June 30, Colombo: Sri Lanka Government today said the biggest challenge for them currently is the resettlement of the thousands of internally displaced persons, and not the pursuance of the implementation of the 13th Amendment to the Constitution.

Responding to the announcement made by Sri Lanka's monk party Jathika Hela Urumaya (JHU) yesterday, government defence spokesman Minister Keheliya Rambukwella told the media that the government should give priority to resolve the IDP issue.

"It is our responsibility to resettle the displaced persons as soon as possible and bring normalcy into their lives," Minister Rambukwella pointed out.

According to the government defence spokesman it would be a certain black mark for the humanitarian operations carried out by the government to free the civilians from LTTE clutches if they could not manage to resettle IDPs soon.

Minister Rambukwella said the government will certainly resolve this problem in the North before paying attention to any other issues.

The Spokesman said that several political parties are giving unnecessary attention to the 13th Amendment issue at this crucial time instead of the resettlement task.

The Jathika Hela Urumaya, one of the political parties backing the government holding nine vital seats in the Sri Lanka parliament yesterday threatened to withdraw from government if it implements the 13th Amendment to the Constitution.