{"id":95863,"date":"2019-11-30T17:16:06","date_gmt":"2019-12-01T00:16:06","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/?p=95863"},"modified":"2019-11-30T17:16:06","modified_gmt":"2019-12-01T00:16:06","slug":"erasing-the-eelam-victory-part-5","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/2019\/11\/30\/erasing-the-eelam-victory-part-5\/","title":{"rendered":"ERASING THE EELAM VICTORY Part 5"},"content":{"rendered":"

KAMALIKA PIERIS<\/em><\/span><\/h2>\n\n\n

Tamil Separatist\nMovement complained that the land taken over by the armed forces in the\nNorthern Province were not given back once the Eelam war IV ended in 2009. When the war\nended in 2009, altogether 82,555 acres of lands in the North and East were held\nby the military, of which 30,300 acres were private lands, reported the media. Only 5.2 % of the lands seized had been given\nback to their rightful owners since 2009, Tamil Separatist Movement complained.\n<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Once Yahapalana\ngovernment came to power the Tamil separatists were able to put pressure on the\nPresident to get their lands back. In January 2018 Yahapalana announced that it\nhad released a total of 55,510.58 acres of private and state land in Jaffna,\nKilinochchi, Mullaitivu, Mannar and Vavuniya. \n<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In August 2018\nThe President said that 88 per cent of land used for security purposes, had\nalready been released. Only 12% remaining lands have to be released. In November 2018 Yahapalana said that the\nreleasing of the lands occupied by the Security Forces in the North and East is\nin its final stage. In 2019, the Government has released about 80 percent of\nstate lands and around 90 percent of private lands held by the military in the\nNorthern and Eastern Provinces. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Yahapalana\nreported, in greater detail, that the lands which were held under the Security\nForces Jaffna in 2009, was released gradually spread over 20 stages. Most of these lands were held in the\nhigh-security zone. In stage one, 370.65 acres were released to the public on\nOctober 28, 2010. In Stage two 1952.13 acres was released on November 27, 2010.\nIn stage three, 1971.9 acres was released on May 9, 2011. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Under stage four,\n345.94 acres was released on October 6, 2011. Under stage five, 617.76 acres\nwas released on November 29, 2011 in the Thondamannaru area. Under stage six, around 1,000 acres was\nreleased on two occasions on March 23, 2015 and April 10, 2015. Then under\nstage seven, 18.04 acres was released on November 12, 2015. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Under stage\neight, 712.98 acres was released on January 15, 2016 while under stage nine, on\nMarch 10, 2016, 0.67 acres was released. Under\nstage ten, 6.73 acres was released on March 2, 2016. Under stage eleven, 214.18\nacres was released on June 25, 2016. Under stage 12, 499.49 acres was released\non October 31, 2016 and another two acres was released under stage 13 on\nJanuary 14, 2017. Under stage 14, on April 7, 2017, the military released\nanother 33 acres <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Under stage\n15 another 54 acres of land was released on July 03, 2017. Under stage 16 the\nmilitary released 29 acres on November 30, 2017 and another 683 acres was\nreleased under stage 17 on April 13, 2018 and two more acres on February 2018.\nOn May 28, 2018, the military released another 0.25 acres and again on June 4,\n2018, 36.6 acres was released. In\ntotal, 8550.32 acres have been released up to July 2018. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

All private\nlands that were non essential for the national security have been released,\nsaid the Army Commander Lt. General Shavendra Silva in 2019. However,  he released further150.15 acres, in\nKilinochchi belonging to the State and private owners. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Statistics are\nalso given according to army divisions. The 51 Division in 2009 had occupied in\ntotal 2,692.60 acres of land and since 2009 they have so far released 2,512.16\nacres to their rightful owners currently occupying 180.53 acres as at May 20,\n2018. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

The 52 Division\nin 2009 had occupied in total 10,839.83 acres of land and since 2009 they have\nso far released 10,665.37 to their rightful owners, currently occupying 174.46\nacres as at May 20, 2018. The 55 Division\nin 2009 had occupied in total 1,821.17 acres of land and since 2009 they have\nso far released 1,303.00 acres to their rightful owners, currently occupying\n518.17 acres as at May 20, 2018. (Daily\nNews 10.7.18 p 11)<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The total amount\nof land occupied by the Army in the Palaly Cantonment area is 2082.66 acres.\nThe total land area occupied by the Army in other areas is 873.16 acres . The\nSri Lanka Navy currently occupies 636 acres while the Sri Lanka Air Force\noccupies 996.74 acres. The total area utilised by the security forces is\n4627.11 acres. (Daily News 10.7.18 p\n11)<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The lands released included  23-hectare land in the Mundirrippu Forest\nReservation . 35 acres of land in Urani, 21.84 acres, belonging to 17 land\nowners in Seeniyamottai village area. The Ottapulam-Vasavilan road, Point Pedro to Kankesanturai road,\nPonnaleivithi Road, which runs through Parthithurai, Jaffna to Myliddy,  road connecting Vattappalai and\nPuthukudiyirippu  and  the main road that runs between Kankesanturai\nand Point Pedro  were opened to the\npublic. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

