Resettlement issue should be treated humanely - Devananda and Sangaree

by Ananth PALAKIDNAR

Minister of Traditional Industries and Small Enterprise Development and Jaffna District Parliamentarian Douglas Devananda and the Tamil United Liberation Front (TULF) leader V.Anandasangaree said that the issue of the 523 Sinhalese currently in Jaffna who wish to be resettled in the region should be handled on humanitarian grounds. It should by no means be politicised, they said.

One-hundred-and-seventy-eight families of the 523 Sinhalese from the South are currently occupying the old Jaffna railway station claiming that they had lived in Jaffna prior to the conflict in the early eighties and they should be permitted to resettle in the region.

These families have also brought documents such as birth certificates and identity cards as proof which clearly show that they had lived in the peninsula earlier.

They have appealed to the Government and the political leadership in Jaffna that they are keen to return to Jaffna and to make arrangements for them to live there.

Many of them claimed that they ran small-time business enterprises such as bakeries and shops prior to 1981 in Jaffna. Some even claimed that they had been employed at the Cement Factory at Kankesanthurai.

The 178 families who are currently taking shelter at the old Jaffna railway station said that they should also be treated as Internally Displaced Persons (IDPs) and allowed to resettle in Jaffna.One of them said that several Sinhalese even had marital links in Jaffna and they did not have any problem whatsoever with their kith and kin in Jaffna.

Minister Douglas Devananda told the Sunday Observer that this issue should be handled on a humanitarian basis and should not be politicised at any cost. "I have requested the Government Agent, Jaffna, Imelda Sukumar to look into the claims by the Sinhalese families of their Jaffna origin and do justice to them. If there is evidence of those people having lived in the peninsula there won't be any problem in their resettlement. We should protect them and ensure that they lead a peaceful life in the North," Devananda said.

Veteran Tamil politician and leader of the Tamil United Liberation Front Anandasangaree told the Sunday Observer that the Sinhalese who had lived for long periods in Jaffna prior to the conflict have all the right to return and resettle in the North.

"I am aware that the Sinhalese received an education in prominent schools in Jaffna and they led a peaceful life. When the communal riots broke out in the Southern part of the country, the Sinhalese were protected in the peninsula.

Therefore, the Sinhalese who had their business interests and marital links in the North should be allowed to lead a peaceful life in the region. However, the issue of resettling Sinhalese should not be politicised," he said.

The Sinhalese currently sheltered at the old Jaffna Railway station speak Tamil fluently with a Jaffna accent.

They said that when the conflict was at its peak, they lived in the South and found it difficult to prove their identity as their identity cards and birth certificates indicated that they had been born in Jaffna.

There was a Sinhala Maha Vidyalaya in the heart of Jaffna town earlier and around 500 Sinhalese students had their education there, reports from Jaffna said.

Sinhalese even from affluent families had their education in prominent schools in Jaffna, the reports said.