UNHRC told of continuing landgrabbing in Sri Lanka's east
The Oakland Institute, a leading US think tank on land rights issues, in their new report says the intense grabbing of fertile lands in the eastern district of Trincomalee has gained momentum. The new report points out that the demography of Trincomalee district has been changed considerably after the forced colonization of the Sinhala people over decades, as well as serious imbalances in land holding.
This report has come at a time nearing the 57th session of the UN Human Rights Council where the HRC is to consider a resolution on Sri Lanka and vote on it.
Earlier in an interview to the German National Broadcaster Deutsche Welle, Minister Ali Sabry said over 90% of the occupied lands in the North have been returned to the rightful owners; a claim which was rebutted by Jaffna District MP Sivagnanam Siritharan.
The minister was silent about the happenings in the East, where the Tamils, Muslims, and the Sinhala people live in an almost equal proportion.
Trincomalee District is a strategic area of the country with a natural harbour of immense value - this is where the land grabbing is happening according to the report.
“Sinhalese control is expanding over Trincomalee District, which remains largely under military rule 15 years after the end of the war,” said Anuradha Mittal, Executive Director of the Oakland Institute. “These land grabbing efforts strategically target the most densely Tamil and Muslim populated areas to erase their history and culture while destroying their claim to a unified homeland.”
As a result of intensive land grabbing, Sinhalese now constitute 27 percent of the district’s population and occupy 36 percent of the district's total land area. The Kuchchaveli DS Division has undergone the worst dispossession during the past ten years as over 50 percent of the division (41,164 acres) has been expropriated, Anuradha Mittal added further.
“This has been in part carried out under the guise of various “development” projects – including irrigation schemes, port modernization, power generation and tourism – used to expropriate lands from Tamils and settle Sinhalese in a process known as Sinhalization. Various government agencies, including the Archaeology Department, Forest Department, and Tourism Development Authority are implicated in these schemes.”
Elaborating further on the devious plans of grabbing lands that are fertile as well as strategically important, the Oakland Institute report highlights how expropriated lands in the Kuchchaveli DS Division is done under the guise of development. Most of the projects ‘said to be development’ has been towards the construction of new Buddhist shrines or viharas or expansion of the existing ones.
“At least 26 viharas have been constructed on 3,887 acres of expropriated land. Traditional livelihoods for Tamils and Muslims have been lost due to the massive expropriation of fertile agricultural and coastal lands. Efforts to reclaim land are stymied by the heavy military presence that remains in the area.”
The report alleges that the idea is to change the demography and disturb communal and cultural harmony in the East.
The report further alleges that the expansion of Buddhist viharas (temples) in predominantly Hindu and Muslim areas is facilitating Buddhization of the East to change the demographics and erase the cultural landmarks of Tamils and Muslims.
Traditional livelihoods for Tamils and Muslims have been lost due to the massive expropriation of fertile agricultural and coastal lands. Efforts to reclaim land are stymied by the heavy military presence that remains in the area, the report points out.
Trincomalee’s Kuchchaveli DS Division, which geographically connects the Northern and Eastern Provinces, has undergone the worst dispossession during the past ten years according to the report.
While Sinhalese colonization and settlements have taken place in Sri Lanka under the guise of development since independence, this new research exposes an intensification since the end of the civil war in 2009 and details the different methods deployed by successive governments and the military to further disempower Tamil and Muslim communities.
Sinhala governments in Colombo have continuously taken forward the agenda of ‘Sinhalisation’ under the guise of various “development” projects, including irrigation schemes, port modernization, power generation and tourism has been hugely controversial since the lands for those projects were expropriated from the Tamils and settle the Sinhalese there. Locals allege many such projects never really took off or even if it did, it had minimal effect mainly benefitting the Sinhalese people, Tamils and Muslims have been alleging for a long time.
Apart from the “development projects” various government agencies, including the Archaeology Department, Forest Department, and Tourism Development Authority are also implicated in the Sinhalization schemes says Oakland Institute report.
In 2020, the government commissioned an 11-member Presidential Task Force for Archaeological Heritage Management in the Eastern Province, led by the military and monks, with the alleged goal of seizing land in the area.
In October 2023, after documenting these land grabs, the United States Commission on International Religious Freedom (USCIRF) recommended Sri Lanka be added to the Special Watch list for severe violations of religious freedom. “While Buddhist monks are allowed to rapidly construct and expand viharas and monasteries, the temples of ancient gods worshipped by the Tamils in these areas are being destroyed,” said Mittal.
Earlier research reports in the past and in this latest one by the Oakland Institute have documented the Sri Lankan state uses military occupation to assert its dominance over the minority Tamil and Muslim population in the North and East Provinces.
“These provinces remain highly militarized, hosting five of the seven Regional Headquarters of the Sri Lankan military. The heavy military presence is enabling land grabs to establish Buddhist viharas and bring in Sinhalese settlers.”
Thousands of Tamils in Trincomalee district have lost their livelihoods due to a staggering amount of fertile and coastal lands being grabbed. Tamils in the traditional agriculture and fishing industry face a bleak future.
Those who have returned and attempted to reclaim their lands face legal obstacles and harassment from settlers while being deprived of basic services local Tamils say.
“Our future is a question. We can neither farm nor fish. If this situation continues, there will be no chance for our descendants to continue living in this village,” said a Tamil fisherman living in Kuchchaveli as quoted in the report.
In a separate report ‘Trincomalee Under Seige’, Oakland Institute has documented testimonies from impacted community members, who they claim have courageously come forward to testify calling for justice amidst heavy repression.
“The intensification of Sri Lanka's ethnocratic practices documented in this report compounds the already existing misery, injustice, resentment, and jeopardizes any possibility of accountability and redressal for crimes committed by the Sri Lankan state during the civil war to now. Unless the government starts demilitarizing the Northern and Eastern Provinces and respecting the basic rights to land and life of the Tamil and Muslim communities, peace and reconciliation will not be possible,” concluded Mittal.
Trincomalee harbour is the second best natural harbour in the world and the available water and land area is about 10 times as much as the Port of Colombo. Trincomalee was tentatively identified to cater for bulk and break bulk cargo and port-related industrial activities including heavy industries, tourism and agriculture etc -Sri Lanka’s Port Authority official site says.
