Dec 31, Colombo: Sri Lanka's National Peace Council (NPC) has called on the government and LTTE to make the right of return for displaced persons an agenda item at future peace talks.

As in the case of the Balkans, the international community has to play a major role in facilitating such an agreement and to ensure its effective implementation, the NPC said.

The Jaffna Muslim community, numbering about 75,000, was ordered to leave their homes with only a few hours’ notice in 1990. They left without most of their property. Now many of them still live in other parts of the country as internally displaced persons.

“The Ceasefire Agreement of 2002 led to the return home of most of the internally displaced persons living in the country. But those displaced for strategic purposes could not return to their homes. The two major groups of people victimized by military strategy include both the Muslims evicted by the LTTE, as well as the Tamils evicted by the government from the High Security Zones that surround the military camps,” the NPC said.

The Council added that with the outbreak of major fighting between the government and LTTE in the east, large numbers of people have once again been displaced. The government has pledged that it will resettle those displaced persons as soon as the fighting ceases. While most of the people displaced in the east are Tamils, there are also substantial numbers of Muslims and Sinhalese. However, there have been no similar pledges or efforts with regard to the displaced Muslims from the North, the NPC argued. City Bank Card, Chase low rate loan, American Express