VZCZCXRO2307
PP RUEHBI
DE RUEHLM #1147/01 3510403
ZNR UUUUU ZZH
P 170403Z DEC 09 ZFR
FM AMEMBASSY COLOMBO
TO RUEHC/SECSTATE WASHDC PRIORITY 0995
INFO RUEHKA/AMEMBASSY DHAKA 2186
RUEHIL/AMEMBASSY ISLAMABAD 9210
RUEHKT/AMEMBASSY KATHMANDU 7460
RUEHLO/AMEMBASSY LONDON 5309
RUEHNE/AMEMBASSY NEW DELHI 3613
RUEHNY/AMEMBASSY OSLO 5235
RUEHSM/AMEMBASSY STOCKHOLM 0770
RUEHKO/AMEMBASSY TOKYO 4357
RUEHCG/AMCONSUL CHENNAI 9770
RUEHBI/AMCONSUL MUMBAI 7061
RUEHON/AMCONSUL TORONTO 0091
RHHMUNA/HQ USPACOM HONOLULU HI
RUEHGV/USMISSION GENEVA 3925
RHEFDIA/DIA WASHINGTON DC
RHEHAAA/NATIONAL SECURITY COUNCIL WASHINGTON DC
RUEHBS/USEU BRUSSELS

UNCLAS SECTION 01 OF 03 COLOMBO 001147 
 
///CANCEL DUPLICATE OF COLOMBO 1146/// 
 
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 
 
COLOMBO 00001147  001.3 OF 003 
 
 
///ZFR    ZFR    ZFR    ZFR   ZFR    ZFR   ZFR /// 
 
 
COLOMBO 00001147  002 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 tby 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 unit and international NGO demining teams were focusing on 
residential areas, public spaces and utilities, farmland and 
coastline providing fishing access as opposed to other contaminated 
areas with less productive use.  Demining of priority areas in the 
Musali and Manthai West divisions of Mannar District had 
accommodated the earliest returnees; Manthai East would be next. 
Mechanized equipment and trained dogs -- some provided by the U.S. 
State Department in 2002 -- had dramatically improved the military 
demining unit's efficiency, the representative said. International 
NGO demining teams were working more slowly, the demining unit 
representative said, due to lack of resources, equipment and trained 
staff, noting that for most NGO demining staff, recruited from the 
local population, "even the word 'mine' itself is scary." 
 
COMMENT 
------- 
 
¶7. (SBU) Although the GSL-facilitated visits to the Menik Farms camp 
complex and returnee communities in Mannar did not appear to be 
overly scripted, government officials did in fact remain within 
earshot of  United 
Nations and international non-governmental organizations, include 
the degree to which genuine freedom of movement exists in formerly 
closed camps -- the absence of an agreed-upon definition makes it 
difficult to judge - and the inherent danger of IDP return to areas 
that have not been issued low-risk certification for mines, a 
particular problem in parts of Kilinochchi and Mullaitivu.  Other 
issues of concern include heavy military presence in some returnee 
areas, separation of family members prior to and sometimes after 
 
COLOMBO 00001147  003.2 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