SRI LANKA MOVES 600 PRIESTS OUT OF IDP WELFARE CAMPS FOR RESETTLEMENT
Posted on August 26th, 2009
By Walter Jayawardhana
Sri Lanka moved out 600 Hindu and Catholic priests to resettle in the original churches and temples on Wednesday from the IDP welfare camps run by the government.
They were living with the rest of the internally displaced persons who were moved there during the war with the LTTE and Sri Lanka government troops.
ƒÆ’‚¢ƒ¢-¡‚¬ƒ…-We are taking measures to allow resettlement for the remaining clergy to move back to their original places of service, the senior government official in the area Mrs. P.S.Charles said.
571 Hindu priests, 6 Catholic priests, and two nuns were moved out of IDP camps. Officials said 220 priests were still remaining in the camps.
Demining the areas where the IDPƒÆ’‚¢ƒ¢-¡‚¬ƒ¢-¾‚¢s are to be resettled and screening all IDPƒÆ’‚¢ƒ¢-¡‚¬ƒ¢-¾‚¢s to identify LTTE combatants who are hiding themselves among the civilians are two reasons that delay the resettlement of IDPƒÆ’‚¢ƒ¢-¡‚¬ƒ¢-¾‚¢s and move them out of the camps.
The people who are temporary housed in welfare camps will soon be resettled in their original places of residence when the de-mining process is completed and security is assured, Senior Presidential Advisor and Parliamentarian, Basil Rajapaksa said addressing a progress review committee in the North.
ƒÆ’-¡ƒ”š‚ He said the resettlement areas from the point of infrastructure have got to be built from point zero.
ƒÆ’-¡ƒ”š‚ He also told officials to strictly adhere to the 180 day development programme and complete the all relevant activities on schedule.
Under the Northern Spring development programme the Government has initiated mega development programmes on par with other development work considered necessary prior to the resettlement of all the civilians in transition centers.
August 27th, 2009 at 2:34 pm
791 (571 + 220), Hindu Priests for a population of IDPs numbering about 280,000 is almost unbelievable ! that
means there is a Hindu Priest for every 353 people (this figure includes infants !). Also, there have been some Catholic
Priests there as well. So it’s something like a priest for every 350 people. All of Lanka has some 5,000 Buddhist Priests.
There are some 15 Million Buddhists in Lanka. That works out roughly a Buddhist Priest for every 3,000 people. Therefore,
Prabhakaran’s ‘Human Shield’ had a very pious & religious group of people in comparison to the south (!) – or did lots of people ‘don the cloth’ suddenly to be set free of camp life. Are these people hard core ltte ? Lanka Intelligence units should check these priests carefully.