Sri Lanka President AKD’s representative urged to release seized northern land

A group led by Tamil mothers, who had lost their land in the former Sri Lanka war zone, has visited the newly-elected President’s provincial representative in the north seeking the release of their land occupied by state institutions including the military for years.

Regional correspondents say that a group of Tamils from Mullaitivu visited the Northern Province Governor’s Office in Jaffna on 21 October, and requested that land occupied by state institutions be released. This includes Keppapulavu-based Tamil people’s land occupied for the establishment of an army headquarter in Mullaitivu and Tamil people’s traditional land forcibly acquired during the establishment of the Mahaweli L Zone.

Only two from the group that travelled from Mullaitivu for the meeting received the opportunity to speak with new Governor Nagalingam Vedanayagam appointed by President Anura Kumara Dissanayake.

Following the discussion, Vivekanandan Indrani, a mother that joined the discussion, said that although five persons served as Sri Lanka’s Head of the State since the end of the war, none of them was able to resolve the land-related issues faced by the people of Keppapulavu.

“Five Presidents and six Governors have been in office since 2008, and we are now at the end of 2024. But, despite having been in power, none of these Presidents has resolved the issues faced by the people of Keppapulavu. After his election, the incumbent President is going ahead to eradicate corruption in the south. Our issue needs solutions too.”

She further said that the group visited Vedanayagam seeking the release of their land because it was him, as the then Mullaitivu District Secretary, who gave a 40-perch land per family that had lost their land and settled them in the Keppapulavu model village in 2010.

“We learned that Vedanayagam was sworn in as the Governor. He was the one who settled us in the Keppapulavu model village. We came here to emphasise that steps need to be taken to send us back to our land.”

The Governor had admitted that he is not unfamiliar with the land crisis.

A day after the Northern Province Governor met with the residents of Mullaitivu who had lost their land, the President had summoned all Governors to Colombo.

“Land related matters in the north and east and the handling of Provincial Council funds were discussed at length,” the President’s Media Division (PMD) said on 22 October.

The battle for land

On 1 March 2017, landowners staged a series of protests in front of the Mullaitivu Security Force Headquarters in Keppapulavu demanding the release of their land forcibly occupied by the army, and subsequently, the army had taken steps to release a portion of land under two phases.

However, regional correspondents report that the army has built the Security Forces Headquarters by occupying a land with religious places, playgrounds, public halls, houses, and agricultural land.

Alleging that the army is enjoying the income of the Tamil people by occupying their agricultural land, landowners stress that even though 15 years have passed since the end of the war, the Tamil people are still living as war displaced.

They had further requested the Governor to release their agricultural land located in the Kokkilai, Kokkuthoduvai, and Karunattukeni areas, which had been forcibly acquired and distributed among outsiders by the Sri Lankan government under the Mahaweli Development Project. Such settlements, carried out with the government’s intervention, are considered by the Tamil people as a plan aimed at changing the demographic composition of the north and east, which is recognized as their homeland.

A protest had been staged in Jaffna as well demanding that this land grabbing be stopped forthwith and that traditional land taken from Vanni-based Tamil people four decades ago be returned.

In response to these requests, Governor Vedanayagam had said that he will discuss these concerns with the relevant parties at a discussion slated to be held on 24 October at the Jaffna District Secretariat. Regional reporters added that the Governor accepted the letter handed over by the residents of Mullaitivu and invited the group to be present at the District Secretariat on 24 October.

In the name of development

According to Kokkuthoduvai Farmers' Association’s President, Sinnapillai Sivaguru, residents of the area including himself had fled their homes in 1984 for survival during the war. However, when they returned to their villages after 11 years, the government had absorbed those villages into the Mahaweli L Zone and had created Sinhala settlements. That land is yet to be released. Former Northern Provincial Council Member Thurairasa Raviharan said when the government’s army forced Tamil people to leave their villages in 1984, hundreds of people in six Grama Niladhari divisions located in the Maritimepattu Divisional Secretariat area used close to 3,000 acres for agricultural activities.

He noted that despite the Department of Agrarian Development confirming the ownership during a meeting held at the Mullaitivu District Secretariat in 2018, that land has not been returned to the Tamil people.
Traditional land belonging to the residents of Kokkuthoduvai-North, Kokkuthoduvai-Central, Kokkuthoduvai-South, Karunattukeni, Kokkilai-West, and Kokkilai-East located in the Muhudubadapaththu Divisional Secretariat area (in the Mullaitivu district), which the Tamil people consider to be their traditional homeland, is located adjacent to the Sinhalese settlements that were established since the 1980s which include the area that connects the north and east.

The then Tamil United Liberation Front Parliamentarians pointed out that these Sinhalese settlements were established through a series of Tamil massacres.

The Mahaweli Development Authority, Sri Lanka Tourism Development Authority, Department of Archaeology, and the Departments of Forest Conservation and Wildlife have been continuously accused of forcibly acquiring land belonging to the Tamil people of the north and east.

Tamil lands and the NPP

During a programme telecast on a private television channel on 8 October, Janatha Vimukthi Peramuna’s (JVP) General Secretary Tilvin Silva said that the Tamil people’s struggle, which seeks the release of their land occupied by State institutions including the defence forces, is a ‘brawl’ that should be resolved by the central government.
The General Secretary of the political party led by the present President remains confident that the land issues faced by the Tamil people can be resolved through central government controlled land registry offices.

“In fact, resolving land-related issues is a big responsibility to be addressed. There are no clear deeds regarding a lot of land. Some left their land during the war. Later, they were not able to go back, and those who were there occupied that land. Now, when the owner returns, someone else has settled in the land, and that causes a brawl. We as the government should intervene, and address this situation including through land registry offices.”

The JVP General Secretary was cautious not to state that it was the defence forces had occupied Tamil people’s traditional land when they returned after fleeing the area during the war.

In May 2023, Thamizh Makkal Tesiya Kootani (TMTK) Leader and Parliamentarian C.V. Wigneswaran, PC, had stated that former President Ranil Wickremesinghe speaking about the forcible occupation of Tamil people’s land during a meeting with Tamil people’s representatives in the north and east had said that steps should be taken in accordance with the maps prepared by the department of wildlife conservation in 1985.