T. Ramakrishnan.
Sri Lankan security forces have released 700 more acres and the Kankesanthurai railway station in the Northern Province, a few days before the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights, Zeid Ra’ad Al Hussein, is to give an update to the Human Rights Council in Geneva on the status of implementation of the October 2015 resolution.
About 200 acres, coming under the limits of the Telipalai Divisional Secretariat of the Jaffna district and adjoining the Palaly army cantonment, were handed over to legitimate owners of the land, while 500 acres in Periya Pachchilapalli of Kilinochchi were also released. Kankesanthurai became the last railway station in the Province released by the forces.
Rehabilitation and Resettlement Minister V. Sivagnanasothy told The Hindu that 18 hectares of 65 ha in Kankesanthurai, which originally belonged to a cement plant, had been identified for the settlement of 200 landless families.
Meanwhile, in a letter to the UN High Commissioner, the Sri Lanka Monitoring and Accountability Panel, constituted by the Transitional Government of Tamil Eelam, referred to the reported stand of the government against meaningful participation of international judges in the proposed judicial mechanism and described this as a “serious blow to the possibility of victims ever obtaining independent and impartial justice.”
Kankesanthurai is the last railway station in the North to be released by the forces.