{"id":155624,"date":"2016-01-10T18:04:53","date_gmt":"2016-01-10T12:34:53","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.colombotelegraph.com\/?p=155624"},"modified":"2016-01-15T18:09:33","modified_gmt":"2016-01-15T12:39:33","slug":"the-wilpattu-controversy","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.colombotelegraph.com\/index.php\/the-wilpattu-controversy\/","title":{"rendered":"The Wilpattu Controversy"},"content":{"rendered":"

By Latheef Farook<\/span><\/a> –<\/strong><\/p>\n

\"Latheef<\/a>

Latheef Farook<\/p><\/div>\n

A myth to prevent Muslims returning to their traditional lands<\/strong><\/em><\/p>\n

Musali South in the Mannar District has traditionally been a\u00a0predominantly Muslim populated area for\u00a0centuries. Their peaceful life was devastated in October 1990 when\u00a0they were kicked out of their homes\u00a0and lands within two hours by the LTTE when it ethnic cleansed the\u00a0entire Northern Muslims.<\/p>\n

Since then they languished in refugee camps and temporary shelters\u00a0in extreme hardships.<\/p>\n

After the military defeat of LTTE in 2009, Muslims started to\u00a0return to their lands to resume their\u00a0devastated life. However racist forces with their own sinister\u00a0agenda,hell bent on causing problems to\u00a0Muslims, have falsely accused them of encroaching Wilpattu and\u00a0triggered off a controversy to\u00a0them from returning to their lands to which they have deeds and permits.<\/p>\n

Explaining the situation in her preface to a document on Musali South\u00a0Professor Sivamohan Sumathy\u00a0of Peradeniya University said \u201c the return of the Displaced in Musali\u00a0South has evoked a variety of\u00a0responses and competing claims that have taken on national and\u00a0nationalist proportions. The returning\u00a0population of Musali South have tried to eke out a living in the\u00a0midst of harsh conditions, unaided by\u00a0state forces for the most part. Yet the region has become needlessly\u00a0entangled in a controversy over\u00a0environmentalism. While the navy has claimed large acres of land for\u00a0its own entrenchment in the\u00a0region, environmentalists have accused settlers, the IDPs, who have\u00a0returned and staked out a claim\u00a0for their lands, as destroyers of forest. The displaced people of\u00a0Musali South, account for some of the\u00a0most marginalized sections of the population, but the debate that\u00a0the putative return has spurred in the\u00a0media and in political circles has cast them as adversaries of both\u00a0nature and the state”.<\/p>\n

\"Denying<\/a>A six member team of academics led by Professor Shahul H.\u00a0Hasbullah<\/span><\/a> of Peradeniya University\u00a0has prepared an extensive research document on the issue of Musali\u00a0South Muslims returning to their\u00a0lands under the title \u201cDenying the Right to Return- Resettlement in\u00a0Musali South and the Wilpattu\u00a0Controversy. With a plea \u201cHelp Us Return Home\u201d people of Musali South\u00a0appeal to all to help them\u00a0return to their lands and homes with dignity and self respect to end\u00a0their more than three\u00a0and half decade old sufferings.<\/p>\n

Explaining the background in his author\u2019s note Prof Shahul H Hasbulla\u00a0stated that;\u00a0\u201c When the \u201cWilpattu controversy\u201d flared up, the turn of the debate\u00a0surprised me. I knew for certain\u00a0that the contested area in question was not located in Wilpattu. In a\u00a0published newspaper article,\u00a0I emphasized the issue of returnees, which in my view, is the crux of\u00a0the matter. But the ongoing\u00a0debate paid no attention to this issue. To the contrary, the public\u00a0discourse continuously\u00a0labeled returnees as \u2018criminals\u2019.<\/p>\n

The bleak situation spurred me to take on the mission of uncovering\u00a0the truth. I visited all corners\u00a0of \u201cMusali South\u201d in order to get to know its history and its\u00a0peoples, reflecting on the claims and\u00a0counter claims of land ownership. I learned from the people who were\u00a0paddy, chena and cattle farmers;\u00a0sea, lagoon, river and tank fisher folk; teachers, religious\u00a0dignitaries; men, women, young and children\u00a0of all ethnic (Tamils, Muslims and Sinhala), religious (Catholic,\u00a0Hindu, Muslims, Buddhist) and\u00a0linguistic (Tamil and Sinhala) communities.<\/p>\n

