Wednesday, August 24, 2011

36,000 families 'resettled in HSZs'

GA says further 42,000 people will soon be resettled in former HSZs
The government of Sri Lanka has informed the Supreme Court (SC) that nearly 36,000 families earlier removed from high security zones (HSZ) in Jaffna have been recently resettled.
The Jaffna Government Agent Emelda Sukumar has submitted the details to the SC in response to a fundamental rights (FR) petition filed by a group of Jaffna farmers.

The group in their petition has requested the SC to allow them to resettle in their ancestral lands in Tellippalai, which was turned into a HSZ during the decades of conflict.

Mr Sukumar in her statement to the court states that 111,199 people from 35,968 have already been resettled in former HSZs.

The majority of them, 11,879 families, were from Tellippalai, according to the government statement.

The GA also states that measures are currently being taken to resettle further 42,505 people from 11,648 families in their ancestral lands in Jaffna district.

The Supreme Court which accepted the report is scheduled to consider the verdict on 17 October
BBC Sinhala