Two acres returned after 36 years — as thousands more remain under military occupation

The Sri Lankan military released a two-acre plot of privately owned land in the Vasavilan East area of Jaffna on Monday, returning a site that had been under occupation for approximately 36 years to its rightful owners. The land is situated in the J/244 division, near the Ottakapulam Church.

The release follows a much larger handover in May 2024, when the then-Sri Lankan President Ranil Wickremesinghe oversaw the return of 234.8 acres of land in the same region that had been held under military occupation. At that ceremony, assurances were given that the remaining occupied lands in the area would be released promptly. It has taken 22 months for two acres to follow.

Several parcels of land in close proximity to the Ottakapulam Church remain under military control. Residents have called on the authorities to act without further delay to return those plots as well.

As of February 2025, Jaffna District Secretary Maruthalingam Pratheepan confirmed to current Sri Lankan president Anura Kumara Dissanayake that the Sri Lankan military continues to occupy more than 2,500 acres of civilian land in Jaffna District alone. Monday's two-acre release does not meaningfully alter that figure.

Land releases in the Tamil homeland extensively, when they come, are typically piecemeal, heavily publicised, and accompanied by assurances of more to follow — but have consistently failed to materialise at any pace proportionate to the scale of the occupation. In November 2024, a cabinet decision ordered the removal of a military camp at Karkovalam in Jaffna, with the three-acre site to be returned to its Tamil owners within 14 days. The deadline passed. The military refused to dismantle the occupying base despite the cabinet ruling, and local villagers confirmed there had been no visible effort by the military to leave or comply.

The broader picture is no more encouraging. Sri Lanka's Deputy Defence Minister Aruna Jayasekara told Parliament that as of 1 January 2025, a total of 672.24 acres of land in the North had been returned, including 86.24 acres of private land and 586 acres previously used by the military. Against a total occupation running to thousands of acres, that figure speaks for itself. Many of the areas seized in the 1990s at the height of the armed conflict remain under military control, used for army camps, agricultural activities, or commercial ventures operated by the Sri Lankan military.

Promises have not been in short supply. Sri Lanka's Northern Naval Area Commander told the Jaffna District Secretary that lands occupied by the Navy would be released through "proper and orderly procedures" — but gave no timeline. 

Meanwhile, the occupation has been actively expanding in other respects, including through the construction of Buddhist monuments, further entrenching Sinhalisation in the Tamil homeland.