According to our findings people have lived in the Musali Region for\u00a0generations. They toiled\u00a0on this land and roamed the region for various livelihood activities\u00a0without any interruption, while\u00a0keeping the tradition of protecting the forest and the environment.\u00a0They are a part of the nature and\u00a0culture of the region. For more than two decades, the people have\u00a0been displaced- until today. They\u00a0have a right to return to their homes\u201d. Thus concluded Prof Hasbullah.\u00a0Muslims, in fact, had nothing to do with the devastating ethnic war\u00a0between successive governments\u00a0and the LTTE. However sandwiched between the two they suffered\u00a0immense and the plight of Musali\u00a0South Muslims was no exception.<\/p>\n

\"Wilpattu\"<\/a>While Musali South Muslims were in refugee camps the Rajapaksa\u00a0Government had acquired major\u00a0part of their traditional lands under various pretexts knowing very\u00a0well that the owners would claim this\u00a0land once the ethnic war ends.<\/p>\n

First around 40% of their traditional lands in the Musali South was\u00a0acquired.<\/p>\n

This was followed by the\u00a0acquisition of another 30 percent of their land without any\u00a0consultation or consent to establish security\u00a0Establishments. Added to this Muslims owned lands were acquired to\u00a0establish a naval agricultural\u00a0project. Furthermore a Navy Regional Commanding Office was established\u00a0in two prominent villages\u00a0and the Muslims were prevented from entering their own lands,\u00a0dwellings and other properties.<\/p>\n

Thus Musali South Muslims were deceived and deprived large extent\u00a0of their traditional lands.<\/p>\n

Judging from the subsequent anti Muslim campaign under Rajapaksa\u00a0government aimed at virtually\u00a0eliminating the Muslim community it is not difficult to realize now\u00a0that Muslim owned Musali South lands\u00a0were acquired deliberately to deprive Muslims of their lands.<\/p>\n

Commenting on the controversy Professor Arjuna Parakrama of\u00a0University of Peradeniya stated in the\u00a0special document that;\u00a0\u201cThe issue of resettlement in Musali -Wilpattu has divided and\u00a0destroyed relationships built up among”\u00a0progressive\u201d groups who hitherto shared similar positions on other\u00a0national concerns.<\/p>\n

Environmental\u00a0activists allowed this discourse to be narrowly ethnicised, and\u00a0emulated populist majoritarian rabble\u00a0rousers in their passion to \u201csave Wilpattu\u201d from what they saw as\u00a0corrupt and opportunist minority\u00a0politicians.<\/p>\n

A small band of human rights professionals and academics who took up\u00a0the cause of the displaced\u00a0were unable to disentangle themselves from the political leadership\u00a0that was using the issue in at least\u00a0of the ways that the environmental lobby claimed.<\/p>\n

The Media exploited all of this \u2013 generally on the side of the\u00a0single-issue environmentalists \u2013 to\u00a0rekindle anti-Muslim sentiment among the Sinhala polity. As a result,\u00a0those who had no interest in\u00a0the preservation of wild life became passionate campaigners, while\u00a0dedicated eco-types transformed\u00a0into ethno-nationalists overnight. In all of this the affected people\u00a0remained voiceless \u2013 pawns in a\u00a0series of chess games \u2013 and this denial of agency is as damaging as\u00a0the continued deprivation of their\u00a0rights\u201d.<\/p>\n

Meanwhile Professor M.A. Nuhman lamented that six years have passed\u00a0since the war ended in\u00a0and the ethnic relations in the country further deteriorated because\u00a0of the short sighted political\u00a0leadership that encouraged ethnic tension and fear in the country to\u00a0further their own agendas.<\/p>\n

Resettlement of internally displaced people is one of the major issues\u00a0today that demands an\u00a0immediate solution in post war Sri Lanka. Hundreds of thousands of\u00a0people from all three\u00a0communities were displaced internally during the war, losing their\u00a0houses, land and sources of\u00a0livelihood; most of them are not resettled so far and they are longing\u00a0for return to their own soil to\u00a0live peacefully.<\/p>\n

To this day, we have not been able to formulate a national policy of\u00a0resettlement to resolve\u00a0the problem of the displaced people justly and permanently. Therefore,\u00a0resettlement programmes\u00a0are being carried out in an ad hoc manner and have led to further\u00a0problems and tensions among\u00a0the communities. Resettlement in Musali South is a case in point.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

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