Ranil's Triple-R Programme - Relief, Rehabilitation and Reconciliation – and work style

The second leg of the peace process and something which the LTTE always considered of the highest priority, and reiterated at the talks, was the rapid rehabilitation and development of the conflict-affected areas - mainly the Northern and Eastern Provinces.

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This consisted of eight districts of the 25 in the country. Since the conflict had inevitably spilled over the boundaries of the eight districts, it became necessary to also bring in what was called the adjacent districts of Puttalam, Anuradhapura, Polonnaruwa and Moneragala. Some of these were earlier referred to as 'border villages' but since it was necessary to have a neutral term instead of accepting territorial borders, the term 'adjacent district' was being increasingly used in the documentation.

The organizational structure to handle work connected with relief, rehabilitation and reconciliation came under the purview of the prime minister directly through the office of the commissioner-general for the coordination of the Triple-R program. There had been a national framework for the Three-R's prepared during the time of the previous government starting around 1999. Ranil decided to adopt this framework for his accelerated program of restoration of the conflict-affected areas. I was appointed the commissioner-general of the office for the Triple-R and once again, as in 1983, was not only holder of such a title but was also given authority to plan, organize and monitor programs of all the ministries and provincial and district authorities whose normal work involved elements of relief, rehabilitation and reconciliation.

Ranil also created three new ministries to cover in addition to resettlement of IDPs (internally displaced persons) and refugees, Eastern Province Development and the Vanni. There was inevitably some overlap and one of my functions of coordination was to sort out the problems caused thereby. Being secretary to the prime minister gave me the necessary authority to do so. The work of the commissioner-general was quite heavy as anything serious that developed within the rather large area of its mandate would finally find its way up to me; but I found it very fulfilling.