COLOMBO, Mar 13: Sri Lankan President Maithripala Sirisena has asked the Sinhala extremists to understand the need for achieving ethnic reconciliation in the country as over 700 acres of military-held land in Jaffna was returned to the orignal minority-Tamil owners.
“I think it is wrong for those who advocate reconciliation only to visit north. They must educate people in the south. I ask our critics to come and visit the houses of those living in poor conditions to understand the reality,” Sirisena said.
Some 650 Tamil families in Telippali, Jaffna, and 50 families in Kopay were handed back their over 701 acres of land yesterday which the military had acquired for their use during the nearly three decade-long civil war with the LTTE that ended in 2009.
With the latest handover, all lands in Kopay have now been vested with the original owners, officials said.
In Telippalai, Sirisena also released a school occupied by the military for over 25 years.
The president added during the next few months all civilian lands will be released despite criticism from the majoritarian extremists in the south.
“There will be critics for everything. A small group of extremists in the south are making various allegations and criticisms against this programme. I ask them to come to the north and witness the poor situation of the innocent people, living in the camps,” Sirisena said.
After the war ended in 2009, Sri Lanka had come under international pressure to release large swathes of civilian lands in Tamil dominated northern areas, which had been occupied by the military.
Sirisena, elected in January 2015 after defeating the former President Mahinda Rajapaksa, has ordered the release of civilian lands as part of his reconciliation moves.
While the Tamil minority has appreciated Sirisena’s moves to give redress to them, rights groups claim many more issues such as justice for the victims of the military conflict are more crucial to ethnic reconciliation in Sri Lanka. (PTI)
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