13 November 2010
The Sri Lankan government will support the ‘rightful’ residents of the North and East who have lost the documents proving ownership of their lands, the Daily Mirror reported.
Sounds great – exactly what is needed in the Northeast, where after decades of war and displacement, many people do not have the official documents to prove their ownership of their properties.
A telling problem, however, promptly arises: what is the criteria by which people can prove ownership of their ancestral lands? And who decides on their validity?
The same government, it seems, whose military offensives drove these people from their homes.
The real point of all this is underlined by how large numbers of Sinhalese are being hurriedly settled in Tamil areas through government-funded schemes.
According to a 2002 survey by the Sinhala-dominated state itself, 81% of the displaced population was Tamil, 14% Muslim and 5% Sinhalese (see Amnesty International's report on Sri Lanka's displaced).
Since then hundreds of thousands of more Tamils have been displaced by military offensives.
Under the ‘Bimsaviya’ programme between 2011 and 2013, those who lost their documents will be issued with ‘Land Ownership Certificates’ (LOCs), the government says.
“Our goal is to identify the lawful owners and resettle them on their own land,” Minister of Land and Land Development Janaka Bandara Tennakoon said.
“The government is aware of the difficulties people face in getting back their houses and properties which they were compelled to abandon during the war. This has severely affected the resettlement programme."
The LOCs, he says, “would provide a much awaited solution to the land disputes in the North and East and help expedite the resettlement programme.”
For example, Sinhalese families recently settled – the government says ‘resettled’ - in Jaffna apparently had no problem proving their ownership of properties in the Tamil heartland.
In all that time, Sinhala ‘resettlement’ has never been raised as an issue by successive governments in Colombo – unlike the resettlement of Tamil-speaking Muslims, which was raised in the Norwegian-led peace process, also.
So, whilst hundreds of thousands of Tamils today remain displaced or are 'resettled' (actually often just taken from camps and dumped by roadside), Sinhalese setting up in various places in the Northeast with military assistance apparently already have the government-issued papers.
Sounds like 'reconciliation', Sri Lanka-style.
We need your support
Sri Lanka is one of the most dangerous places in the world to be a journalist. Tamil journalists are particularly at threat, with at least 41 media workers known to have been killed by the Sri Lankan state or its paramilitaries during and after the armed conflict.
Despite the risks, our team on the ground remain committed to providing detailed and accurate reporting of developments in the Tamil homeland, across the island and around the world, as well as providing expert analysis and insight from the Tamil point of view
We need your support in keeping our journalism going. Support our work today.
For more ways to donate visit https://donate.tamilguardian.com.
Author
admin
Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet, consectetur adipiscing elit. Nam viverra euismod odio, gravida pellentesque urna varius vitae. Sed dui lorem, adipiscing in adipiscing et, interdum nec metus. Mauris ultricies, justo eu convallis placerat, felis enim ornare nisi, vitae mattis nulla ante id dui.
