Not This Good Earth; Land Rights, Displaced Persons And The Law In Sri Lanka

‘By Kishali Pinto-Jayawardena, 

Jayantha de Almeida Guneratne & Radika Guneratne

Published September 30^th 2013, Law & Society Trust, Colombo

Excerpts from the Executive Summary and Introduction

An  extra – legal   parallel  regime  that  is  in  operation reveal the manner in which,  on  the presentation  of  bogus  deeds coupled with brute force,  owners  of  land  possessing  prima  facie  valid  deeds  are  being  told  to  vacate  on the  strength  of  such  bogus  deeds,  and  ad  nauseam.   This plight is being particularly faced by Tamil and Muslim citizens due to the militarization of the North and East in the post-war years. Those who  had  been  compelled  to  vacate  their  lands  during  the  war  are  now  faced  with  frauds  that are  perpetrated  on  them by persons possessing political influence and power. In the Southern regions meanwhile, the poor and marginalized Sinhalese citizenry is pitted against the might of a pronounced State policy centered on the acquiring of private properties citing an urgent public purpose and in many cases, selling them to private companies thereafter for hotel development.

Possessing rights to land is an indicator which demonstrates an individual’s socio-economic, political, cultural and ethnical identity, signifying an emotive and highly symbolic value in respect of the construction of that identity. Post-war Sri Lanka has seen major scale development with the influx of local and foreign capital, particularly in the former war affected areas. Yet political motivations compelling acquisitions/evictions have led to tensions within communities. A careful analysis of the Sri Lankan experience clearly demonstrates a pattern where regardless of the law, government power is increasingly being used in order to acquire land for development purposes or (as in the North and East) in the context of militarisation. High Security Zones and forced acquisition by the military continues to be a pertinent concern in the North and East, years after the ending of war. [1]

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