Conflicting claims on Jaffna survey
By Chris Kamalendran
In a bid to resolve the dispute over High Security Zones, the military has launched a house-to-house survey to look for vacant houses to resettle displaced people - but the District Secretary says no houses are vacant outside the HSZs.

As the HSZ dispute ended in deadlock at the talks in Thailand, military officials said they had begun the house-to-house survey to estimate the population as well as the number of houses, which could be occupied by civilians in areas safe for the return of the people.

They said the survey was launched as the military was aware that there were houses vacant in the Jaffna peninsula. But, Jaffna's District Secretary Chelliah Pathmanthan in a report to the government has contradicted the military claim and said there were no vacant houses outside the HSZs in the Jaffna peninsula.

He claimed there were at least 3500 houses and 52 shops occupied by the military outside the High Security Zones.At the peace talks in Thailand this week, the dispute over High Security Zones went unresolved with question marks over the next meeting of the Sub Committee on De-escalation and Normalisation.

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