REFUGEE

Nov. 19 (Bloomberg) -- Sri Lanka asked the United Nations for help resettling civilians displaced by the country’s civil war as a UN envoy visited camps where mainly Tamil refugees have lived since the defeat of Tamil Tiger rebels in May.

The number of displaced people is “declining on a daily basis due to the rapid pace of the resettlement process,” Foreign Minister Rohitha Bogollagama toldJohn Holmes, the UN under-secretary-general for humanitarian affairs and emergency relief coordinator, in Colombo. The country needs help clearing mines from conflict zones and building infrastructure in the north, he said late yesterday.

Holmes said the government should work on the process of reconciliation, according to the Defense Ministry Web site.

President Mahinda Rajapaksa’s government says more than half of the 280,000 displaced people have left the transit camps where they were held after the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam were defeated, ending a 26-year fight for a separate Tamil homeland. UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon said in September that prolonging the detention of the civilians risks increasing bitterness in the Tamil community.

The government has cited the need to clear mines and ensure security in the north as a reason for delaying the release of people from the camps. The government said at the weekend that 137,000 people remain in the centers.

January Deadline

The settlement program may be completed by the end of January next year, the government says. About 28,000 civilians have been returned to homes in the Kilinochchi district in the north, an area that was heavily mined as the LTTE had its headquarters in Kilinochchi town. Civilians are also returning to areas in Mullaitivu district on the northeastern coast, the site of the last battle between the army and Tamil Tigers.

More than 1,000 health workers are operating in the transit camps and surrounding areas, Bogollagama told Holmes. Special attention is being paid to rehabilitate child soldiers and former Tamil Tiger combatants, he said.

Holmes is scheduled to meet with Rajapaksa in Colombo tomorrow, according to the UN.

The government yesterday eased security controls for people traveling from the north to Colombo in the south, the Defense Ministry said. The move “fortifies the reconciliation efforts undertaken,” it said.

Prime Minister Ratnasiri Wickramanayake said last week that state of emergency regulations will remain in force in the country because the “shadows of terrorism” still exist after the LTTE’s defeat.

Travel Alerts

Japan relaxed a travel alert for its citizens planning to visit Northern Province, the embassy in Colombo said in an e- mailed statement today. A recommendation for people to “defer all travel” is now changed to a recommendation to “consider whether or not to travel,” it said.

The U.K. still advises its citizens against all travel to Sri Lanka’s north, according to the Foreign Office Web site. The State Department’s alert“specifically warns Americans against travel to the Northern Province,” citing the presence of mines and the possibility of renewed insurgent attacks.

Government ministers have told Western nations to stop criticizing the slow pace of settling civilians and highlighting alleged human rights abuses in the civil war and help the South Asian country’s development and security.

Countries criticizing Sri Lanka are expecting changes “to happen overnight,” Defense Secretary Gotabaya Rajapaksa said at the weekend.

Sri Lanka’s central bank forecasts the island’s $41 billion economy will grow as much as 6 percent next year after expanding about 3.5 percent in 2009, helped by rebuilding efforts after the war. Colombo’s All-Share Index hasoutperformed all other benchmarks in Asia this year with a 98 percent gain, buoyed by the end to the conflict that killed about 90,000 people.