The Tamil National Alliance has demanded the return of Tamil land in the North-East, occupied by the military in so-called High Security Zones, by the start of the UN Human Rights Council session in March, as promised by the new government ahead of the presidential elections.
“Before the election the new government pledged it will release land occupied by the military and the people will be resettled [in those land],” MP MA Sumanthiran said, according to the Uthayan.
“However not an inch of land has been released, in Sampur, Keppapilavu, Mullikkulam, Paravippanjaan and Vali North, land which the government promised will be returned,” the MP charged.
Mr Sumanthiran rejected the recent announcement of the release of 1,000 acres of land in Vali North and the building of a model village, implying the move was made to show progress ahead of Foreign Minister Mangala Samaraweera’s meeting with US Secretary of State John Kerry.
“The government announced that it will release 1000 acres of land in Vali North, in advance of the foreign minister’s visit to the US, where he met John Kerry. We know what that announcement was for,
“They said, [we will build a] model village for Vali North, but we refused that completely. All this is happening whilst there are cases [related to land grabs] still pending in the court,
“We gave the government the map of Vali North and the details of the families [from there], there are no reasons for a delay. The people’s lands should be released before the March UNHRC session begins and resettlement should happen. Otherwise, we will complain to the international community that the government made false promises to win the election,” Mr Sumanthiran said.
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