By Walter Jayawardhana

Canada has dramatically increased her humanitarian aid to Sri Lanka from 7.5 million Canadian dollars to 22.5 million Canadian Dollars( 20 million US Dollars) immediately after Canadian Minister for International Cooperation Beverly Oda visited Sri Lanka.

ƒÆ’-¡ƒ”š‚ She said, ƒÆ’‚¢ƒ¢-¡‚¬ƒ…-During my visit to the displaced persons camp in Vavuniya, I witnessed the need of those who are living there. I am pleased that Canada is increasing its support to our partners in their work to provide basic humanitarian support to meet the needs of people affected by the conflict.ƒÆ’‚¢ƒ¢-¡‚¬ƒ”š‚

Immediately prior to the increase the Canadian Minister was visiting the IDP welfare centres in Sri Lanka and the capital city Colombo during a three day stay.

There were about 280,000 people in the IDP welfare camps run by the Sri Lanka government and a small part of them have been re-settled in their original villages.

But a large number of them still remain in the camps until the government troops and other international teams clear the villages of huge number of landmines buried in the villages mostly by the Tamil Tigers,