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| Sunday, 13 January 2002 |
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Lankan victims 'double claim' over Gulf War unscrupulous by Neomi Kodikara About 500 Sri Lankans eligible for Gulf War compensation have registered themselves twice in order to claim an additional reparation. This was revealed by the Foreign Employment Bureau, following accusations by Iraq that the United Nations Compensation Commission (UNCC) had mismanaged its oil revenue by paying compensation twice to 575 claims from victims of the 1991 Gulf War from India, Sri Lanka, Yugoslavia and Bosnia. However, Additional General Manager of the Foreign Employment Bureau R. Wijegunawardane, said that although they could trace nearly 500 double registrations for additional reparation, only a few might have been paid twice at the first round of payment. A few more cases against these double claims were pending in the courts. "However, they have not been paid a big sum," another official of the Bureau said. The double reparation was not the fault of either the UNCC or the Foreign Bureau, he said and charged the Sri Lankans of attempting to obtain an additional reparation unscrupulously. "When the production of an identity card was made a compulsory requirement for such payment from claimants there were complications including duplicating of passports issued by the Department of Immigration, which made it impossible for us to identify the double registrations," the official said. He said that the official of the bureau had however identified the duplications and double registrations at the second round of payments and had requested the UNCC to cancel further reparation. "The Commission (UNCC) told us that Sri Lanka was the first country to inform it about the double registration," Wijegunawardane said, adding that, however, the compensation payment for double claims had been refunded. The UNCC, formed in 1991, says it has received nearly 2.6 million compensation claims, equivalent to 300 billion dollars, in relation to the Gulf War sparked by Iraq's 1990 invasion of Kuwait. Twenty-five per cent of the revenue from Iraqi oil sales were earmarked for the Commission for this purpose. Until last November, a sum of nearly 120 billion (Rs. 11,911,213,984) has been paid as compensation for 75,286 Sri Lankans employed in Kuwait during that period, which amounted to 95 per cent of the total claims. |
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