Opening Day of International Land Grabs Conference Draws to a Successful Close

 Saturday, 01 February 2014 

The first day of the International Conference on State Grabs of Tamil Land in the Island of Sri Lanka, jointly organised by British Tamils Forum and the All Party Parliamentary Group for Tamils, has successfully drawn to a close.

The inaugural session, which took place in Committee Room 14 at the British Houses of Parliament, began at 10am this morning with a minutes' silence to remember all those who have lost their lives to the oppression of the Sri Lankan state. Following this, opening remarks were delivered by British Parliamentarians and long-time advocates of Tamil rights Rt Hon Lee Scott MP and Rt Hon Siobhain McDonagh MP.

The conference was addressed by a number of prominent social and land rights activists and researchers, including:

 Medha Patkar, celebrated Indian social activist and founder of the National Alliance of People Movements;

 Anuradha Mittal, founder and executive director of the Oakland Institute;

 Prof Oren Yiftachel from Ben Gurion University, Israel – activist and researcher on ethnocracies and land grabs;

 Prof Jake Lynch, Director of the Centre of Peace and Conflict Studies at the University of Sidney;

 Denis Halliday, former Assistant Secretary-General of the United Nations and one of the judges at the at the Permanent People's Tribunal, which recently found Sri Lanka guilty of conducting genocide against the Tamil people;

 Maha Thamizh Prabagharan, Indian activist and film-maker, who screened a trailer of his film

– to be shown at the second session tomorrow
– This Land Belongs to the Army.

There were many common themes in these activists' speeches –
in particular emphasising the urgent nature of the crisis and the need to understand the land grabs issue within the context of the long-running campaign of structural genocide being waged by the Sri Lankan state. Professor Yiftachel in particular pointed out how Sri Lanka and other oppressive states use the language of democracy and rule of law to enable, legitimise and conceal the state's seizure of oppressed peoples' lands and
livelihoods.

Mrs Medha Patkar also launched British Tamils Forum's new land grabs campaign – Stop Uprooting
Tamils Forum from their Land!

The conference was also addressed by a number of prominent Tamil politicians, including:

 Several Parliamentarians from the Tamil National Alliance, the largest Tamil political party in Sri Lanka, including: Mavai Senathirajah, Suresh Premachandran, Pakkiyaselvam

Ariyanethiran, Selvam Adikkalanathan, Sivagnanam Sritharan;
 Tamil National Alliance's Eastern Province politicians S Thandayuthapani;

 Founder and Leader of the Tamil National People's Front, Gajendrakumar Ponnambalam.

These politicians, along with the Sri Lankan NSSP Internal Secretary Kumarasinghe Ranath, painted a dire picture of the current situation in the island of Sri Lanka. They cited several examples of both completed and planned land seizures and the powerlessness of the local population – and the Sri Lankan political/legal system – to do anything about it. Several of these politicians clearly spelt out how they saw the Sri Lankan military-led campaign of land grabs to be an integral part of genocide, intended to deprive Tamil people of their identity and their claim to their traditional homeland.

They also lamented the pernicious effect of the loss of land in additionally destroying Tamil peoples' sources of livelihood – as the seized land is used by the military to produce subsidised agricultural produce, tourism services and other economic goods – undercutting and decimating the local Tamil economy.

Following a successful day of opening speeches, BTF and APPG-T look forward to a productive second day of panel discussions tomorrow at the University College, London.