A boy, 10, plays with his two elder sisters and brother, in the garden. Their house stands grandly behind them. The little children are lulled by the crashing waves of the sea from just beyond.This is one of the most cherished memories 37-year-old Edward Uthayathas has about his childhood. Eighteen years since, much has changed.
When he visited the same house, in Palaly in Jaffna, a couple of months ago it was unrecognisable. Now Air Force cabanas, Pebble Beach occupies the space Uthayathas once called home. The official website of the resort boasts of being ‘a hideaway on one of the loveliest beaches in the world’.
Uthayathas, out of curiosity, has asked an official there the procedures to stay in the resort, and was told that it was built for families of Air Force personnel.
“Twenty-eight years have passed, we are refugees”, Uthayathas states in a Facebook post.
During a meeting with governors this Monday (22), President Maithripala Sirisena ordered the release of land, which were acquired by the security forces, to rightful owners in the North and Eastern provinces. He announced that all lands should be freed before 31 of December this year.
The President was following up on his statement made earlier this month regarding the release of land. According to statistics by the Security Force Headquarters (Jaffna), total land occupied by the forces in 2009 was 25,986.67 acres, while total land that was released since 2009 was 23,078.36 (88.80 %) and total land that were utilized as at Oct 16, 2018 was 2880.08 (11.08 %).
Following the president’s directive, a discussion was held last week at the Jaffna District Secretary with the participation of political actors including Mavai Senathiraja, M.A Sumanthiran and Vijayakala Maheswaran along with other relevant parties.
Speaking to the Sunday Observer regarding the matter, Commander of the Security Force Headquarters in Jaffna Major General Darshana Hettiarachchi said the meeting was a fruitful discussion, and the army assured them of their support in releasing as much private land as possible.
‘The issue is that though we have been provided with government land to relocate to, constructing the necessary infrastructure prior to moving the troops there takes time,’ he said adding that ‘Those attending the meeting understood this. We are working to see how effectively we can do these land releases. Top priority will be given to civilian land.’He explained that not many remaining camps need to be moved as most of the army acquired land was already released.
However, the Major General said only the smaller camps will be moved and the larger camps will remain, due to national security reasons. He said certain lands around the Palaly HQ cannot be released, and the army is trying its best to negotiate and explain this to the people. One suggestion made by the army to settle the issue, is to pay compensation to these land owners according to the current market value. Currently, the military is calculating and processing how much land can be released by December 31.
“These lands will be handed over to the Ministry of Defence much prior to the deadline,” Major General Hettiarachchi said adding, “we will be reasonable and do justice by the people.”
People who are waiting to be resettled need just more than their lands. The war tore apart their lives and restarting life in the place they once called home is not a walk in the park to many, for obvious reasons.
The Government Agent of Jaffna District Vethanayahan Nagalingam said he welcomes the President’s initiative to release all land but there is much more to be done in this regard.
‘There are people who were forced to flee and not returned to their homes for over two decades. When they do come, they are coming back to nothing,’ he said. Nagalingam explained that most of the released land, it includes 3339.16 acres of land acquired by Palaly Army Cantonment and released since 2009, which are are mostly inhabitable.
Currently nearly 750 families from Jaffna are living in welfare centers, while others live with friends and relatives waiting to return home.
People want to go, but they need assistance to clear their land. With only the land people cannot live. They need infrastructure facilities such as access to water, electricity, toilets and roads he said adding that resettlers are disheartened by the Government’s lack of support in this regard.
Forty-five-year-old Elankovan (uses only his first name), a father of three, recalls returning to their three-acre house in Tellippalai in 2010 after it was occupied by the military in 1992. He said his house was in shambles and ruins. The land he returned to was a ‘jungle’.
When they first went to the land they did not have roads nor electricity. Both were installed in 2012.
‘The government gave Rs. 150,000 to repair damaged houses. We can’t do anything with that money,’ Elankovan said. He had decided not to take a cent from the state and ‘slowly’ rebuilt his home with his own money.
He said most people do not have the finances to rebuild their house. ‘That is why, even after eight years since the land was handed over, you see people living in broken houses in places like jungles,’ he lamented.
Yet, not all have confidence in what the President promised. ‘He has made promises and broken them before,’ Human Rights Activist Ruki Fernando says adding that if he does keep his promise there is a lot more to be done in terms of helping communities to resettle.The human rights activist said if the military is funded, people who are relocating should be financially aided too.
According to the Military Spokesperson Brigadier Sumith Atapattu, the military has requested Rs. 800 million to build necessary infrastructure to relocate camps. The state agreed to pay that sum, he said.
Meanwhile, speaking regarding resettlement, senior researcher at Centre for Policy Alternatives (CPA) Bhavani Fonseka said there are practical issues that can arise when the lands are returned.
One such problem she said, was that in some instances they found that people have lost their ownership documents during the war and the tsunami.
‘It takes political will to address this issue. What we see now is that there is no policy coherence in terms of resettlement,’ Fonseka said, adding the state needs a bigger plan.
There are cases where families are given lands to settle but not the land they cultivated . This changes their livelihood, as they cannot sustain life without supporting themselves financially.
There is a silver lining to this story. The Sri Lanka Parliament last week passed the Office for Reparations Bill, which enables the recognition of grievances of affected parties and provide appropriate solutions to them irrespective of who they are.
‘What we have to understand is that most people do not want alternative lands. Even with the bare minimum they are willing to rebuild life. But the Government has to provide durable solutions to them’ the senior researcher said.
The photo Uthayathas posted on his Facebook page speaks volumes. His wife next to him holds their son, right behind them is the entrance to Pebble Beach- once upon a time their home.
‘With our land, we lost our identity too. We want to live and die in the place where we were born,’ he said.