Title: AS-GEN--Sri Lanka-Tsunami , Finance CustomWire, Jan 08, 2005

Database: Regional Business News

AS-GEN--Sri Lanka-Tsunami

COLOMBO, Sri Lanka, Jan 08, 2005 (AP WorldStream via COMTEX) -- Sri
Lanka has
closed scores of refugee camps as people begin drifting back to their
damaged
homes. Government officials reported 38 more confirmed deaths
Saturday from the
Asian tsunami, raising the nation's death toll to 30,718.
Schools were due to reopen on Monday, a week later than scheduled
before the
Dec. 26 tsunami slammed into the island nation, providing an
additional
incentive for families to go home.
Many of the nearly 800 makeshift refugee centers were in school
buildings, which
needed to be vacated to allow the academic year to begin.
"They want to go to their homes and start life all over again. They
don't want
to stay in the camps," said R. Hettairachchi of the National
Disaster Management
Center.
The center increased the number of missing by 55, to 4,939 people.
Another
16,760 people were listed as injured.
It said 105,513 people left the centers by midday Saturday and went
home or
moved in with relatives. The number of relief camps was below 600.
The World Food Program confirmed that people were leaving the camps.
"Many are moving out of the temporary camps now and into the homes of
family and
friends," said Jeff Taft-Dick, country director for WFP in Sri Lanka.
Tsunami survivors in Sri Lanka leaving camps; death toll rises by 38
Copyright 2005 Associated Press, All rights reserved
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KEYWORD:

COLOMBO, Sri Lanka