Mr. S.P. Tamilchelvan,
Head of the LTTE delegation to SIHRN
Kilinochchi
Your letter dated April 23 reached us while the government delegation was
preparing itself to attend the meeting of the Sub committee on Immediate
Humanitarian and Rehabilitation Needs (SIHRN) scheduled on April 25 and 26.
In fact, the key issues highlighted in your letter had been included in the
proposed agenda for the scheduled meeting. The government delegation, which
met for a pre sub committee meeting had already decided to propose
alternative approaches to overcome the temporary constraints facing SIHRN.
We were expecting to discuss these approaches with your delegation during
the scheduled meeting.
I am confident that you are fully aware of the reasons for the delay in
finalising the agreement with the World Bank relating to the North East
Reconstruction Fund (NERF), and that the government is in no way responsible
for that delay.
Over the last few weeks the Secretariat for Coordinating the Peace Process
(SCOPP) had been in contact with the World Bank office in Colombo on a
regular basis with a view to expediting the resolution of outstanding
issues. The World Bank has assured us that all agreements pertaining to the
establishment and operation of the North East Reconstruction Fund (NERF)
would be completed within several weeks.
The government shares the sentiments expressed by the LTTE in this regard
and is sensitive to the fact that donor contributions already committed to
the NERF cannot be disbursed for projects approved by the sub committee. In
regard to this, the government delegation after extensive deliberation had
formulated an interim measure to enable the commencement of approved
projects. These measures were to be discussed with you at the sub committee
meeting, which has been postponed. In light of this situation, we have
requested the facilitator, the Royal Norwegian government, to brief you on
this proposal.
You would appreciate the fact that a considerable number of projects would
have been approved by SIHRN, had the meeting taken place as scheduled. As
the meeting has now been postponed, may I suggest that we jointly request
Director, SIHRN to go ahead with the preparation of estimates, etc., in
respect of those projects, so that all preliminary arrangements would be in
place for them to take off the ground no sooner receiving the approval of
the sub committee.
In relation to your comments regarding urgent action on resettlement of
internally displaced persons and refugees, may I point out that the
formulation of the accelerated resettlement programme for the Jaffna
District and the resettlement programme for the Mannar District by the SIHRN
secretariat in collaboration with UNHCR, have been completed and was
awaiting a decision at the next sub committee meeting.
On the pledges made by donor community at the Oslo donor conference in
November 2002, the Director General, Department of External Resources has
contacted the relevant donor countries to ascertain specific information on
the quantum of funds they wish to provide to NERF. However, the postponement
of the sub committee meeting has caused the donor community to raise
questions about the resolve of SIHRN to pursue rehabilitation activity,
which is likely to cause further delays in securing funds. The government,
while regretting this development, will do everything in its power to
persuade the donor community to make available resources already committed
by them to SIHRN to continue its humanitarian and rehabilitation work.
Yours sincerely,
Bernard A.B. Goonetilleke
Head of the government delegation to SIHRN
