President Mahinda Rajapaksa said at last evening’s Cabinet meeting that the parents of slain LTTE leader Velupillai Prabhakaran were living in a newly set up welfare camp in Vavuniya -- together with the relatives of other LTTE leaders.
Cabinet discussed the present conditions in the welfare camps and villages, and the measures to be taken to improve them. The President instructed the ministers to speed up action to attend to the humanitarian needs of the displaced civilians. He said that action had been taken to construct 2000 permanent toilets in these camps (in place of the portable toilets) for these people.The President also emphasised the need to send more health workers to these camps. He noted that doctors were reluctant to be based permanently in the camps to treat the sick in the camps.
He said he would be compelled, therefore, to send at least nurses to the camps to attend
to needs such as blood transfusions and taking of blood pressure.
He said he had wanted to deploy doctors who had completed their internship; but the Government Medical Officers’ Association had objected to their being sent before their registration.
The President pointed out that the government could not wait till all these problems were sorted out and, therefore, urgent steps would be taken to address the health needs of these people.
During the Cabinet meeting, he also contacted Attorney General Mohan Peiris, who was in Geneva, to inquire about the progress made at the UN Human Rights Council session on Sri Lanka. He instructed Mr. Peiris not to agree to any proposal to set up a UN Human Rights -monitoring mission here.
Mr. Peiris had reportedly informed him that Sri Lanka would be able to secure a majority at the session.
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