Jaffna SLA, GA accused of delaying HSZ resettlement

[TamilNet, Tuesday, 30 December 2008, 19:03 GMT]
Displaced residents in Jaffna and civil society organizations have accused the Government Agent (GA) of Jaffna and the Palaly Military High command of deliberately delaying implementation of Supreme Court’s order to begin resettlement inside designated areas within the High Security Zone (HSZ) in Valikaamam North, sources in Jaffna said.

In addition, the Court directive to the Jaffna Military Command to reconfigure the HSZ boundary to facilitate locating Tellipallai Union College, Mahajana College, and Tellipallai Government General Hospital outside the HSZ has also not been implemented, civil society sources said.

During a meeting held in Palaali SLA base at Tuesday 11:30 a.m, Jaffna Government (GA) K. Ganesh told the Special Committee appointed by the Supreme Court that the demining personnel responsible for the resettlement areas are on holiday, and therefore, he cannot take a decision on resettlement immediately.

The Danish Demining Organization when contacted by reporters contacted said that they have not been consulted by the GA recently, and that Jaffna GA has not allocated the resettlement areas to them.

The British demining organization, Halo Trust, terminated its operation in Jaffna after the Defense ministry denied access to areas with land mines.

Residents allege that Jaffna GA Mr K Ganesh is colluding with the Sri Lanka military in a deceptive exercise to keep postponing the resettlement.

The Jaffna High Court judge, R. T. Vicknaraja, the president of the Special Committee, chaired the meeting attended by Jaffna SLA Commander Major. Gen. G. A. Chandrasiri and Jaffna GA.

On shifting of boundaries of the HSZ to allow schools to function smoothly, if the SLA Forward Defence Line (FDL) sentry posts located in front of the two schools and the hospital are shifted to locations behind the buildings, the public can enter the three buildings without any harassment from the Sri Lanka military manning the check points, civil sources said.

The SLA occupied area of the road from Vasaavilaan through Kadduvan and Thellippa’lai, if cleared of SLA sentry posts, the students and patients and others will be relieved of difficulties, they further said.

But the SLA is not willing to do this, civil sources said.

The Special Committee has to submit its report on this matter to the Supreme Court, legal sources in Jaffna said.

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