Sri Lanka’s prime minister yesterday called for a probe into the whereabouts of vast quantities of gold held by the army, years after it was recovered from the island’s former war zone.
The army seized jewellery left behind by some 300,000 minority Tamil citizens who were driven out of their homes in the final stages of Sri Lanka’s separatist
war, which ended in 2009.
About half the 150kg (330 pounds) of gold recovered by the military during the war is still in its hands, while some has been deposited with the central bank, Prime Minister Ranil Wickremesinghe told
parliament.
But around 40 kilos were unaccounted for, he said, implying that it may have been stolen.
“There are discrepancies. There are conflicting accounts of what happened to the gold. We must investigate this,” Wickremesinghe said.
He called on parliament to set up a special panel to probe the whereabouts of the missing treasure.
The military claimed it found the gold in abandoned homes or buried in back gardens in the conflict zone in the north of the island, while more was found at banks operated by Tamil
separatists.
For years Tamil political parties have pressed for the army to return the jewellery to citizens.
In 2014 the military said it had identified 2,377 “legitimate claimants” but only 25 of them were given back their jewellery under the government of former president Mahinda Rajapakse.
Sri Lanka declared an end to 37 years of ethnic bloodshed after crushing the Tamil Tiger rebels in May 2009.
But the military campaign has also triggered allegations that some 40,000 civilians were killed by troops, a charge the government has vehemently denied.
Sri Lanka’s new government, which came to power in January 2015, has agreed to investigate alleged war crimes.
CALL FOR ASSISTANCE: The government has said it would call for international investments and assistance to develop the formerly war-torn areas in the country.
Niroshan Perera, state minister of national policy, said the government would convene a donor conference in 2016 to seek technical and financial assistance for the war-torn regions and has requested Japan to take the lead, Xinhua reported.
“When the prime minister visited Japan, he requested the government to take the lead. They have been organising that. Hopefully, we will have it in the middle of the year,” Perera said.
“It will be to call for technical assistance plus financial assistance for the north and east (worst-affected regions),” he added.
Perera said the north was one of the key areas that needed to be developed and the government had already discussed with many countries
for investments in the area.
China is one of the countries that have been invited to invest in the north and the east, Perera added.
Sri Lanka’s north and east were the worst-affected in the 30-year civil war against Tamil Tiger rebels with the north remaining as the stronghold of the rebels till they were militarily defeated by government troops in May 2009.
Thousands of minority Tamils in those areas continue to languish without jobs and a stable income and the new government led by President Maithripala Sirisena aims to create at least one million jobs in the next five years with the support of new foreign
investments.