Funds not enough to pay conflict victims

The Government requires over Rs. 210 million to pay for victims of bomb blasts and other incidents relating to the country’s ethnic conflict, but has only Rs. 45 million in hand, according to the latest figures of the Rehabilitation of Persons, Properties and Industries Authority of the Resettlement and Human Rights Ministry.

Of the Rs. 210 million, Rs. 157.2 million is required for 2792 cases of death and Rs. 53.7 million for the 1582 cases of injuries, Rehabilitation Authority Deputy Director Ananda Wijepala said. Under the ‘most affected persons compensation scheme’, a programme which provides funds for civilian victims of bomb blasts and other conflict related incidents, the Government paid over Rs. 21 million in 2007, Rs. 68 million in 2006 and Rs. 82 million in 2005 to the victims as compensation, he said.

“However, most of these cases include those from previous years, where payments would have been delayed for various reasons including the unavailability of funds and victims claiming for compensation much later than the actual date”, Mr. Wijepala said.

In case of death, if the victim was married Rs. 100,000 would be paid as compensation to his or her next-of-kin, while Rs. 50,000 would be paid for an unmarried victim and Rs. 25,000 paid for a minor (those under 18). In addition all victims’ families would also be paid Rs. 10,000 as funeral expenses.

In case of injuries, a victim is entitled to a maximum of Rs. 50,000 depending on the level of injury or percentage of disability as stated in the medical report. Injured persons who are hospitalised would be paid Rs. 10,000 as immediate relief and could claim the balance upon presentation of the medical report and other relevant documents.

“The level of injury is judged by certain criteria such as whether the disablement is temporary or permanent and the percentage of loss of earning due to the injury. For instance, if the percentage of disability is over 70% then we treat it as a serious injury and pay the maximum amount of Rs. 50,000. However if the injury is around 10%, the injured person is entitled to Rs. 5000”, Mr. Wijepala said.

As victims killed or injured are identified with the help of the hospital directors or by the list at the mortuary after post mortems have been performed, there is no difficulty in identifying the genuine cases, he said. Public servants such as teachers who are also victims of such incidents are entitled to a maximum of Rs. 1.5 million in case of death and Rs. 100,000 in case of injuries. However they would have to claim compensation through a Government medical board established to look into their matters.

“The funds received by the Treasury are allocated to many compensation schemes. Only Rs. 45 million was allocated for conflict-related incidents, but this figure could change. For instance although we allocated just Rs. 3 million to Moneragala, with the incidents that took place there this figure was raised to Rs. 6 million”, Mr. Wijepala said.