SLA to issue special ICs for Govt., NGO staff in Jaffna

[TamilNet, Monday, 01 September 2008, 16:08 GMT]
Sri Lanka Army (SLA) are planning to issue special identity cards to the officers and employees of government departments, banks and the local staff of International and local Non-government organizations, the SLA announced through a radio broadcast from Palaali military head quarters. The military is the first stage in the SLA plan of issuing SLA special identity cards to all Jaffna residents, civil society sources in Jaffna said.

Meanwhile, peninsula residents who had already submitted photos and documents called by the SLA with their applications are being ordered by the SLA to submit the copies of the documents, subjecting them to additional inconvenience and expenses, civil society sources in Jaffna added.

SLA had earlier announced that it would finish the issue of its special identity cards for all residents of the peninsula by the end of 2008.

The cost factor scuttled the project, informed sources said.

Jaffna Government Agent (GA), instructed by SLA High Command, has sent a circular to all government departments calling heads of departments to submit the list of officers and employees in their departments immediately.

The circular also said that the above officers and employees will be issued the SLA special identity cards on priority basis.

Meanwhile, local residents from various places in the peninsula complain that local SLA soldiers are compelling them to resubmit copies of the documents earlier submitted with their applications and photos, along with additional particulars of the head of each family, for rechecking.

This is a tedious process which requires the people to report at the SLA camps almost daily, they added.

The SLA identity cards issued after the SLA occupation of Jaffna peninsula in 1996 are still in force, they pointed.

In a press communiqué released on 29 August 2007, the Sri Lankan Military Command for Jaffna, based in Palaali, had instructed all the residents of the Peninsula, above the age of ten, to obtain a special identity card issued by the SLA before 12 September.