‘Release our ancestral lands’ - Tamil landowners from Jaffna protest outside Presidential Secretariat

Tamil landowners from Valikamam in Jaffna staged a protest outside the Presidential Secretariat in Colombo earlier this week, demanding the immediate return of their ancestral lands still under the control of the Sri Lankan military.

Travelling from the Tamil homeland to the southern capital, the demonstrators carried placards and banners with the message: “Release our ancestral lands back to us.” The protest highlighted the ongoing militarisation and land occupation in the Tamil homeland, particularly in the Valikamam region, where thousands of acres of private land remain seized decades after the end of the armed conflict.

A heavy police presence surrounded the protest site, with officers closely monitoring the peaceful demonstration. Despite intimidation, the landowners stood firm in their demand for justice and restitution.

The lands in question were seized by the Sri Lankan military under the guise of establishing “high security zones” during the armed conflict. Even though the armed conflict ended over 16 years ago, large portions of land in Valikamam North, including homes, temples, schools, and agricultural fields, remain inaccessible to their rightful owners.

Successive governments have made promises to return these lands, yet the military continues to maintain control over vast areas, building permanent structures, military camps, and even commercial ventures such as hotels and farms. These occupations are widely seen by Tamil civil society and rights groups as part of a broader project of demographic change and Sinhala-Buddhist state expansion in the Tamil homeland.

The protest in Colombo comes amid renewed frustration over the slow pace of land release and the continued denial of property rights to displaced Tamils. Protesters argued that they should not have to travel hundreds of kilometres to the capital to demand what is rightfully theirs.

This week’s demonstration adds to a long list of peaceful protests by Tamil families - particularly landowners, relatives of the disappeared, and war-affected civilians - who have continued to call for justice, accountability, and demilitarisation in the North-East. As with previous mobilisations, their voices have gone largely ignored by the Sri Lankan government.

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All photographs courtesy of Vikalpa.