Archives

Udathalawinna massacre victims given letters of land ownership

by Ariyaratne Ganegoda

Families of the ten victims in the Udathalawinna massacre which occurred on General election day in December 2001 received letters of ownership to their lands from Prime Minister Ranil Wickremesinghe at a simple ceremony held at Temple Trees yesterday.

These lands were compensated to them by the Housing Ministry.

Prime Minister Wickremesinghe handed over the letters of ownership to the representatives of each family at the request of Ports Minister and SLMC Leader Rauff Hakeem and on the invitation of Housing and Plantation Infrastructure Minister Arumugam Thondaman. The allotments are to be made from a site close to the Pallekelle Gam Udawa grounds.

Those who received the letters were Mohamed Mustapha Mohamed Iqbal, Mrs. Sahabdeen Siththy Naleera, Abdul Hameed Mohamed Hanifa, Abdul Haleem Mohamed Mihilar, Habeeb Lebbe Mohamed Illyas, Mrs. Saldin Supiah Umma, Abdul Cafoor Mohamed Rajin Hadjiar, Abdul Mohamed Thaibdeen, Mrs. Abdul Lateefa Fathima Rizmia and Abdul Hameed Mohamed Sawahir.

The Prime Minister addressing the families of the dead victims said the Udatalawinna incident occurred during the last general election period. Several innocent lives were lost on account of it. This incident was still fresh in his mind because several UNP candidates contesting the elections from the Kandy district immediately informed him about it over the telephone.

The Prime Minister said among those who informed him about this incident were Ministers Rauf Hakeem and Keheliya Rambukwella. It had also been reported to Charitha Ratwatte, who was then chairman of the UNP.

The Prime Minister said he did not wish to speak at length about the incident since the matter was before court.

He wished to thank Minister Thondaman, his ministry and the NHDA for taking steps to compensate the families of the victims by granting them allotments of land. Parliamentarian R. Yogarajan, Consultant, Ministry of Housing and Plantation Infrastructure M. S. Sellasamy, NHDA Chairman, Maj Gen. Sarath Munasinghe, and several other NHDA officials were also present on the occasion.

www.crescat.com

News | Business | Features | Editorial | Security
Politics | World | Letters | Sports | Obituaries

Produced by Lake House
Copyright © 2003 The Associated Newspapers of Ceylon Ltd.
Comments and suggestions to :Web Manager