{"id":62666,"date":"2019-01-23T20:29:41","date_gmt":"2019-01-24T01:29:41","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/dbsjeyaraj.com\/dbsj\/?p=62666"},"modified":"2019-01-23T20:34:20","modified_gmt":"2019-01-24T01:34:20","slug":"sri-lankas-longest-road-side-protest-continued-by-residents-of-kaeppaapilavu-in-mullaitheevu-district-whose-lands-were-seized-by-army-reachres-700-day-mark","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/dbsjeyaraj.com\/dbsj\/?p=62666","title":{"rendered":"Sri Lanka’s Longest Road-side Protest Nears 700 Day Mark as Displaced Residents of Kaeppaapilavu in Mullaitheevu District whose Homes Were Seized by Army Continue Agitation Demanding Release of Their Lands"},"content":{"rendered":"

By<\/p>\n

Meera Srinivasan<\/strong><\/p>\n

As Sri Lanka\u2019s longest road-side protest nears the 700-day mark, agitating residents of Keppapilavu village in the northern Mullaitivu district say they will soon reclaim and occupy their lands, currently held by the military, if the authorities fail to ensure their return by Friday.<\/p>\n

\u201cWhy must we live in model villages like refugees, when we can live on land that belongs to us? Why must the Army hold our land for a decade after the war has ended?\u201d asked resident-activist Selvi Sivapragasam Ariyakala, at a media conference in Colombo on Tuesday.<\/p>\n

Facilitated by the NGO People\u2019s Alliance for Right to Land (PARL), the press briefing was part of the Keppapilavu people\u2019s efforts to \u201creach out to the people of the island\u2019s south\u201d on their ongoing struggle to take possession of ancestral lands from where they were displaced during the civil war years.<\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

Families\u2019 resistance<\/strong><\/p>\n

The families have been resisting incessantly from March 1, 2017, right beside their ancestral lands, under a road-side tent, resolving to return to the plots they grew up on and built their lives, until the war displaced them. Some of the resident-activists met Prime Minister Ranil Wickremesinghe \u2014 also the Minister for Resettlement \u2014 on Tuesday, and leaders of the Tamil National Alliance (TNA), and voiced their concern. \u201cThe PM told us he will speak to the Army and give us an answer in one week. We are hopeful, because we cannot just give up,\u201d Kamalavalli, one of the activists, told The Hindu after meeting Mr. Wickremesinghe.<\/p>\n

The residents\u2019 have decided to \u201cjust go and occupy\u201d their lands, should the authorities fail them this time. \u201cIt is not just about our homes, but also about our livelihoods. Our ancestral land was conducive for both agriculture and fisheries. Returning there gives us a chance to make a living. Moreover, our schools, community halls, multipurpose cooperative centre were all located there,\u201d Ms. Ariyakala said, echoing the concerns of 104 families like hers. According to PARL, nearly 350 acres in Keppapilavu, including residential land, is yet to be released.<\/p>\n

Military-held land, along with enforced disappearances, has remained a key issue in Sri Lanka\u2019s war-affected north and east, sparking a battery of people\u2019s protests since 2015.<\/p>\n

Relentless struggle<\/strong><\/p>\n

Pressured by their relentless struggle, the government gradually began releasing military-held lands in the former war zone.<\/p>\n

According to data from the government-run Secretariat for Coordinating Reconciliation Mechanisms (SCRM), 46,322.50 acres of military-occupied land was released to the people from January 2015 \u2014 when the Maithripala Sirisena-Ranil Wickremeisnghe combine rose to power on the promise of reconciliation \u2014 up to December 2018. This data, based on information provided by the Ministry of Defence to the Secretariat, includes both state and private land. Further, President Sirisena earlier promised to ensure the release of all people\u2019s land by December 31, 2018, but going by the Keppapilavu residents\u2019 experience, the promise is yet to be fulfilled.<\/p>\n

Government data also shows that in the decade since the war ended, authorities returned some 88,000 acres, or 71% of the land earlier occupied by the military, by December 2018, while 29% was still being used by the Army, Navy and the Air Force. The release of land came at a considerable cost \u2014 the SCRM points to a total LKR 866.71 million budgetary allocation to the Army, and LKR 128 million to the Navy, prompting concern over why funds meant for rehabilitation were being used for compensating the Army to vacate people\u2019s lands.<\/p>\n

Even in cases of land being released, and its original occupants gradually returning, their resettlement has been anything but smooth, according to residents.<\/p>\n

Many of their homes and wells are found bulldozed after years of Army occupation, and there are few toilets for the recently-resettled communities \u2014 a stark reminder of the many steps before the process is complete. They live in temporary sheds and huts, relieved \u201cat least we are back\u201d.<\/p>\n

Courtesy:The Hindu<\/em><\/p>\n

Tweet<\/a><\/div>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

By Meera Srinivasan As Sri Lanka\u2019s longest road-side protest nears the 700-day mark, agitating residents of Keppapilavu village in the northern Mullaitivu district say they will soon reclaim and occupy their lands, currently held by the military, if the authorities fail to ensure their return by Friday. \u201cWhy must we live in model villages like …<\/p>\n

Continue reading ‘Sri Lanka’s Longest Road-side Protest Nears 700 Day Mark as Displaced Residents of Kaeppaapilavu in Mullaitheevu District whose Homes Were Seized by Army Continue Agitation Demanding Release of Their Lands’ »<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[12],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/dbsjeyaraj.com\/dbsj\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/62666"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/dbsjeyaraj.com\/dbsj\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/dbsjeyaraj.com\/dbsj\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dbsjeyaraj.com\/dbsj\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dbsjeyaraj.com\/dbsj\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=62666"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/dbsjeyaraj.com\/dbsj\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/62666\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":62669,"href":"https:\/\/dbsjeyaraj.com\/dbsj\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/62666\/revisions\/62669"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/dbsjeyaraj.com\/dbsj\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=62666"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dbsjeyaraj.com\/dbsj\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=62666"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dbsjeyaraj.com\/dbsj\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=62666"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}