COLOMBO, 19 January 2005 — The Sri Lankan government will relocate the tsunami survivors with new houses and provide them with all what they had lost in the recent disaster, Prime Minister Mahinda Rajapakse told Arab News in an interview.

He also announced that the work for the construction of 6,500 houses will begin today.

Rajapakse said the government received unprecedented support from Saudi Arabia and other friendly Arab countries when the tsunami hit the island’s coast on Dec. 26. “We are thankful to Saudi Arabia and other Arab countries who lent us immediate support and assistance when we were in real distress after the tidal waves,” he said. Such cooperation made Sri Lankans feel that they were not alone in this part of the world, he added.

Rajapakse pointed out that the Saudi government sent five planeloads of relief materials and various non-governmental organizations such as the Jeddah-based International Islamic Relief Organization (IIRO) and Islamic Development Bank (IDB), Saudi Red Crescent Society and the World Assembly of Muslim Youth(WAMY) have sent their teams not only to supply relief items but also to console the tsunami survivors. “These officials are doing a wonderful job in the disaster zones,” Rajapakse said.

He also recalled a group of Saudi philanthropists who identified themselves as “Shabab Group” who put up an improvised shelter in his electorate of Hambantota when the existing place of worship was destroyed by the waves.

“We are really touched by this humanitarian assistance of the Saudi government and its people,” he said. He also took the opportunity to thank the expatriates in the Kingdom who have not only sent donations in cash and kind on the initiative of the Sri Lankan Expatriates Society (SLES) in Riyadh and the Lankan missions in Riyadh and Jeddah but were also instrumental in making their Saudi friends and establishments help in this worthy cause. The embassy in Riyadh has collected SR320,000 in cash and more than half a million riyal worth of relief goods from Lankan expatriates and Saudi establishments. Evaluating the damage to the country’s Muslim community, Rajapakse lamented that it has lost 16,000 members reducing its percentage from eight to seven percent of the population.

“We will relocate the survivors with new houses and provide them with all what they had lost in the tsunami attack,” Rajapakse said.

He said he would like to preserve the partly damaged Fort Mosque in Hambantota as a monument of the tsunami attack on the island. However, he added that a better mosque and houses will be built for all the Muslims in his electorate in safer areas. According to a new government rule houses will be built one kilometer away from the sea.

“We were not prepared at all, practically or mentally, to face a disaster like this which was totally unexpected for a country like Sri Lanka. But the people of this country faced it effectively so much so that they are in a position to rebuild the country within three weeks after the disaster”, he said .

He indicated that the refilling of lands will be done in the Kalmunai area in Amparai for construction of houses as there is no land for the construction of houses in safe areas. “The reconstruction process in other parts of the country will begin by Jan. 30”, he added.

More than 90,000 houses have been damaged in the Tsunami disaster, 75 percent of which belonging to low-income groups.

He said the government has prepared plans to construct houses each costing between Rs.150,000 to Rs.250,000. Donors will be able to take over the construction of these houses after plans are published by the government.

The government has decided to grant immediate relief to owners of small and large scale business ventures destroyed by the tidal wave in the form of support loans up to a maximum of Rs.5 million.

As a further relief measure, the government has decided to waive for one year all loan installments.