The Hon. Shanakiyan Rajaputhiran Rasamanickam

¶ 01 Hon. Prime Minister, we appreciate your response and want to work with you. But as time lapses, staff will align accordingly. On the Office for Reparations (OFR), many Tamil mothers have rejected it. My question is primarily to the Hon. Prime Minister, to be delegated if she wishes.

¶ 02 If we take OFR: in 2019, there was an agreement to pay victims Rs. 200,000 as a temporary allowance; only about Rs. 60 million was paid, for 153 families. In 2022, Hon. Ali Sabry offered Rs. 100,000; it was rejected. It was then increased to Rs. 200,000; again rejected. In Budget 2024, Rs. 1,000 million was allocated for reparations and Rs. 800 million spent. In Budget 2025, again Rs. 1,000 million was allocated, but as far as I am aware, not a single cent has been paid this year. Of 16,000 registered mothers, most — around 7,000–8,000 — became mothers before 2000; some are JVP members. Hon. Ranil Wickremesinghe paid Rs. 800 million.

¶ 03 Given that the Constitutional Council recently recommended two members to the OFR, if appointed, out of five members one is retired Major General Palitha Fernando (already there), and one recommended is Mr. Joseph Terence Gnanandan Sundaram (also retired military). The other is Ms. Wasantha Perera, previously attached to the Ministry of Defence. Three of five thus have military backgrounds and are opposed by the Tamil people. How would you justify OFR’s work in this context?

¶ 04 We also have day-to-day concerns (e.g., Batticaloa Medical Campus signage only in Sinhala). I will convey those in writing. Our aim is to resolve victim community issues with you.