VZCZCXRO8785
PP RUEHBI
DE RUEHLM #1146/01 3510402
ZNR UUUUU ZZH
P 170402Z DEC 09 ZDK
FM AMEMBASSY COLOMBO
TO RUEHC/SECSTATE WASHDC PRIORITY 0992
INFO RUEHKA/AMEMBASSY DHAKA 2183
RUEHIL/AMEMBASSY ISLAMABAD 9207
RUEHKT/AMEMBASSY KATHMANDU 7457
RUEHLO/AMEMBASSY LONDON 5306
RUEHNE/AMEMBASSY NEW DELHI 3610
RUEHNY/AMEMBASSY OSLO 5232
RUEHSM/AMEMBASSY STOCKHOLM 0767
RUEHKO/AMEMBASSY TOKYO 4354
RUEHCG/AMCONSUL CHENNAI 9767
RUEHBI/AMCONSUL MUMBAI 7058
RUEHON/AMCONSUL TORONTO 0088
RHHMUNA/HQ USPACOM HONOLULU HI
RUEHGV/USMISSION GENEVA 3922
RHEFDIA/DIA WASHINGTON DC
RHEHAAA/NATIONAL SECURITY COUNCIL WASHINGTON DC
RUEHBS/USEU BRUSSELS

UNCLAS SECTION 01 OF 03 COLOMBO 001146 
 
SIPDIS 
 
DEPARTMENT FOR SCA/INSB 
 
E.O. 12958: N/A 
TAGS: PREF PHUM PGOV PREL CE
SUBJECT: A/S Blake Views IDP Freedom of Movement at Menik Farm 
 
REF: COLOMBO 1135 
 
¶1. (SBU) SUMMARY: On December 8, one week after the Government of 
Sri Lanka (GSL) announced freedom of movement for internally 
displaced persons (IDPs), Assistant Secretary of State Robert Blake 
visited the Menik Farms IDP camp complex and several communities to 
which Tamil-speaking civilians were returning.  Other conversations 
Blake held with GSL officials, opposition figures, and civic 
activists during his December 8-10 visit were reported separately 
(reftel).  Military and civilian government authorities briefed 
Blake on accomplishments since the end of the war, requesting 
support to address current and future challenges -- humanitarian 
demining and rehabilitation of ex-combatants chief among them.  A/S 
Blake commended the government on "impressive" recent progress and 
encouraged access for non-governmental organizations to help address 
priority needs going forward.  END SUMMARY. 
 
RETURNS UNDERWAY WITH CHALLENGES 
-------------------------------- 
 
¶2. (SBU) Upon arrival at Menik Farms, the Assistant Secretary -- 
accompanied by the Charge and USAID officer -- was briefed by Maj. 
General Kamal Gunaratne, Sri Lanka Army Commander for the Wanni, and 
Ms. Manmatharajah Charles, Government Agent, Vavuniya District, on 
government efforts to address the humanitarian needs of more than 
100,000 persons who fled the no-fire zone during the final three 
days of fighting with the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE) in 
mid-May 2009.  Gunaratne credited international non-governmental 
organizations under the United Nations umbrella for assisting in 
this "mammoth task."  While acknowledging the negative optic of the 
razor-wire encircled Menik Farms, he said, "They're our people. 
We're trying our level best to send them back to their villages to 
live a normal day-to-day life.  But it's not easy."  Three things 
have delayed a more expedited return, according to Gunaratne: 1) 
separating persons with LTTE ties from the IDP population; 2) 
decontaminating residential areas, economically productive land and 
public spaces further North from mines and unexploded ordinance; and 
3) the establishment of a "comprehensive plan" for resettlement, 
developed in collaboration between Government Agents, Divisional 
Secretaries and Grama Nildhari officers in the Northern Province 
utilizing past electoral lists and available information on land 
tenure.  Blake congratulated both Gunaratne and the Government Agent 
on "commendable progress on many levels" since his departure from 
Colombo as U.S. Ambassador in late May. 
 
EX-COMBATANTS 
------------- 
 
¶3. (SBU) The GSL waited to lift restrictions on IDP movements to and 
from camps only after persons with suspected LTTE ties had been 
removed, Gunaratne said.  Suspected LTTE fighters -- now totaling 
more than 11,700, most housed in separate, closed camps in the 
Vavuniya District -- were identified either by Military Intelligence 
or other IDPs, with some former cadres stepping forth voluntarily. 
Gunaratne said these persons were "trained, indoctrinated and 
motivated" by an ideology that remained despite the absence of a 
leadership to propagate it; rehabilitation of ex-combatants would be 
a GSL priority.  The GSL had developed a "comprehensive plan" for 
this process, to be administered by the Commissioner General of 
Rehabilitation under the Ministry of Justice, which has sought 
international advice on a legal framework, which has yet to be 
defined. 
 
DECONGESTING MENIK FARMS 
------------------------ 
 
¶4. (SBU) Stopping during a drive-through of Zone 2 within the Menik 
Farms complex, A/S Blake spoke with doctors at a USAID-supported 
hospital and IDPs congregating at a nearby shop.  The smiling shop 
owner -- himself displaced -- said he was earning nearly 20 USD per 
day, roughly three times the take-home pay of a skilled laborer. 
Large patches of bare land were visible where not long ago rows of 
tents had covered the ground, vacated by more than 50,000 IDPs who 
had departed in recent weeks, reducing the Zone 2 population to a 
 
COLOMBO 00001146  002.2 OF 003 
 
 
far more manageable 20,000 persons.  The overall number of IDPs in 
Menik Farms had dropped from a peak total of more than 280,000 to 
114,000, which according to an earlier study by UNICEF is low enough 
to allow IDPs to relocate within the camp should monsoonal rains 
submerge their shelters.  IDPs were upbeat with the expectation that 
the camp would be emptied by January 31, 2010, the revised end of 
the 180-day period in which the GSL had earlier committed to having 
all IDPs from the Wanni back home.  The Government Agent had no 
answer when asked what would happen to those from parts of the 
Kilinochchi and Mullaitivu districts, however, where demining 
efforts were expected to continue for years. 
 
