Sri Lanka pledges land release in Mullaitivu weeks after vowing to seize 1,661 more acres

Sri Lankas Deputy Minister of Defence, Major General Aruna Jayasekara, has said steps will be taken soon to release several tracts of military-occupied land in the Mullaitivu and Kilinochchi districts, including in Vattuvakal and Keppapilavu, though the pledge is hedged with conditions and follows years of unmet promises to displaced Tamil families.

The assurances came just weeks after Jayasekara told parliament that a further 1,661 acres in the North-East would be permanently acquired for military infrastructure and would not be returned to their Tamil owners, underscoring that even as the state releases some occupied land, it continues to entrench its hold on the region.

The latest announcement was made during a discussion at the Mullaitivu District Secretariat on 31 July on the feasibility of releasing land currently used by the military to civilian institutions and the public.

Jayasekara said military camps had been established across all 25 districts of Sri Lanka to ensure "national security", and that from the end of the armed conflict in 2009 until December 2024, a total of 9,480 acres had been released from military control, with a further 615 acres released since the current government took office, by June 2026.

He said the government would continue discussions to facilitate further releases, and accepted a request to allow the public to use the road passing through the Kanakambikaikulam military camp during temple festival periods. Land in Iyakkachchi, which the deputy minister inspected in May, would be released within three months, military officials told the meeting.

On the demands presented by landowners from Vattuvakal and Keppapilavu, Jayasekara said private land in Vattuvakal would be released once demining was complete, while at Keppapilavu there was a possibility of immediately releasing 6.5 acres, with a district-level committee to be established to assess and decide on the remaining land.

Even as officials discussed releases, the militarys continued commercial hold on the land was on display. The Mullaitivu district secretary noted that the military had requested 8.5 million rupees for the release of a parcel containing a military building, a sum the temple administration seeking the land was unable to pay, and which the deputy minister agreed to review.

The meeting was attended by the ITAK MP S. Thilakanathan, the Vanni regional commander, the Eastern naval commander, senior defence ministry officials, the additional district secretary, divisional secretaries and members of the public.

The pledges land against a long record of frustration. Families in Keppapilavu have protested since 2017 for the return of ancestral land held by the armys 59th Division, staging a demonstration that once ran for more than 1,000 days before being suspended on state assurances that all their land would be released, assurances residents say were never honoured. They have repeatedly rejected offers of alternative land or compensation, insisting on the unconditional return of their own property, most recently in a renewed protest over 59.5 acres belonging to 55 families.

The scale of the militarys footprint remains vast. A 2017 study by the advocacy group PEARL found a military presence of at least 60,000 personnel in Mullaitivu among a civilian population of just over 130,000, meaning around a quarter of the Sri Lankan Army was stationed in a district with 0.6 per cent of the countrys population.