Third Jaffna community launches protest against Sri Lankan military occupation of land

Residents of Vasavilan in Jaffna launched a protest on Sunday demanding the release of their lands inside the Valikamam North High Security Zone, becoming the third community in the area to hold recurring demonstrations over land still under Sri Lankan military control.

Landowners gathered in Vasavilan on 2 August calling for access to their properties and handed a petition addressed to the Jaffna District security forces Commander through military personnel stationed in the area.

The protesters announced that they would continue demonstrating on the first Sunday of every month, from morning until noon, until their lands are released.

Their campaign follows continuing protests by residents of Myliddy, who have been demonstrating every Friday, and Palaly, where residents have held weekly Sunday protests, over the continued military occupation of their lands.

Residents of Valikamam North were displaced in June 1990 and, 36 years later, many have still not been permitted to return to their homes and lands. Areas containing their properties remain designated as a military High Security Zone, leaving affected families living in rented accommodation or with friends and relatives.

Despite the armed conflict ending 17 years ago, residents have continued to demand that they be allowed to return to their ancestral lands.

The latest protest in Vasavilan comes amid renewed mobilisation across Valikamam North, where Tamil landowners have repeatedly accused the Sri Lankan military of retaining civilian land while using parts of the area for agriculture, commercial activity and military infrastructure.

Civil society representatives in Jaffna recently urged a European Union delegation to press the Sri Lankan government to revoke the 2013 gazette that acquired 6,317 acres of land in Valikamam North.

Since the National People’s Power government came to office, only around 60 acres of land have reportedly been released in Jaffna district.

​​​​​Anura government is doing exactly what the Rajapaksas did to Tamils

Thiyagarajah Nirosh, Chairman of the Valikamam East Pradeshiya Sabha, joined the first day of the Vasavilan protest and accused the current NPP/JVP government of continuing the policies of previous administrations towards Tamils.

"The Anura government is doing to Tamils what the Rajapaksas did," Nirosh told reporters at the protest.

He said the government had come to power declaring that peoples lands belonged to the people, but was now refusing to recognise their rights. Nirosh also criticised the construction of a military hospital in Vasavilan on land claimed by displaced residents, saying the original inhabitants had been forcibly removed while they continued to live away from their homes.

The Valikamam North Pradeshiya Sabha issued a statutory notice last month demanding an immediate halt to the construction of the Sri Lankan military hospital, which it said was being built on privately owned civilian land without local authority approval. Former parliamentarian M. A. Sumanthiran later said the local council could move to demolish the unauthorised military hospital if construction continued without approval.

Nirosh said a resolution had been brought before the Jaffna District Coordinating Committee calling for the military hospital, which he described as being constructed contrary to existing laws and regulations, to be removed. He said he had seconded the resolution and that it had subsequently been circulated to relevant departments as part of the committee’s report.

Despite this, he said construction was continuing at pace, including on Poya days, which are Buddhist religious observance days in Sri Lanka.

"While the government says many things in words, in practice it is acting just like the Rajapaksas," Nirosh said.

He welcomed government efforts to tackle bribery and corruption but accused the administration of failing to address abuses committed against Tamils.

"You are not taking action over state atrocities, massacres and militarisation systematically carried out against an ethnic community," he said. "We question whether the Sinhala majoritarian mentality that anything can be done to Tamils in this country also exists within the minds of todays rulers.”

The Vasavilan protest adds to the growing pressure on the Sri Lankan government over military-held land in Valikamam North.

For residents of Myliddy, Palaly and now Vasavilan, the demand remains the same: the release of privately owned lands, the right to return home and an end to military occupation in one of the most heavily militarised areas of the Tamil homeland.