Tamils in the north have refused to sign documents to allow the legal takeover of their land for the expansion of the Palali Airport without first knowing the amount of compensation they would get.

A total of 660 acres of private land was acquired by a gazette issued in 1986.

The owners vacated the land during the war and stayed with their relatives or friends, but continued to agitate demanding a return of the land.

Following the end of the war, the Valikamam North divisional secretariat started a programme to grant compensation for the land acquired by the state.

A total of 538 owners handed over ownership documents to the DS, with 445 agreeing to accept compensation, while 48 others remain undecided.

Another 45 insisted they want their land back, while 105 persons are listed although not having documents prove ownership.

DS Maradalingam Pradeepan chaired a meeting in the first week of this month with the people, where he attempted to obtain their signatures to an affidavit already prepared.

They said they disagreed with a clause which says that they agree to obtain compensation, because the amount of compensation they would get is not mentioned anywhere.

The DS confirmed no figures were given and asked them to make their written observations in the document.

The owners insisted that particular clause be omitted if they are to sign the affidavit and said they need to be party to deciding the amount of compensation.

The DS was asked to calculate the present-day value of the land and include it in the document.

Correspondents reported that the people walked out of the meeting in protest.

Quoting a woman among them, correspondents said the land acquired is not used in the expansion of the airport, but that members of the military are seen doing farming there.

Election Commission officials have once again been summoned before the special committee appointed to examine the conduct of Provincial Council elections.

Commissioner General of Elections Rasika Peiris said the discussion is scheduled to be held on the 20th of August.

Further discussions will be held on the procedure under which the Provincial Council elections should be conducted.

The special committee, chaired by Minister Vijitha Herath, was appointed recently to study which electoral system should be used to conduct the Provincial Council elections and submit recommendations.

The committee has so far held discussions with several parties, including the Attorney General’s Department.

Election Commission was also previously summoned before the committee.

Minister Vijitha Herath serves as the chairman of the appointed Parliamentary Special Committee.

Despite maintaining 16,966 active files on missing civilians, the Office on Missing Persons (OMP) has so far found and verified only 25 missing persons, with another six believed to be alive but awaiting verification, OMP’s Executive Director Dr Jeganathan Thatparan said.

Speaking to the media yesterday (13) ahead of the International Day of the Victims of Enforced Disappearances, which will be commemorated in Jaffna and Matara on 25 August, he said that the OMP had so far established the fate of 31 missing persons, comprising 25 people whose whereabouts had been found and verified and another six known to be living but whose status still needs to be formally verified.

OMP Chairperson, attorney-at-law Mahesh Katulanda said the institution had inherited around 42,000 complaints when it was established, including complaints that had previously been submitted to various commissions, United Nations-affiliated bodies, the International Committee of the Red Cross and other State and non-State institutions.

He said that one of the OMP’s biggest initial challenges was identifying duplicate complaints and determining which complaints related to the same missing person. In some cases, he claimed that several complaints had been lodged about the same person, while different people had also filed complaints concerning the same disappearance.

“At that time, we didn’t have a database. During the 30-year war, the technology available was limited. Some people didn’t have National Identity Cards, while some didn’t have any documents at all. The periods of 1971 and 1988-1989 were also not technologically advanced. Records were maintained in books, and we had to begin this process relying heavily on human labour,” he said.

“We have now established a database containing 23,352 missing persons. Of these, 16,966 are active files concerning civilians who remain missing. Military and Police personnel who went missing during operations are handled separately by the OMP as a distinct category.”

Katulanda also said that the number of complaints had changed significantly as the OMP worked through historical records and duplicate cases. He said that the figure had once stood at around 62,000 before being reduced to about 42,000 by around 2021 after the complaints received from different organisations and institutions were consolidated.

“When we examined and analysed all the duplicate complaints, we were able to bring the figure down to around 14,982 genuine cases. From those 14,982 cases, the number increased to 23,352. This increase was due to public confidence in the OMP and the willingness of victim families to file new complaints. However, I believe that there’re still more people in society who may come to us.”

Speaking further, he said that the OMP had personally met around 9,072 families so far to gather information on the circumstances surrounding the disappearances, including external and direct information, the families’ needs and expectations, the relief that they require and the circumstances that may have contributed to the disappearances.

He also said that the Government currently provides a one-off payment to families of missing persons, known as a “revival allowance”, but stressed that it is not compensation. He said that the current Government is also working through a committee on a mechanism that could provide a more substantive form of reparations for victims.

Katulanda said that the Government had recently provided more than Rs. 375 million through a Cabinet paper to cover expenses associated with meeting the families of missing persons. “We can see that this Government has a very high level of political commitment to this matter. We can see that they are continuously looking into it,” he said, and added that the OMP had also received approval to recruit 69 additional staff members, including lawyers, personnel required for tracing work, psychosocial workers and staff for management functions.

He said that the OMP expected to use the additional resources and capacity to work with more than 5,000 families before the end of this year (2026). The planned outreach will focus on families in Mullaitivu, Kilinochchi, Mannar, Jaffna, Vavuniya and Batticaloa, he said.

The European Union, in its latest assessment of Sri Lanka’s situation for GSP+, has emphasised the need for the adoption of comprehensive anti-discrimination laws protecting ethnic and religious minorities and LGBTIQ+ persons, as well as the decriminalisation of consensual same-sex relations.

It is a joint report to the European Parliament and Council.

The report, which is now in the public domain, calls for addressing the targeted intimidation, harassment and surveillance of civil society by security forces; urgently addressing torture, police abuse and deaths in custody through effective accountability; and introducing a formal moratorium on the death penalty as a step towards abolition.

The EU has made recommendations covering a wide range of areas, including the repeal of the Prevention of Terrorism Act and reform of anti-terrorism legislation in line with international standards; protection of civic and democratic space; and ensuring freedom of expression by repealing the Online Safety Act.

It also calls for fostering gender equality and combating domestic, sexual and gender-based violence and child abuse, including by prohibiting child marriage.

The report says Sri Lanka has benefited from the EU’s Special Incentive Arrangement for Sustainable Development and Good Governance (GSP+) since 2017, when GSP+ was reinstated for the country. Sri Lanka is the third-largest GSP+ beneficiary.

In 2024, imports utilising GSP+ preferences amounted to EUR 1.5 billion, while the share of GSP+-eligible products in total imports remained at 83.5%, the report says.

Sri Lanka benefited from an estimated EUR 139 million in tariff exemptions in 2024. With a GSP+ utilisation rate of 68.9% in 2024, there is significant potential for the country’s economy to benefit further from GSP+.