V.Anandasangaree Secretary General- TULF

Your Excellency,

War victims need Financial Assistance Urgently

On behalf of the Tamil United Liberation Front  I express  my  deepest sympathies to the victims of the Kosgama Salawa Army camp incident, who virtually  lost all their possessions unexpectedly in a short while. Immense damage had been caused to their houses and other properties.  It is not that easy to reimburse all what they had lost. It is not fair on my part to make favorable or adverse comments about the rehabilitation works undertaken, because it is only those who are on the spot will understand the situation. But I appreciate the decision taken by the government to pay the families of the victims a sum of Rs.50,000 each for a specified period.

Since I am from Killinochchi I understand well the type of problems the victim of such incidents face. It may not be irrelevant if I quote a paragraph from a lengthy letter dated 17 -10- 2009  running to seven pages, sent to the former President Mahinda Rajapakse, wherein I had stated as follows.

Your Excellency, you have committed to protect their property as well. I hardly met a beggar in the past in any of the two districts of Killinochchi and Mullaitivu. Most of them had been living comfortably. Some owned big mansions, tractors with trailers, Lorries, cars, vans, two wheel tractors and thousands of Motorcycles. Some were engaged in extensive cultivation, dairy farming and poultry farming. They left behind everything including their lifetime savings invested on articles of gold. When they get back to their homes hardly anything will remain there. If you allow them to go and take possession of their movables and preserve them in a common place, it will be a great boon for them.”

Things had happened as I anticipated. Nothing was found in their homes when they returned after the war was over. Even the fittings, windows, doors were all removed. The scene that we now see in Salawa and in the neighboring villages was almost similar to what appeared soon after the war and regrettably even  now, in many parts of  Vanni, seven years after the end of the war. The only difference could be that small huts now appear in places where their houses big and small once stood and the debris of all houses now removed. The lives of many are miserable in their small huts, not suitable for human habitation with no sufficient food and regular income.  I appeal to you, your Excellency, to adopt a short term scheme to last one year or so and provide the disserving with free ration or subsidized food items and a monthly allowance of about atleast 25,000 rupees as minimum with which they will take care of their uncompleted houses, which could not be completed due to lack of funds.

Merely because there is no one to bring to your notice, the grave problems most of them face, it does not mean that they are living in comfort. The assistance coming from the Diaspora is not reaching those who deserve help. I very strongly urge you, your Excellency, to reintroduce the old ration scheme that existed till 1975, on an Island wide scale for those whose income is not sufficient to maintain their families, so that no one will go starving for want of means. My request for financial assistance to the war victims in Vanni and other places should not be ignored and a favorable decision taken immediately. To grant relief for them, if sufficient funds are not available the gold seized in Vanni could be made use of for this purpose.

Thanking you,

Yours Sincerely,

V.Anandasangaree
Secretary General- TULF

Copies to :     Hon. Ranil Wickramasinghe , Prime Minister
Hon. Ravi Karunanayake , Minister of  Finance.