SRI LANKA THANKS MALAYSIA FOR HELPING WAR VICTIMS

By P. Vijian

COLOMBO, May 23 (Bernama) -- The Sri Lankan government has thanked Malaysia
for helping the internally displaced persons (IDPs) taking shelter in camps in
the island's north, which until early this week was a fierce battle ground.

Its foreign minister, Rohitha Bogollagama, thanked his Malaysian counterpart
Datuk Anifah Aman over the telephone for Malaysia's contribution of US$100,000
(RM350,000) for the rehabilitation of the Tamil refugees in the north.

During the last few months, an estimated 190,000 IDPs had taken refugee in
thousands of high-security camps established by the Sri Lankan government and
the United Nations in Vavuniya, about 200km outside Colombo.

The much-wary Sri Lankan government, which did not allow foreign aid
agencies to enter the war zone, had permitted MERCY Malaysia, one of the few
outside organisations, to set up health clinics in camps in Menik Farm -- in
Vavuniya, with one of the highest concentration of IDPs.

"The Sri Lankan government appreciates the generous contribution of the
US$100,000 by the Malaysian government for the rehabilitation of the IDPs in the
north," Bogollagama was quoting as saying by the Daily News newspaper here.

During the telephone conversation, Bogollagama had asked for Malaysian
investors to participate in the post-war reconstruction process, especially in
the north where basic infrastructure like bridges, roads, schools and hospitals
had been destroyed.

The Sri Lankan armed forces and the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE)
fought a three-decade bloody war, which officially ended last Tuesday after the
rebel group's leader Velupillai Prabhakaran was killed in the battle zone, along
with his top leaders.

An estimated 80,000 people perished in one of the worst long-running civil
wars in recent times, which also destablised security in South Asia.

The LTTE had been fighting for a separate homeland for the minority Tamil
population in the north.
-- BERNAMA