2004 Annual Report, NPDS Project.pdf - IDP SriLanka

JAFFNAIn year 2004, Jaffna NPDS Project Office received 425 complaints. The highest numberof cases reported to the Jaffna Office were on obtaining personal documents. Manyof these applications are from the Returnees. Some have lost the documents due tothe displacement. The Project facilitated the Registrar General Department to issuepersonal documents.Few cases were reported on child recruitment and these cases were referred toUNICEF and SLMM. Jaffna regional office received some complaints on lands andproperty related complaints. Most of the cases were related to the High Security Zoneand it is related to Freedom of Movement. Even though the Government is payingrent for some, the people say it is insufficient. And some are not keen on getting rentand they want their homes back. For an example in case No: 04/HRC/IDP/117, 12families made complaints to us that their houses were taken by the Police to functionas a police station. Few families had the tenancy agreement entered with the policeand they were paid a small amount of rent. Tenancy agreement has a clause sayingthat the parties can terminate the agreement after giving a month notice. They gavea written request and they want their homes back. When the project intervened; thePolice promised to vacate in December 2004. So far the police have taken no action.The project did an ex parte primary inquiry on private land disputes. There are disputeson boundary lines, right of way, and use of public lanes. These disputes arose due tothe long-term displacement. These complaints were referred to Legal Aid Foundation.(LAF)On issuance of Government Assistance, compensation, dry ration matters were takenup with the relevant authorities. We were able to solve some and for some complaintsthe reply was“due to non availability of money, they could not pay.”VAVUNIYA1010 complaints were reported to Vavuniya IDP office. In the Fundamental Rightsviolations, many complaints were received on Harassment by state employees. Thesecomplaints were referred to HRC regional office. Some of these complaints are on thepermits for the government lands under the Land Development Ordinance. Returneesfrom India complained that the state officers have given their lands to others, eventhough they possess the permit for the land.In Vavuniya , the highest number of Child recruitment complaints were received.These cases were referred to UNICEF and SLMM. On obtaining documents, many areon Birth certificates, which were lost due to displacement, or applications were nevermade.For obtaining voting registration, the Project received many complaints to register thenames of the IDPs in the welfare centers. On 04 th of August a meeting was conductedin Vavuniya Kachcheri on Analyzing Existing Laws, Policies and AdministrativeProcedures on Internally Displaced Persons. In this meeting representatives of theHuman Rights Commission highlighted this problem and Government Agent decidedto hold a meeting with Assistant Election Commissioner Vavuniya and with all campofficers regarding this matter.Then Assistant Election Commissioner (AEC) sent a letter to Commissioner of Election,on 11 th of August addressing this issue. Commissioner of Election, called a meeting atColombo on 14 th of August. AEC, Vanni, AEC Puttlam and AEC Jaffna participated inthis meeting. Election Commissioner instructed to issue the forms and register all17Annual Report 2004National Protection and Durable Solutions for Internally Displaced Persons ProjectHuman Rights Commission of Sri Lanka