Ilankai Tamil Arasu Katchi (ITAK) parliamentarian Shanakiyan Rasamanickam has criticised members of the ruling party for falsely claiming responsibility for the release of the Murakkoddanchenai military camp in Batticaloa, stressing that the move only came after sustained pressure and repeated appeals.
Addressing the media, Shanakiyan said that District Development Committee Chairman Sunil Handunnetti of the National People’s Power (NPP) and MP K. Prabhu had been “boasting to the world” that they were behind the release of the site. “When Sunil and Prabhu met with the Defence Committee, they never once mentioned the release of even a single camp in Batticaloa,” he said.
Shanakiyan claimed that the release followed a series of proposals and designs he submitted to the authorities, highlighting the location of schools and roads within the occupied site, and after three direct meetings with Sri Lankan president Anura Kumara Dissanayake. “It was only after we kept pressing them… that the camp was finally released,” he added.
The Murakkoddanchenai camp, which had been under military occupation for decades, was formally released more than a year into the NPP government’s term in office. Sections of the camp have previously been released in recent years, with reports that mass graves could be beneath the former military site.
While welcoming the handover, Shanakiyan emphasised that the Murakkoddanchenai Ramakrishna Mission School, which once operated on the site, should be rebuilt. He also noted that homes on the land had been demolished by the military and that Tamil families had yet to receive compensation.
During its election campaign, the NPP pledged to return military-occupied Tamil lands. Dissanayake himself stated that land “rightfully belongs to the people.” Yet progress has been slow, with much of the North-East still under heavy military occupation. Tamil communities continue to face surveillance, land grabs and intimidation.
In August, the Ilankai Tamil Arasu Katchi (ITAK) organised a hartal across Vavuniya, Mullaitivu and Batticaloa, with businesses closing and transport services suspended in protest against military occupation. At the time, former MP and President’s Counsel M.A. Sumanthiran remarked, “The military must be completely removed from the North and East; they should not be living among the people. While military camps in the South confine personnel within their bases, in the North and East they are embedded within communities, interfering with the daily lives of the people.”
Though the release of Murakkoddanchenai is seen as a symbolic step, campaigners stress that the larger issue of militarisation across the North-East remains unresolved, with many Tamils still waiting decades for the return of their land.