Eastern province Chief Minister Sivanesathurai Chandrakanthan alias Pillayan has urged President Mahinda Rajapaksa to release funds to pay compensation for the next of kin of those who have disappeared during the past two years in the east.
Tamil Makkal Viduthalai Pulikal (TMVP) spokesman Azad Moulana told The Sunday Times that the issue of paying compensation was discussed with the President at a recent meeting and a special unit had been set up at the Eastern provincial Council Secretariat in Trincomalee to entertain complaints.
 |
| Pillayan moments before a woman asked him to return her son |
He said that under the proposed compensation programme, parents who have lost their children during the past two years would be compensated.
Mr. Moulana said that based on the complaints, inquiries would be held and efforts would be made to locate the missing persons before compensations were paid.
The move came amidst mounting pressure on Chief Minister Chandrakanthan from parents who have lost their children.
At least 213 complaints have been received by a Non-Governmental Organisation operating in the Eastern Province so far and some of these cases have been forwarded to the Chief Minister.
Last Saturday, Mr. Chandrakanthan was confronted by a group of Vakarai villagers, who demanded that their family members and children allegedly abducted by the TMVP be released. Angry residents threw stones at the Chief Minister, prompting his security officials to whisk him off from the scene.
TMVP officials also said their leader Vinayagamoorthy Muralitharan alias Karuna was receiving appeals from parents and family members to locate missing persons.
Karuna recently sent TMVP’s Ampara co-ordinator S. Pushpaharan alias Inayabarathi to the Welikada and Magazine prisons to find out whether the persons who have been listed as missing were there.
Earlier the United Nations Children’s Fund (UNICEF) appealed to the TMVP to release under-aged recruits. | 
E-mail