Vavuniya. January 2019
Sri Lanka's Ministry of Defence is set to receive the largest allocation in this year's budget, despite the armed conflict ending ten years ago.
The budget, passed yesterday with a majority of 45, allocates Rs. 393 billion to Defence.
Despite criticising the allocation, the Tamil National Alliance (TNA) supported government in voting for the budget.
"Recurrent expenditure is there but if proper demobilisation and demilitarisation had been done in keeping with the actual needs of the country this colossal allocation for the ministry need not be made," TNA MP Sumanthiran was quoted by The Island as saying.
A report launched by Society for Threatened Peoples (STP) and the National Fisheries Solidarity Movement (NAFSO) in Mullaitivu last year, examined how the military's ongoing occupation in the Vanni, which was the former stronghold of the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE), was affecting the livelihoods of local communities.
The report, entitled 'The Vanni: Civilian Land under Military Occupation', stated “although the war ended nine years ago, the military in the Northern Province still occupies vast stretches of land and is using it for economic purposes, among other things, with serious consequences”.
“Countless people are still unable to return to their ancestral land, while many have lost their traditional livelihood as farmers or fishers,” it added.
| An interactive online map illustrating the extent of militarisation in Mullaitivu District. |
A 2017 report by PEARL and the Jaffna-based Adayaalam Centre for Police Research, which focussed on the extent of militarisation in Mullaitivu, found that there were as many as 1 soldier for every two civilians in the district.
The report, entitled ‘Normalising the Abnormal: The Militarisation of Mullaitivu District’, accompanies an interactive online map illustrating the extent of militarisation in the district by documenting military structures and Buddhist viharas.