RETURN IN PROGRESS 
------------------ 
 
¶5. (SBU) Following the camp visit, Blake flew by helicopter to the 
adjacent district of Mannar and traveled by road along a stretch 
between the Murunkan and Adampan divisions, where the GSL's military 
operations to capture the LTTE-controlled Wanni commenced in late 
2007 and early 2008. He spoke with a GSL civil engineer at Giants 
Tank, a reservoir under rehabilitation by the World Bank that would 
supply water to an estimated 30,000 families once return to adjacent 
villages in the "rice bowl" of the North was complete.  In front of 
a shop in Adampan, farmers said they had arrived too late to plant 
rice paddy during the current monsoon, which should continue through 
February, but were receiving from the World Food Program (WFP) 
monthly rations, which should continue for at least six months. At a 
school in Kattankulam, 10th-grade students -- many of whom had been 
displaced 16 times in the last three years -- had resumed their 
studies.  Asked what they need most, they requested bicycles to get 
to school and more books for the school library.  Soon their village 
was expected to be connected to the national power supply grid, at 
which point computers would also be needed. 
 
DEMINING 
-------- 
 
¶6. (SBU) Although no mine-related injuries had been reported among 
the IDP returnee population or demining teams operating in the 
Wanni, the level of contamination remained high, a member of the Sri 
Lanka military's humanitarian demining unit told the A/S during a 
briefing at a site in Pallakuli, Mannar.  To expedite returns, the 
military activists during his December 8-10 visit were reported separately 
(reftel).  Military and civilian government authorities briefed 
Blake on accomplishments since the end of the war, requesting 
support to address current and future challenges -- humanitarian 
demining and rehabilitation of ex-combatants chief among them.  A/S 
Blake commended the government on "impressive" recent progress and 
encouraged access for non-governmental organizations to help address 
priority needs going forward.  END SUMMARY. 
 
RETURNS UNDERWAY WITH CHALLENGES 
-------------------------------- 
 
¶2. (SBU) Upon arrival at Menik Farms, the Assistant Secretary -- 
accompanied by the Charge and USAID officer -- was briefed by Maj. 
General Kamal Gunaratne, Sri Lanka Army Commander for the Wanni, and 
Ms. Manmatharajah Charles, Government Agent, Vavuniya District, on 
government efforts to address the humanitarian needs of more than 
100,000 persons who fled the no-fire zone during the final three 
days of fighting with the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE) in 
mid-May 2009.  Gunaratne credited international non-governmental 
organizations under the United Nations umbrella for assisting in 
this "mammoth task."  While acknowledging the negative optic of the 
razor-wire encircled Menik Farms, he said, "They're our people. 
We're trying our level best to send them back to their villages to 
live a normal day-to-day life.  But it's not easy."  Three things 
have delayed a more expedited return, according to Gunaratne: 1) 
separating persons with LTTE ties from the IDP population; 2) 
decontaminating residential areas, economically productive land and 
public spaces further North from mines and unexploded ordinance; and 
3) the establishment of a "comprehensive plan" for resettlement, 
developed in collaboration between Government Agents, Divisional 
Secretaries and Grama Nildhari officers in the Northern Province 
utilizing past electoral lists and available information on land 
tenure.  Blake congratulated both Gunaratne and the Government Agent 
on "commendable progress on many levels" since his departure from 
Colombo as U.S. Ambassador in late May. 
 
EX-COMBATANTS 
------------- 
 
¶3. (SBU) The GSL waited to lift restrictions on IDP movements to and 
from camps only after persons with suspected LTTE ties had been 
removed, Gunaratne said.  Suspected LTTE fighters -- now totaling 
more than 11,700, most housed in separate, closed camps in the 
Vavuniya District -- were identified either by Military Intelligence 
or other IDPs, with some former cadres stepping forth voluntarily. 
ed" by an ideology that remained despite the absence of a 
leadership to propagate it; rehabilitation of ex-combatants would be 
a GSL priority.  The GSL had developed a "comprehensive plan" for 
this process, to be administered by the Commissioner General of 
Rehabilitation under the Ministry of Justice, which has sought 
international advice on a legal framework, which has yet to be 
defined. 
 
DECONGESTING MENIK FARMS 
------------------------ 
 
¶4. (SBU) Stopping during a drive-through of Zone 2 within the Menik 
Farms complex, A/S Blake spoke with doctors at a USAID-supported 
hospital and IDPs congregating at a nearby shop.  The smiling shop 
owner -- himself displaced -- said he was earning nearly 20 USD per 
day, roughly three times the take-home pay of a skilled laborer. 
Large patches of bare land were visible where not long ago rows of 
tents had covered the ground, vacated by more than 50,000 IDPs who 
had departed in recent weeks, reducing the Zone 2 population to a 
 
COLOMBO 00001146  003 OF 003 
 
 
return, delays in distribution of assistance caused by lack of 
access to areas of return for non-governmental organizations, and 
confusion among returnees regarding what they are entitled to and 
who is responsible for delivering it. 
 
BUTENIS