The  Tamil Separatist Movement  specially targeted  the Palali cantonment near  Kankesanturai where  the military had occupied 10632.98 acres In\nthe Palali Army Cantonment area in 2009. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

1,473 petitioners\nfrom Achchuveli, Jaffna had complained to the Court of Appeal In May 2013, that\n6,381 acres of land, which belonged to them, is to be acquired by the state for\nthe use of security forces in Palali. The petitioners said they had been\ndisplaced from their villages during the war. When they wanted to return, they\nhad been prevented by the Army.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

 Notices of acquisition had been pasted on\ntrees on those lands. The notices were under land acquisition Act Section 2 and\ndated April 27, 2013.The petitioners requested the Court to restrain the\nMinister of Lands from effecting this mala-fide acquisition. An amended\npetition was submitted later, K. Kaneg Ishwaran PC, appeared with M.A.\nSumanthiran, for the petitioners. The bench comprised Justice S.\nSriskandarajah, the President of the Court of appeal. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Security forces said in 2016 that the army had\noccupied 27,250 acres of which 21,134 have been given back. It was not possible\nto give all the lands back due to security reasons. The lands now  come under the Jaffna and Palaly high security\nzone. There will be no more releasing of land from Palaly cantonment. Security forces said  in 2016. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

But  in\n2017, 29 acres including the buildings belonging to St. Mary\u2019s Church and Roman\nCatholic Tamil Mixed School, located inside the Palaly Army Cantonment, were\nhanded over . In 2018 a further\n <\/em> <\/em>683 acres which was held under the\nPalaly Army camp area,\nwere released. This was the biggest chunk of land released to\nthe Jaffna public on a single day. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Attention then\nturned to Valigamam North. Valigamam North was classified as a High Security\nZone.  Sampanthan said  in 2017 that civilians were\nevicted from several thousands of acres of land in Valigamam North in order to\nprotect the Palaly Air Base from artillery fire almost 25 years ago. But even\nafter the fighting had ended in 2009, only a fraction of that land had been\nreturned for civilian resettlement,  he\nsaid. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

After\nYahapalana took office, many areas in Valikamam were returned to their  owners. <\/em>The army\nreturned 28.8 acres of land to its owners in Valigamam North In 2017. These\nlands, belonging to 400 families, were held by the security forces since\n1990.  However, some of the owners found\nonly empty grounds. Houses had been bulldozed and wells filled up, reported the\nmedia. A further extent of land encompassing 4.4 acres in the Valikamam North\nhitherto used by the Army for service requirements, was released in 2018. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Another area\nwhich got much attention was Myliddy. Myliddy is near the high security zones\nof Palaly airport and Kankesanthurai harbour \n and is home to vital military\ninstallations, including ammuniion dumps. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Myliddy was one\nof the first areas of land to be taken over by the military .It has also been\none of the last areas to be handed back to its civilian owners. The Army  needed Mailady and the area shouldn\u2019t be\nvacated under any circumstances, said Sarath Weerasekera, retired Navy Chief of\nStaff . <\/p>\n\n\n\n

The owners of the\nMyliddy lands  believed that the military\ndid not intend to return this land to them at all as the lands  were \nnear to the high security zones of the airport and harbor. Jehan Perera\nrecounted that in 2012,  three years\nafter the war had ended,  at Myliddy\nbulldozers entered the land and completely flattened all remaining buildings,\nwhich in any event had become dilapidated due to being vacant for close to\nthree decades. The people had returned\nto theirhomes to find nothing\nremaining, not even the boundaries that separated their properties <\/p>\n\n\n\n

In 2016,Tamil\npoliticians were making a determined bid to compel the Army to vacate Mailady\nin the Jaffna peninsula. Tamil National Alliance politicians are demanding\nMailady for resettlement in spite of the Army repeatedly offering alternative\nhousing, observed critics. Those who had been displaced aren\u2019t allowed by Tamil\npoliticians to settle elsewhere because \nthe TNA wanted somehow to evict the Army from Mailady,  they said.   \n<\/p>\n\n\n\n

