A Tamil woman from Eluvaitivu has made an emotional public appeal, stating that the Sri Lankan Navy is attempting to permanently acquire her ancestral land, which she had intended to give to her daughter as a dowry.
Speaking to reporters about her situation, the woman urged that, at the very least, the President of Sri Lanka Anura Kumara Dissanayake should intervene to ensure the land is returned to its rightful owners, taking into account her daughter’s future and her family’s long-standing hardship.
In the Eluvaitivu area, where a naval camp has been established on privately owned land, the Sri Lankan Navy is reportedly seeking to formalise permanent acquisition of the property. In connection with this process, land survey work is scheduled to be carried out on the 20th of this month. The woman is the legal owner of one of the lands earmarked for acquisition for naval purposes.
She explained that in the 1990s, the Sri Lankan Navy forcibly took over their ancestral land and established a camp on it. At the time of the seizure, her family had built a small house on the land and were living there before being displaced.
For more than thirty years, the family has repeatedly requested the Navy to return the land and has appealed to numerous government authorities. All such efforts, she said, have proved futile, with no relief forthcoming despite the passage of decades.
Describing her current circumstances, the woman said her husband is suffering from cancer and her son is mentally unwell, leaving her as the primary caregiver amid severe financial and emotional hardship. She noted that she had raised these circumstances in repeated appeals to government officials, asking that the land be released from naval occupation, but no action had been taken.
Referring to public statements by Dissanayake that “the people’s lands belong to the people,” she questioned whether he was aware that her ancestral land was now being acquired by the Navy. She emphasised that she is not prepared to hand over her family’s land and appealed for Dissanayake, during his visit to Jaffna, to take steps to ensure its return in consideration of her family’s situation.
