COI Report March 2012 - UK Border Agency - Home Office

SRI LANKA 7 MARCH 2012
―The Senior Kilinochchi Sri Lankan Army official told us that nearly all of the IDPs
originating from Kilinochchi district had returned, although many were with host families.
―The government had provided cash grants of Rs 5,000 whilst they were in transit and a
further Rs 20,000 through UNHCR once they had returned. The World Bank was also
giving Rs 20,000 to those who repaired and rebuilt their own properties. The Senior
Government Official for Kilinochchi said that the government wanted to encourage
people to start working again. Most wanted tools for farming and relied on an agriculture
based income. NGOs working with the Presidential Taskforce had helped farmers
cultivate 1,000 acres of paddy fields, with the government providing the seed. Some rice
had already been harvested as a result of this. They were also encouraged to grow
vegetable crops. We were told that 10% of families had female heads of the household.
She said that she had seen women working in construction work, mixing cement,
something that would never have been seen previously. In some cases the children had
to look after their families.‖
See also Women
24.07 A BHC letter, dated 17 September 2011 476 , reported that:
―The Government Agent (GA) in Jaffna told us that the district had recently been
allocated Rs 29,000,000 (£163,000) from central government for development projects.
They had received many requests from the local population for toilet facilities and for
drinking water (especially in the islands), and for the creation or rebuilding of village
tanks, to enable the collection of rainwater for use on farmer‘s fields and domestic
gardens. We were told that a total of 60,000 new houses are required within the district.
An Indian housing scheme was set to build 7,400 homes. We asked if there were still
High Security Zones (HSZ) in the district around Palaly and the coastal areas. She told
us that these had still not been released by the government, adding that the programme
to release the land back to former owners/occupiers had actually been slowed down.
―The International Organization for Migration (IOM) told us that all of the Jaffna camps
for internally displaced persons (IDPs) had been closed. Many of the occupants were
from Mullaitivu district or High Security Zones (HSZ) and had therefore been placed with
host families. They added that there were still HSZs at Palaly and in coastal areas.‖
24.08 Detailed information on post-war land issues in the North is available from the CPA
(Centre for Policy Alternatives) report Land Issues in the Northern Province: Post-War
Politics, Policy and Practices, 9 December 2011.
24.09 With regards to High Security Zones, on 28 December 2011, BBC Sinhala 477 reported:
―More than 26,000 displaced people are yet to be allowed to resettle in their ancestral
lands occupied by high security zones (HSZ) in Jaffna, according to Sri Lanka's main
Tamil political party.
475 British High Commission, Colombo, letter dated 13 August 2010
476 British High Commission, Colombo, letter dated 17 September 2011
477 BBC Sinhala, 26,000 not resettled due to HSZ, 28 December 2011
http://www.bbc.co.uk/sinhala/news/story/2011/12/111228_jaffna_hsz.shtml date accessed 27 January
2012
184 The main text of this COI Report contains the most up to date publicly available information as at 3 February 2012.
Further brief information on recent events and reports has been provided in the Latest News section
to 2 March 2012.