Jaffna displaced to file FR applications in Supreme Court

[TamilNet, Thursday, 26 August 2004, 15:21 GMT]
About one hundred internally displaced families (IDP) who have been refused permission to resettle in their homes and do cultivation in their agricultural lands in high security zones in Valigamam north in Jaffna district are to file fundamental rights violation applications in the Supreme Court.

Human rights lawyer Mr.S. Ganeshalingam Thursday left Colombo with legal documents prepared by him after consulting IDP families in Jaffna to file FR applications in the Supreme Court during the course of next week

Petitioners in the FR applications will seek the Supreme Court to order the Sri Lanka Army to allow them to return to their houses and agricultural lands now located in the HSZ, legal sources in Jaffna said.

The Sri Lanka Army at the inquiry into a FR application by an IDP family in the Supreme Court recently said it would allow the petitioner of the case to return to his house. The SLA further said that its permission would be limited only to the particular case and not to other IDP families, legal sources said.

Hence the civil groups in Jaffna district have taken steps to file more FR applications on behalf of displaced families in the Supreme Court, seeking the court to order for their resettlement in their houses and lands, the sources said.

About 20,000 IDP families are living in welfare centres as they are refused permission by the SLA for resettlement in their houses and do cultivation in their agricultural lands, which are located in the HSZ in Valigamam north division.