Jaffna SLA Civil Affairs Office to go

[TamilNet, Sunday, 15 October 2000, 17:58 GMT]
The functions of the Sri Lanka army's civil affairs office in Jaffna will be transferred to the District Secretariat, government officials in the north said. The SLA's civil affairs office was in charge of controlling the passage of civilians from Jaffna. The change was due to a political decision sources said.

The transferring of the fundamental functions of the SLA Civil Affairs Office to the Kachcheri (District Secretariat) will ease the delay and burden of getting travel permits to leave Jaffna sources said.

Civilians in Jaffna who wish to travel to Colombo or any other part of the island have to apply to the SLA brigade headquarters in their area.

Their applications are then forwarded by the respective brigades to the SLA Civil Affairs office in Jaffna town which examines them and issues travel permits to those whom it thinks can be allowed to leave Jaffna.

The difficulties faced in obtaining travel permits from the Civil Affairs Office (CAO) has been cause for much grievance among civilians in the peninsula. There have been allegations of corruption in the issue of the travel permits by the CAO in the past.

In recent times the CAO has also been handling requests from civilians displaced from the war zones in the peninsula to visit and inspect their homes in areas recaptured by the SLA from the Liberation Tigers.