Wijeratne, K. M. U.2024-09-062024-09-062010https://ir.lib.pdn.ac.lk/handle/20.500.14444/711The end of thirty year old conflict has bought new hopes of peace and prosperity in the minds of all Sri Lankans. However, the displacement of over 300, 000 civilians in the last stages of the fighting between Security Forces and the LTTE posed new challenges for the government. Among many other challenges, resettlement of IDPs back in their neighbourhood became a matter of priority for the government. Meeting the challenge of resettling people with such urgency is faced with several barriers. However, it is believed that the presence of mines and UXOs in their neighbourhood to be the most critical barrier for displaced civilians to go back to their homes. Hence demining becomes the most important prerequisite in the process of resettlement. A field survey conducted among the recent IDPs confirmed that the demining takes precedence over other prerequisites of resettlement. It was evident that the IDPs who were already resettled felt the importance of demining more than the IDPs who were still in transit camps. People have changed their perception on the requirement of demining after personally experiencing the risk of mines at their neighbourhood. Further, views expressed by the representatives of UN agencies who were engaged in managing IDPs in Sri Lanka, provide evidence to ‘unique’ nature in which the entire process of resettlement was managed. Unlike in situations, such as, Kosovo and Cambodia where uncontrolled and unplanned resettlement caused a heavy casualty rate among IDPs, GoSL had planned every phase of resettlement from the time of displacement. This planned action reduced the casualty rate to a bare minimum providing a classic example in the case of managing and controlling IDPs.en-USEarth ScienceDisaster ManagementThesis