Uprooted Tamils in Vaakarai demand back lands confiscated by SL military

[TamilNet, Wednesday, 03 June 2015, 23:09 GMT]
The uprooted Tamil villagers from Murukkaiyadi-munai in former LTTE-administered Vaakarai division situated north of Batticaloa staged a protest on Wednesday demanding immediate release of lands that have been seized from them by the occupying Sri Lankan military during the genocidal onslaught on Vaakarai between May 2006 and March 2007. When the uprooted Tamils wanted to resettle in their village, the SL military deceived them to put their signatures on documents written in Sinhala and English promising them resettlement. The uprooted people later realised that the papers they were tricked into signing were in fact documents that confiscated their village from them.



Each family was having at least 80 perches of fertile lands when they were living in Murukkaiyadi-munai before May 2006. The Tamil families had access to potable water and they were able to sustain their livelihood with access to irrigation facilities from a river, access to transportation, education and basic health facilities from their village.

After the occupying SL military had seized their village, they lost their entire village, including their houses and fertile lands. The Sinhala military had transformed their village into a military cantonment.

The families were given 18 perches of alternative lands at a remote locality known as Ooriyan-kaddu.

The uprooted Eezham Tamils were struggling at Ooriyan-kaddu without potable water and without proper housing for the past 8 years.

The families have been complaining about the lack of facilities at Ooriyan-kaddu for a long time. They are unable to sustain their livelihood in the alternative lands, which are not suitable for agriculture.

The protesters urged the new regime in Colombo to hand over their Murukkaiyadi-munai village back to them.

The protest was staged in front of Koa'ralaip-pattu North Divisional Secretariat and the uprooted people from Murukkaiyadi-munai handed over an appeal to the Divisional Secretary S. Rajakulanayaki.

Tamil National People's Front leader Gajendrakumar Ponnambalam and TNPF activists from Batticaloa took part in the protest expressing their solidarity with the uprooted people.

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