Sri Lankan state-sponsored colonisation schemes

Sri Lankan state-sponsored colonization schemes is the government program of settling mostly Sinhalese farmers from the densely populated wet zone into the sparsely populated areas of the dry zone. This has taken place since the 1950s near

Whilst empowering Sinhalese settlers, the scheme also served as a means to marginalize, exclude, and harm Tamil speaking minorities, treating them as the 'other'.[6] It has been perhaps the most immediate cause of inter-communal violence,^{[7][8][9][10]} with violent displacement of Tamil civilians to make way for Sinhalese settlers occurring several times.^[11][12] The University Teachers for Human Rights has described this as ethnic cleansing of Tamils occurring with the support of the government since the 1956 Gal Oya riots.^[13] Following the end of war in 2009, Sinhalese officials and settlers in Weli Oya have expressed their desire to take more land further north in order to “make the Sinhala man the most present in all parts of the country”.^[14]

Introduction

Shortly after

The notion of the "traditional Tamil homeland" became a potent component of popular Tamil political imagination while the Sinhalese nationalist groups viewed the resettlement schemes in these areas as "reclamation and recreation in the present of the glorious Sinhalese Buddhist past".^[19] The Muslim community tended to reject the countervailing notion of a traditional Tamil homeland in the North East region which resulted in animosity between the Muslim and Tamil communities in the region to rise.^[8]

1950s

The first colonisation scheme was in the

"In the past, for so many centuries, the community I come from has been the majority community in the Gal Oya Valley, but today by a process of operations carried on by the Gal Oya Development Board and the Provincial Administration, we the Muslims feel that we in our homeland are being reduced to a minority."[22]

The next colonisation scheme was at Kantale (Kanthalai) tank where peasants from outside of the Trincomalee District were settled in the then Tamil dominant village of Kantale (Kanthalai), 39 km south-west of the Trincomalee town.^[23][24] 77% of settlers were Sinhalese and the rest were Tamils and Muslims.^[25]

A colonisation scheme was at the areas surrounding the Kantale Tank, 25 km south of Trincomalee town.^[23][26] 65% of settlers were Sinhalese and the rest were Muslims.^[25]

The colonisation scheme was extended to Tamil speaking areas of

Colonisation of Southern Dry Zone in the south of Ceylon was carried out mainly under the Walawe River Valley which was planned in 1959. The Uda Walawe Project started in 1969 which resulted in 30,000 net irrigable acres and settlement of around 3440 settlers in the southern dry zone. The development of settlements around Walawe, Chandrika and Kiri Ibban reservoirs saw population in the selected region growing from 2,000 in the 1950s to 200,000 by the 2000s.^[28]

1960s

In the 1961 a colonisation scheme was started at Morawewa tank (Muthali Kulam), 24 km west of the Trincomalee town.^[23][29]

1980s

In the 1980s, funded by aid received from the

In 1985, a Sri Lankan government appointed study group recommended using Sinhala colonisation to break the link between the Tamil majority regions of the north and east.[33]

1990s

Pro-LTTE news site TamilNet reported that when the Indian Peace Keeping Forces were withdrawn in 1990, Tamils homes in the suburbs of Trincomalee were occupied by Sinhalese settlers. Tens of thousands of landless Sinhala peasants were reported to have been brought in by the advancing government forces and made to occupy local villages and lands, denying resettlement to its original inhabitants who had earlier fled to the jungles due to the "murder" of Tamil civilians at the hands of the Army.^[34][35]

2000s

Since the fall of the LTTE and the capture of LTTE held areas, several settlement programmes were initiated by the government that extends towards the Northern Province. In the Vavuniya district 3000 acres in Madukulam (Maduwewa) are being cleared for a village, while work of a settlement is underway in the former LTTE stronghold of Othiyamalai Kaadu. A settlement is being created in Rampaveddi bordering the minor tank area of Eropothana and new settlement of approximately 2500 ethnic Sinhala families (about 6000 people) from the South were settled in the village of Kokkachaankulam. Tamils in Barathypuram were evicted and a Muslim settlement is being created in the area due to the large economic opportunities provided by an apparels factory being built there.^[36]

Several new settlements are also being built in Mullaitivu District while the Weli Oya settlement is being expanded as well. Several fishing colonies are being built in the Mannar district and Muslim settlements have been built in lands previously owned by Tamils that fled to India during the war. ‘Navatkuli Housing Project’ is being built in Navatkuli, Jaffna District to house 135 Sinhalese families, including 54 families who had, in 2010, attempted to set up temporary residences at the Jaffna Railway Station with funding from Buddhist Organizations and Political parties.^[36]

Following the defeat of the LTTE, the Mahaweli project, which had been temporarily halted, gained new momentum. The Mahaweli Authority and the military resumed activities to bring in landless Sinhalese settlers from the southern parts of the country to settle in and around Weli Oya.^[37] Despite ongoing displacement of thousands of Tamils from their land and homes, the Mahaweli Authority, under successive governments since the end of the war, continues to allocate land to Sinhalese settlers in the same areas.^[38]

Pro-LTTE news site TamilNet reported that Tamils were being ethnically cleansed in the Jaffna peninsula and Mullativu districts, and that this was being supplemented with the construction of Buddhist stupas and Sinhalisation of names of streets and places.^[39] According to TamilNet the Tamil populace had been reduced to a fourth between 2007 and 2011 based on Government figures. Tamil locals also complained of the state waging an accelerated campaign of Sinhala Buddhist colonisation by destroying historic Hindu shrines in the East.^{[40][41][42][43][44]} Over 400 families were reported to have been settled in Nelukkulam in Mullativu district by the website.^[45] Another incident of state colonization before the Final Eelam War was reported by Muslim residents of the Pulmoddai village who claimed that several acres of their traditional land had been annexed by the Government for settlements from South on the pretext of industrial development.^[46]

See also

• Origins of the Sri Lankan civil war
• Sri Lankan Civil War
• Black July

References