agricultural productivity can be promising with appropriate interventions made to supplement the already resilient farmers organisations in operation. As the peace matures, confidence in the future of this region to produce agricultural goods also rises. However FAO indicates that major inputs of seed, tools, sprayers, water pumps, fishing gear and livestock improvements are needed to assist the large numbers of IDP returnees. The FAO also reports, based on a July trip to Hambantota, that more than 3,000 wells had been dug in the district but the majority of them had high saline levels therefore making them unusable. The area has suffered a severe reduction in rainfall in both 2000 and 2001 and poor Yala season rains in 2002. However the report notes that there are ways of harnessing the existing agricultural and livestock resources in more efficient ways to stave off food and water scarcity problems.

Anticipating the likelihood of increased return if the peace process continues to move forward, the FAO has prepared a prospective package of inputs intended to benefit approximately 35,000 farm families this year. These packages include seeds, tools and sprayers, and a new herbicide for paddy that is more environmental friendly, cheaper and more effective than more commonly used herbicides. It is essential that returnees receive seeds before the beginning of the Maha season in October if they are to have the opportunity for a good harvest. Tools to clear land that in some cases has been un-tilled for 10 or more years are needed even earlier, so that the work can begin as soon as possible.

Another urgent need, according to the FAO report, is to re-train returnee farmers and locally stationed agricultural officers, extend credit to workers in the fishing industry and provide equipment such as motorcycles and solar refrigerators (to store vaccines for livestock). The World Food Programme is also addressing some of these issues.

In late-July, WFP conducted field visits to the Vavuniya area to identify Food-for-Work sites where the focus would be on rehabilitating agricultural infrastructure such as minor irrigation tanks, channels, bunds and agricultural rural roads. WFP subsequently sent two missions to evaluate 105 potential sites in five districts of Vavuniya (including Mullaitivu, Kilinochchi, Mannar and Vavuniya) for mine safety. Based on discussions with local residents 90% of the land was deemed safe and therefore work will begin in mid-August. WFP will commence by conducting briefings and training sessions with the appropriate people in the field regarding how Food-for-Work programs operate.

There are still concerns regarding the fate of refugees spontaneously returning from India. Representative Neill Wright, UNHCR, travelled to New Dehli to meet with the UNHCR Charge de Mission in India. Among the issues discussed were how to strengthen operations between UNHCR offices in India and Sri Lanka and to look into preparations for the future facilitation of voluntary repatriation from Tamil Nadu camps to Sri Lanka.

The GoSL convened a workshop on Strategies and Modalities of Implementation Coordination of the “Triple R” Programme 2/3 August, 2002. The workshop was chaired by Mr. Bradman Weerakoon, the Secretary to the Prime Minister and Commissioner-General for the Coordination of the “Triple R”. Discussion focused on the role of the NCCR and the proposed organisational structure and implementing mechanism for coordination. Some of the noteworthy results included announcement that the World Bank has a reserve of funds that will be allocated to Sri Lanka for rehabilitation and development work forthcoming in the last quarter of 2002. Other discussion items included ways to define roles and priorities of state agencies operating at all levels (central, provisional and district); lack of resources to accommodate the immediate needs of IDP returnees; presence of mines/UXOs; necessity of including LTTE in the implementing process; the importance of a ‘bottom-up’ approach; resource constraints; UAS distribution; institutional capacity limitations; the necessity of more relief and rehabilitation work; and high expectations from IDP survey results.