500 acres of\nMyliddy in Jaffna, which was a long-term request of people, were released in\nApril 2018.  In 2019  on Maha Sivarathri Day  Army released a further  19.72 acres in Myladdy north and east within\nthe Palaly Army Cantonment and a section adjoining it. A small\nsection of 0.25 acres of the released land in Myliddy belongs to the state\nwhile the remainder is owned by private owners, reported the media<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Urani Primary\nSchool, occupied for over 27 years by the military for security reasons, was\nreturned to the school community in 2017. In 2018  a block of 2.75 acres, belonging to the\nKalaimagal Vidyalayam, Myliddy North was returned. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

A  big\nfuss was made over the  land taken over  at Kepapilavu.  Sri Lanka army\u2019s 59th<\/sup> division had\nits   Headquarters at Kepapilavu in Mullaitivu\n, in a camp that spanned over a thousand acres, \nusing up much of the residential land, \u2018believed to be legally owned\u2019 by private\nindividuals who hold legal documentation, complained Tamil Separatist Movement\n.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The army had displaced the villagers of\nKepapilavu, said Tamil Separatist Movement .  An additional 54 families  had been displaced by the Air Force. These\nwere their private lands or lands with permits. The villagers are in Seeniyamottai close to Nandikathal.\nThey are in very infertile area and are suffering. The military is treating\nthem badly, said Tamil Separatist Movement \nin 2013. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Shenali Waduge had gone to Kepapilavu, in 2013. The\nvillagers looked happy, after living for 30 years in cadjan huts.  The 125\nfamilies are now in Kepapilavu model village, bordering Seeniyamottai. They have\n40 perches of land for each family, six months of dry rations, 12 roofing\nsheets per family, 8 cement bags, kitchen ware, plastic mats, grant of 25,000\nand eventually a brick house of 550 sq feet. Also 100 bicycles gifted and\noverseas visitors donating goodies, she said. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

After Yahapalana,\nthings improved for the owners of lands in Kepapilavu. In 2017 another 133.34\nacres in Kepapilavu was released to 68 land owners together with newly-built or\ncompletely renovated 28 houses. At the time the Army acquired those lands,\nthere were only 8 buildings and one foundation in the location. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

But the matter\nwas not over.  In 2017 it was reported, that\nfamilies in Mullikulam and Keppapulavu<\/a>, were\nprotesting for the return of lands held by the Navy and Air Force. In small\ntents set up right at the entrance of the camps, these families took turns to\nsit in for 24 hours calling for the return of their land, said Groundviews. It\nwas only after months, and after continued media coverage, that the state began\npartially releasing land. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

A group of\nKeppapilavu residents also staged a protest opposite the Mullaitivu Security\nForce Headquarters on December 31, 2018 demanding that their lands be released\nto them as promised by the government. 55 families were demanding for the\nreturn of their lands some of them had legal documentation proving their\nownership, while some do not hold such ownership documents, reported the media. The\nprotestors said that this would be their last warning and if their lands are\nnot released prior to January 25, they would forcibly take possession of their\nlands. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

It was reported\nin 2019 that around 2014, the majority of these families had consented to accepting\ncompensation for their lands and around 270 houses had been built for them.\nHowever, around nine  families had not\nagreed to accept compensation and had wanted their lands returned to\nthem.Subsequently, the rest of the families who had earlier agreed to give up\ntheir lands and accept the compensation by the government,  had changed their minds and are demanding\nthat their lands be returned to them, said Tamil Separatist Movement . <\/p>\n\n\n\n

President\nSirisena said people have the right to decide whether they want to resettle in\ntheir original lands or in alternative lands and instructed the release of\nthese lands.  However, it was said that\nonly some of those demanding for the lands possess legal documentation to prove\nownership to these lands. In 2019 the army had reported to the President\nthat they were working towards an amicable solution\u201d, in consultation with\ncivilians, regarding the lands occupied by the army in the Keppapilavu area in\nthe Mullaitivu District. (Continued) <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

KAMALIKA PIERIS Tamil Separatist Movement complained that the land taken over by the armed forces in the Northern Province were not given back once the Eelam war IV ended in 2009. When the war ended in 2009, altogether 82,555 acres of lands in the North and East were held by the military, of which 30,300 […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":true,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[104],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-95863","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-kamalika-pieris"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/95863","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=95863"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/95863\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=95863"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=95863"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=95863"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}