How relief is used as an incentive?
How poverty is used as a grip to win ulterior motives?
| by Robinhood
( June 7, 2013, Colombo, Sri Lanka Guardian) The largest civil society meeting held in Kilinochchi after the war with the participation of 139 civil society activist on the 18th of May 2013 in Kanagapuram. The meeting was organized by a leading
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| Human Rights Organization in Kanagapuram in Kilinochchi district |
During the meeting many issues relating to the civil administration of the people affected by war was discussed. Following are some of the issues directly affecting the lives of the people in Kilinochchi. Relief works in Kilinochchi district is carried out in a selective process and in casual way not benefiting the war affected.
A war affected family in the Kilinochchi district
Relief is used as an incentive to align people who are suffering from poverty in Vanni. Poverty of the people in Vanni is used as a grip to win the ulterior motives of the government. Critical needs of the people are implemented on a casual process as a subsidiary. People has no way to make complains or protest against this.
1. The absence of trade unions is a major problem concerned affecting the public servants in Kilinochchi. The public servant’s in Kilonochchi has no capacity to collectively raise their voice against the inequity of law.
2. Due to poverty there are many school dropouts found in the Kilinochchi District. Parents use their children as helpers to their work in farming and fishing. Distance to schools is also a cause for the children’s to abandon their school. Education is not concerned as a major issue due to poverty. There are many woman headed families found in the Vanni district. The women’s are in search of jobs to support their family. As there are no way to leave their kids at home women’s are forced to take their school going children’s when they go out to work. No proper livelihood opportunities are provided to the people in Kilinochchi to earn for their day to day living. Due to this men’s are forced to search odd jobs in the vicity.
3. When the Vanni IDP’s were resettled in the Kilinochchi and Mullaitivu districts, there were fully damaged and partly damaged houses due to war. These houses were not suitable for living condition. Building damaged houses and giving new houses to war victims too are carried on a selective process.
4. The government is carrying selective process in distributing reliefs to the people in Kilinochchi. Reliefs are distributed according to the whims and fancies of government stooges. No proper needs assessments are carried out to identify beneficiaries when distributing reliefs.
5. Due to the war there are an increased number of widows in the Northern Province. Widows are subject for exploitation due to poverty. Poverty plays a major role in Vanni. Due to this the war affected victims can be easily influenced. Due to losing their husbands some widows are used for sex works to subsidize their biological needs. There are no proper mechanism started by the government to address the plight of the war affected women’s in the Vanni.
6. There are many unlicensed liquor shops found within the Kilinochci district after the war. These unlicensed liquor shops are opened with the help of politicians. No law is enforced against unlicensed liquor shop owners by the police. Due to unlawful liquor shops there is a high risk of teenagers getting addicting to liquor.
7. No considerable unskilled or semi skilled job opportunities are available or provided to the people in the Vanni district in parallel to the resettlement. Sinhala speaking people from other districts are found working in Kilinochchi. Residents are prevented or obstructed to engage in their traditional livelihood such as fishing and farming they were doing before the war. Special instructions are given to people by the forces who are engaged in fishing. Though there are many government construction projects found in Kilinochchi no visible job opportunities are given to the area residents to work. Skilled jobs are given on recommendations in local government due to political influence or to whoever who render their support to work for the best interest of the regime to sustain its power. Due to political influence people living outside Kilinochchi are found doing business in Kilinochchi. Bus routes and permits are given on special privileges
8. No women police constables are deployed in police stations for inquiries in the Kilinochchi district. Due to this, women’s are subjected to many ill treatments within the police station. Due to the lack of women police constables, women’s are reluctant to lodge complaints against any abuses.
9. Bribery is starting to raise its head in public institutions in Kilinochchi district. Education and Police are the two institutions which is mostly corrupt.
10. People in the Vanni are still undergoing the difficulty of confirming their identity due to the lack of documentary evidence. Due to this the people are unable to prove their lands and property rights. Lack of death certificates cause severe hardships to relatives to prove the death of a deceased person. Due to the delay, lack of knowledge and the unwillingness to initiate a proper mechanism to resolve the documentary evidence people in the Vanni are facing immense hardships.
11. People who sold their land and properties before the war to others once again claim their sold properties after new resettlements. There are indirect intimidations against the present land owners in various forms to leave their properties once bought.
12. Illegal Sand mining and cutting down trees for timber is carried out in large scale in the Kilinochchi district. These rackets are carried out by influence of politicians and with the help of the police. These sands and timbers are taken outside Kilinochchi and sold.
13. Due to poverty people are influenced to take Bank loans mortgaging their properties in the banks. Once they unable to pay the interest the lands are ceased by the bank. This is a systematic acquiring of lands belonging to the Tamil people in Kilinochchi.
14. After four years of completion of the war the government is still unable to provide accurate information of the missing people or the people killed during the war. Due to this people are unable to confirm identities of their lost kiths and kin. According to reports more than 40,000 people might have killed during the final stages.
15. There is no freedom of association in the Northren Province. People’s movements and activities are monitored in every single way by the CID and the police. Former LTTE carders detained and released after rehabilitation are being used as spies by the army intelligence for very low wages. Due to poverty and no jobs available youngsters are forced to work as informants to the government.
16. There is not a single public libraries are opened in Mullaitivu and Kilinochchi District for the benefit of the students.
Land issues in Kilinochchi District
Before the war begin and during administration of the LTTE 70% - 80% of the people in the Kilinochchi district were staying in permit lands given by the government. Some residents had permits and some people stood for many years in those lands without any certified permits and deeds but only a letter given by the then Grama Sevaka of the DS division. During the war some people lost their deeds and documents certifying their lands. When people were evicted from the Menik farm camp to their original places people who had deeds went to their original houses but many people were prevented access to their lands and properties due to non availability of documents.
During 80’s some people left Kilinochchi to other countries and to Jaffna due to war. These vacated lands were later occupied by people who came to Kilinochchi from Kandy and Badulla during 1980’s. Now these people has pre occupied these lands nearly for 20 years. When the war ended in 2009 people who left, started to claim their lands. Due to this the people who were presently living were intimidated by the first owners to leave their properties. Due to this some people were forced to live in temporary shelters.
When the government started to resettle people from the Menik farm nearly 100 families who couldn’t prove their identity due to non availability of documents were prevented access to these lands where they were staying before. These people were provided with temporary shelters in Pannankandi village in Kilinochchi. These temporary shelters are very poor in quality and open to floods
A village in Kilinochchi District called Paravipanchaan, 150 residents who had properties and lands who had deeds and permits were prevented access as it was a former territory occupied by the LTTE. These lands are now occupied by the military as high security zones.
Government lands are yet to be given to people who don’t have lands. The government has no proper mechanism to provide lands with deeds for the landless people. Before allocating lands to the landless the government has given lands or given permission to military people to build houses and shops. There are saloons, pharmacies, snack bars run by the SL army in army uniforms. There are army training camps and public relations offices led by the army situated in the middle of the town. These military people were deployed to monitor people’s movements and prevent the freedom of association. The presence of the army in civilian areas is an obstruction to the civil administration of a community affected by war.
During the discussion it was learnt the government is influencing a limited number of Vanni Tamils to be the stooges of the regime to work for the best interest of the regime for perks and benefits demoting the best interest of a community as a whole. The government is making use of the people affected by poverty to its evil interest.
