People who seek new government mediation to get back lost lands

The people of Paanama, residing with no legal acceptance but having the full right to residing without accusation or fear, are now seeking the full mediation of the new government to get back their lands soon.  They were evacuated by force during the Mahinda Rajapaksa regime more than ten years ago.

“The current Commissioner, who has come to Trincomalee as the regional Land Commissioner, is good. She enforces the law, so we trust that if we can discuss our land crisis with her, we can solve it. To get the best solution, we must discuss it with the Commissioner,” said Somasiri Punchirala, the leader of the  Paanam Pattuwa Protection Organization (PPPO).

“We have written evidence and need to go for a good discussion with those evidence. Because we have already received the Court order to obtain our lands properly. But former governments played with us for such a long period without concern for the Court order. They misled us,” told Somasiri Punchirala to Mojo News.

“Sometimes this new government might be thinking that the officials in such government ministries or offices’ are working to the rule.  and follow rules and work properly. But it seems that we will have to go to the Court again to say that officials are working beyond the court’s decision,” said Somasiri to the group of media and activists who were accompanied by Law and Society Trust (LST) in Colombo.

Because, said Somasiri, “ Although the government has changed with a new President, Prime Minister, and the Parliamentarians, the former officials and authorities continue to operate at the majority of the ruling level.”

“Since the current government has promised to work against corruption and injustice in Sri Lanka, we request the government to get involved in this land issue, search properly about the current situation, find out the truth, and support us through releasing all the lands belongs to Ragamwela, Shasthrawela, Ulla, and Horekanda villages.”

For many years, the villagers of Paanama have been fighting and staying till their problem is solved. As per their explanations, the previous administrations had indicated a desire to promote ecotourism in Panama and require additional lands.

But the villagers had also informed the administrations that they also want to continue the ecotourism in Paanama together with their cultivations as they are already doing at present on a low scale.

Therefore, Somasiri said, ” we request the new government to release our lands and let us implement in big scale ecotourism and let us bring needed dollars to the country”.

“For more than 25 years, we have been suffering because of these lands. Several governments came and went, but no government took hand to solve this issue. Instead of solving the issue and giving the lands to us, every government planned to take over our land under their authority from time to time.” he said.

“But we trust this new government that they will listen to the rights of people and take necessary action to release our lands that belong to Ragamwela, Ulpassa, Egodayaya, Horekanda, and Sasthrawela lands as cultivated lands and villages. “Paanama” is used as the main name for all these villages,” he said.

“About 1200 acres of land in those villages have been encroached by Sri Lanka Air Force and Navy for long years. The Navy does not allow us to use even the beach, too. If we get back the beach, it means we will be able to restart our fishing tread too.”

The evening of July 17, 2009, masked armed individuals assaulted the villages. They torched homes, wrecked a village temple (Ragamwela), and expelled residents. Law enforcement and military forces entered and seized control of the area, preventing residents from returning.

Soon after the eviction, the villagers established the Paanam Pattuwa Protection Organization (PPPO) to try to reclaim their land. As an initial tangible action, they submitted a complaint to the Human Rights Commission Sri Lanka (HRCSL). The HCRSL advised returning the occupied territory to the people. Nevertheless, the Sri Lankan Navy (SLN) and Air Force (SLAF) restricted villagers from going back to their land. The displaced individuals were without homes and stripped of their conventional means of living as farmers and fishermen. They needed to seek refuge at the homes of relatives.

Several protests against the land grab took place, and several court cases were filed. In February 2015, the cabinet of ministers decided to release the land. However, the land was never handed back to the villagers. In March 2016, the villagers took matters into their own hands and occupied their land. They constructed temporary huts and started to cultivate their land.

A 70-year-old S. Yasawathi, an elderly mother who was in the struggle to reclaim their lands, told Mojo News that they made numerous attempts to win the fight … We even to traveled to Colombo, organized several protests, held Bodhi Puja, filed a lawsuit, but to date, we have not retrieved our land. Before we die, we need our own lands which grabbed by governments.” Yasawathi said.

Others, almost elderly persons, said, “We condemn this unjust act by police, military of stealing our land, We have lived here for 20 years and tended coconut and cashew nut, as well as vegetables our sole source of income. Former governments did not care about our lives; they only wanted to boost tourism. Therefore, they forcefully grabbed our fertile lands.”

“However, we will observe how they plan to resolve this prolonged conflict because we have trust in this new administration,” Somasiri said.

END.