Jaffna University students protest over arrest of Tamil farmers

Students at the University of Jaffna held a protest on Tuesday, demanding the immediate and unconditional release of two Tamil farmers from Mullaitivu who have been arrested whilst farming their own land, following a complaint by a Sinhala Buddhist monk.

The demonstration, led by the Jaffna University Student Union, took place in front of the university premises and drew sharp condemnation of the Sri Lankan authorities involved in the arrests.

“We vehemently condemn the arrest of these innocent individuals, the illegal and racially motivated actions of the Department of Archaeology, the Sri Lanka Police, and the Department of Wildlife,” said union president Dayaparan Ligirthar. “We demand the immediate and unconditional release of the two innocent Tamil farmers.”

Protesters held placards and chanted slogans including, “North and East are the Tamil homeland” and “Release them, release them - release the farmers!”

The two farmers, Sambithampi Ekambaram and Sriratnam Kajaroopan, were arrested on 10 May following a complaint by officials from Sri Lanka’s Department of Archaeology and a Sinhala Buddhist monk Kalkamuwe Shanthabodhi. They were farming their own land at the time, when the monk accused them of damaging a so-called sacred archaeological site in the Kurunthurmalai area of Mullaitivu. The pair were subsequently produced before the Mullaitivu Magistrate’s Court on 29 May, where Magistrate T. Pradeepan ordered that they be held in remand custody until 7 June.

A third individual, a schoolboy who was also arrested at the time, was released by the court.

Locals have pointed to the long-standing cultivation of the lands by Tamil families in the region. They claim that the Department of Archaeology cited a colonial-era gazette issued by the British on 12 May 1933 to assert ownership over 78 acres of land in Kurunthurmalai. More recently, the Department reportedly expanded its claim to include an additional 229 acres after a survey allegedly found archaeological artefacts. This land was subsequently designated as part of the Kurunthurmalai Archaeological Reserve.

However, Tamil villagers maintain that these lands include paddy fields their families have farmed for over a century, particularly in areas surrounding the Kurunthurmalai tank. The arrests have been widely viewed as part of a broader effort to displace Tamil residents from their ancestral lands under the guise of archaeological preservation.