Forty-seven displaced people from the North-East, together with 132 concerned individuals and organisations urged Sri Lanka's president, Maithripala Sirisena to keep his promise and release all occupied land by December 31. 

In a letter to Sirisena, the People's Alliance for Right to Land (PARL), called for him to "fulfill his promise to the people, and let them return home in time to dawn the new year."

"On the 4th of October 2018, The Presidential Media Division reported that “President Maithripala Sirisena instructed the authorities to complete the process of releasing the lands in the North and East Provinces to their original owners, before December 31st, after resolving all the issues” , at a meeting of the Presidential Task Force to monitor development projects conducted in the Northern and Eastern Provinces. 

We, whose lands have been taken away from us forcibly and are still suffering immensely nearly ten years after the end of the war, demand that you keep this promise and ensure that authorities abide by instructions you gave them several months ago."

"We appreciate that the government has released some occupied lands to different communities in the last several years, but are deeply disappointed that there has been inadequate resettlement assistance and other restrictions and obstructions they have faced which have hampered their resettlement."

Read full letter here.