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UNITED NATIONS AND OTHER AID AGENCIES PREDICT MORE AID AND PROSPERITY TO EASTERN PROVINCE ONCE DEVASTATED BY WAR AND TERRORISM

By Walter Jayawardhana

The new civil administration installed after the Provincial Council elections in the Eastern Province of Sri Lanka would make it more likely for some economic recovery and increased assistance from the humanitarian community said United Nations and other officials who were predicting normalcy and stability to the province once devastated by war and terrorism.

"The new civil administration structure now in place could provide the stage for programmes that would allow the people to return to their normal lives and regain lost livelihoods," Zola Dowell, head of the UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA) in Sri Lanka said in a statement.

Pillaiyan, a former rebel who chose the democratic mainstream, taking oaths as the Chief Minister of the sprawling former terrorist stronghold , before President Mahinda Rajapaksa of the country , has become the icon of the dawning era.

“Much of the Eastern Province, which includes Batticaloa, Ampara and Trincomalee districts, was devastated by fighting in 2006-2007 between the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE) and the government, with hundreds of thousands of people displaced and homes and livelihoods destroyed. Most of the displaced have returned to their villages in the past year,” the news service of Ocha said..

"The elections could also become the start for the return of more stability in the region," Zola Dowell further said.

A functional, regional administrative structure, the first of its kind in more than 15 years, would also see a shift from the focus on humanitarian work to large-scale, long-term development work, if it can win the confidence of donors and financial institutions, aid officials said.

"Despite the criticism of its conduct, the poll is now over and we could see large development banks and others like UN agencies committing to development projects now that there is a proper system and probably more security," Joergen Kristensen, country director of the Norwegian Refugee Council (NRC), an NGO working in the province, told the OCHA nres service.

President Mahinda Rajapakse termed the electoral victory an endorsement of government policies and pledged to press ahead with development work.

"I look forward to their [the elected members'] cooperation in the country's march to strengthen and widen democracy throughout our country, and to assisting in the tasks already initiated and ahead to develop the Eastern Province," he said in a statement soon after the election results were announced.
The government gained full control of the province in July 2007 and first held elections for local government bodies in Batticaloa District in March 2008, followed by the weekend poll.

More than 124,000 internally displaced people (IDPs) in Eastern Province have returned to their villages as of April 2008, according to OCHA. It said 108,000 of the returnees were in Batticaloa District alone, although some 30,000 still remained in the province.

NRC's Kristensen cautioned that before moving into large development work, the return of all IDPs in the province should be completed.

"Some of these people have been displaced since 2006," Kristensen told IRIN, the news service of OCHA. "They have been unable to return home due to a variety of reasons, including the setting-up of high security zones in their former villages ... we hope that the authorities take their cases on a priority basis now that there is hope for more stability."

In addition, the World Food Programme (WFP) found that 62 percent of returnees in Trincomalee District had limited income opportunities, raising concern about their food security.

"Sixty-four percent [in the district] are food insecure . . . and 62 percent are at risk to livelihoods due to food insecurity combined with livelihood affecting coping mechanisms," WFP stated in a report, Emergency Food Security Assessment Trincomalee, Sri Lanka, released in March 2008.
In a similar study of Batticaloa District in November 2007, WFP found that 36 percent of the surveyed returnees faced such problems.

Some people who witnessed the elections suggest a climate for redevelopment exists but the population needs to wait to see just how the new Provincial Council will proceed.

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