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Sri Lanka to use census to appropriate lands of diaspora Tamils - report

The Sri Lankan government has announced that it will be appropriating houses and lands in the Northern Province found to be owned by Tamils now living abroad, reported the Jaffna based newspaper, the Uthayan.

The government will be using the data collated by the census to identify those properties belong to Tamils who have fled the island, the paper added.

This development comes after a series of measures by the government since the end of the armed conflict in 2009 that have made it increasingly difficult for Tamils living abroad to own land and property in their Northeast homeland.

These have come in a context of violence against and intimidation of diaspora Tamils, whom the Sri Lankan government regularly vilifies as the "LTTE rump".

See our earlier articles:

Ministry of Finance prohibits sale of land to 'foreigners' (19 Apr 2013)

Gotabhaya to interview dual citizenship applicants (06 Jan 2013)

Army tell Tamils in Jaffna - 'beware the Tamil diaspora' (14 Apr 2012)

Diaspora Tamils have to reapply for land deeds (06 Sep 2011)

See our post 'Erasing the dead' for our view on the census announced by the Sri Lankan government, and our editorial, 'Grounding the struggle' on the wider issue of Sinhala colonisation and land grabs in the North-East.

 

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