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Times report gives hope to riot victims
From Neville de Silva in London
Bureaucratic bungling almost cost nearly 80 expatriate Tamils their claims for compensation for losses suffered during the July 1983 riots. Officials concede that had The Sunday Times not highlighted the issue last month these Tamils of Sri Lankan origin could have had their claims go by default because of bureaucratic negligence.

The Secretary of the Presidential Committee on Ethnic Violence, S M J Senaratne, in a letter to one of the victims mentioned in the news report from London, admits that 79 applications for compensation were received in response to a government announcement by those domiciled outside Sri Lanka.

His staff had “segregated”, according to the secretary, these applications but does not mention why. “After this lapse was brought to my notice consequent to the news item mentioned above, action has been taken to acknowledge receipt of those applications.”

The news report last month cited the case of Sellappa Thevarajah of Southgate, London as an example of one who had responded to an announcement by the Secretary to the President asking victims of the July riots residing or domiciled abroad to apply for compensation.

Though Mr Thevarajah had submitted his application through the Sri Lanka High Commission in London that had, in turn, forwarded it to the Foreign Ministry for transmission to the Ministry of Relief, Rehabilitation and Reconstruction, it had not even been acknowledged by that ministry.

Following The Sunday Times report Mr Thevarajah received a letter from the Sri Lanka High Commission on behalf of the Foreign Ministry saying it had forwarded the application to the Rehabilitation Ministry on 21/01/ 2005.
The Rehabilitation Ministry in a belated acknowledgement dated 10/10/2005 states that the application for compensation “will be tabled before the presidential Appeal Committee on Ethnic Violence,” without any indication when such applications would be tabled or when the committee is likely to meet.

Thevarajah and others are puzzled by a statement made by Secretary Senaratne. While extending an apology to Thevarajah he writes that the “Committee has received 5,031 applications up to the time of closure of receipt of applications in May 2005. These applications have reached this office either by post or by personal delivery as well as through despatches made by the Presidential Secretariat in batches from December 2004 to May 2005.”

But according to the media advertisement by the Secretary to the President W J S Karunaratne applications were to close on 31.01.2005. So how did applications close in May? And why were applications sent to the presidential secretariat when the announcement said they should be addressed to the Rehabilitation Ministry are some of the questions being asked here. Many applicants fear that they will not get any compensation at all, judging by the delays along the way.

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