New offer no match for HSZ lands, say Jaffna Displaced

[TamilNet, Wednesday, 09 February 2005, 12:37 GMT]
Mr N Ganesh, president of the displaced people welfare association in Jaffna said that the displaced people of Valikamam North Military High Security Zones categorically reject Sri Lankan governments recently announced offer of alternative lands in place of the lands occupied by the Sri Lankan armed forces in High Security Zones in Valikamam north, sources in Jaffna said.

Most of the lands occupied by the Sri Lankan armed forces in Valikamam north are the best arable high yielding red soil lands in the Jaffna Peninsula. Residents of these areas depended on cultivation for their living. This people who were displaced 14 years ago due to the military occupation of the lands have still not been able to return to their homes and they are living without employment opportunities.

Mr. Ganesh also said that the land which the government proposes to offer is barren and is not at all suitable either for cultivation or for building homes. Settling in these areas which do not even have drinking water would be worse than living in the present displaced camps, he added.

The federation of displaced people association has sent in a memorandum to the Sri Lankan president Chandrika Kumaratunga asking her to move away the forces from the so called High Security Zone areas and allow them to re-settle in their own houses. Otherwise, that they say, they would engage in mass demonstrations.

They have expressed their solidarity towards the proposed picketing in front of the Jaffna secretariat on the 10th by the Thenmaradchi people affected by the High Security Zones.