The Sri Lankan government is unlikely to return thousands of acres of private Tamil land to their owners before the parliamentary elections, as it could damage the campaign of the current government led by President Maithripala Sirisena and Prime Minister Ranil Wickremesinghe.
Returning land held by the military to Tamils is “fraught with great political risk”, The New Indian Express quoted a “highly placed source”.
Meanwhile, resettlement minister DM Swaminathan told the paper he was optimistic the government would return land to Tamils.
“We may or may not get all the 18,000 acres we want now, but we are optimistic. This is because President Sirisena, Prime Minister Wickremesinghe and former President Chandrika Kumaratunga (who heads the Taskforce on Reconciliation), are genuinely interested in giving back lands seized from the Tamils,” he said.
“We are not asking for all the lands taken by the armed forces. We are conscious of security imperatives. We only want lands which are not being used by the forces directly, and lands which are not used at all. We are also not asking for State lands, but privately owned lands for which the original owners have deeds,” Mr Swaminathan added.