Uprooted people in Champoor demand coordinated Tamil effort on resettlement

[TamilNet, Friday, 21 August 2015, 18:00 GMT]
While Tamil activists are set to push for a billion-rupee compensation from the Sri Lankan State for the structural destruction caused to Champoor so far, the president of the genocidal State in Colombo is visiting to Champoor on Saturday to donate 13,000 rupees per family to 25 families together with a symbolic hand-over of their lands, news sources in Trincomalee told TamilNet on Friday. Meanwhile, the resettling uprooted Tamils said they had spent 30,000 rupees each during the last weeks alone to clear the freed lands. Although there are Non Governmental Organisations (NGOs) showing a keen interest in providing support, there is no co-ordinated effort to channel assistance to resettle the people, the civil sources in Trincomalee said.

In the meantime, the Sri Lanka Gateway Industries (SLGI), a private limited, which was part of a group of companies that were owned by former SL president Mahinda Rajapaksa's close relatives and brokers having close Chinese connections, has been refusing to vacate their container-based offices.

The SLGI has further repaired their video surveillance equipment attached to the containers, the people complain. The SLGI personnel have been telling the people during the elections that Mr Rajapaksa had vowed to secure the lands back to SLGI after the SL elections.

The SL Navy, which was under pressure to free the lands, has also been reluctant to handover the lands it had seized from the people.

Several families have now put up temporary huts in their lands.

The officials under the Resettlement Ministry led by UNP's D.M. Swaminathan, have declined to assist the people saying they have no allocation for the resettlement in Champoor.

TNA's R. Sampanthan has been reluctant to push for the resettlement before paving inroads to external Establishment's seeking access to the strategic city of Trincomalee, a Tamil expert from Champoor said.

The people are closely watching the actions of the TNA after the elections, especially on further de-militarisation of Champoor, compensation and delivery of assistance to resettlement.

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