COLOMBO
Militarisation of Sri Lanka’s Tamil-majority north and east persists 17 years after the end of the civil war, despite many state assurances to reduce the military footprint in the former conflict zone, the Human Rights Commission of Sri Lanka has said.
In a recent report titled ‘The Human Rights Situation of the Northern and Eastern Provinces of Sri Lanka’, the Commission pointed to a “sustained pattern of land appropriation, denial of access to traditional livelihoods, and intimidation of local populations” by the military in the districts across the region.
“Seventeen years after the end of the armed conflict, militarisation remains a persistent feature of governance and land use in the Northern and Eastern Provinces,” the report said, pointing to “repeated assurances” by the state to reduce its military footprint and return occupied lands to their rightful owners.
Also read: Ground Zero| Sri Lanka civil war: 17 years later, the imprints remain
The Human Rights Commission urged the government to expedite the return of military-occupied lands to the people and ensure full restoration of property rights and livelihoods. Further, it emphasised that the government refrain from invoking national security “as a blanket justification for land acquisition”, particularly where such actions disproportionately affect minority communities or facilitate religious encroachment, and “take concrete steps” to withdraw military involvement from civilian economic sectors, especially agriculture and education.
Militarisation is one of the prominent post-war concerns highlighted in the Commission’s report, which looks at wide-ranging issues such as enforced disappearances, mass graves, memorialisation, state surveillance and intimidation, land contestations, resettlement of northern Muslims expelled by the LTTE in 1990, freedom of religion, development projects, and livelihoods.
Residents of the north and east have consistently cited military presence and engagement as an impediment to post-war reconciliation and economic revival. Families — many of whom were displaced during the decades of strife and returned to these areas after the war ended — have been demanding the return of lands, where their homes once stood, or they once farmed.
Return of people’s lands was among the chief promises made by President Anura Kumara Dissanayake to the Tamil people, ahead of the November 2024 general elections. His National People’s Power emerged winner in all but one of the five electoral districts in the north and east.
In August this year President Dissanayake, who is also the Minister of Defence, instructed the security forces to expedite the release and return of land taken over during the war and no longer required for security purposes. However, despite his directives to the military, Tamil-speaking people living in the north and east are concerned about the slow pace of action.
When contacted, Ministry spokesman Brigadier Franklin Joseph claimed “over 90 %” of the lands held previously held by the military have been returned to the people. “There are many cases where the owners are not known or there is no proof confirming their ownership. Those are being looked into,” he told The Hindu.
Watch: 15 years on, justice and economic progress elude Sri Lanka’s Tamils
However, Thurairasa Ravikaran, MP from the opposition Ilankai Tamil Arasu Kadchi (ITAK) representing the northern Mullaitivu district, contended that it was unfair to expect families who fled the district at the height of the war to produce documents. “Our people ran for their lives... in that sort of life and death situation, you cannot expect them to carry all their documents in files,” he told The Hindu.
“I can tell you that huge swathes of people’s land remain under military control even today. Not just the military, but also other state agencies like the Archelogy and Wildlife departments have been resorting to blatant land grabs. That is our reality,” he said, highlighting an enduring struggle for people of Mullaitivu, the district that witnessed the gory, final battle between the armed forces and the LTTE. It was also where the army is accused of killing tens and thousands of civilians, including in areas declared no fire zones. The military and successive governments in Colombo have denied the allegations.
The slippery slope to the Kurunthurmalai hilltop
“When I say military, it is the army, navy, air force, civil defence force, all of them who control land,” added the legislator, who has for many years been part of people’s struggles and agitations demanding land.
Also read: A poverty of hope among Sri Lankan Tamils
The Human Rights Commission’s report, which also highlighted how militarisation impacted people’s livelihoods, pointed to military involvement in economic activities, such as agriculture and pre-school teaching, predominantly executed through the Civil Security Department.
Military officials are “directly involved in the administration of teachers in pre-schools,” it noted. In Mullaitivu district, it is not uncommon to see armed military men in uniform, running shops or manning traffic at junctions.
Observing that Sri Lanka “currently lacks a comprehensive national security sector reform plan” that includes strategies to reduce military presence in the North and East and restore civilian administration in the region, the Commission noted that “continued presence of the military in multiple aspects of civilian life, including economic activities, singles this region out from the rest of the country and inhibits progress on post-war reconciliation.”