Tamils protest presidential representative’s land grabbing in the North

The people in the North have declared a protest against the president’s representative in the North, who has attempted to forcefully take over the lands owned by the public to fulfil the military of objective occupying the lands. This is while President Ranil Wickremesinghe had expresses his desire to negotiate with Tamil leaders.

A protest was held in front of the Northern Province Governor’s office on 15th November under the leadership of Tamil National Peoples Front (TNPF) spokesman and lawyer, Kanagaratnam Sugash, while he was preparing to hold a discussion with the regional secretaries about the acquisition of land.

“We want our land’’, “Governor does not have the support of Tamil officials’’, “Stop robbing the lands that belong to the Tamil people’’, “a drama to get IMF loan’’, “Genocidal army grabs Tamil land’’, ”Stop the genocidal plans of the Ranil-Rajapaksa government’’, and “North and East are the homeland of the Tamil people’’ were some of the slogans in the banners.

Northern Province Governor Jeevan Thyagaraja, who visited the protest site stated that there’s no need to create a panic among the people as he knows ‘exactly how he has to carry out his duties’.

According to the reporters in Jaffna the governor has said to the protesters, “There a law that’s used to acquire land. I know what I have to do. So don’t come and tell me these things”. However when the protesters chanted “we want our lands” he retreated from the place.

Meanwhile, the land acquisition plan carried out by the Governor, Jeevan Thyagarajah was condemned in separate media conferences held in Jaffna by Ilangai Tamil Arasu Katchi (ITAK) and TNPF parties on the 14th of November,ITAK leader, former member of parliament, Mavai Senathirajah stated,

“We are fighting to free the lands that are already occupied by the army. We will never allow the governor to acquire more land’’

The Secretary of Tamil National People’s Front, Member of Parliament Selvarajah Kajendren stated that he condemns the Governor’s practice of forcible land acquisition and would surround his office.

“We will not give an inch of our land to the army”