Occupying STF seizes Tamils' lands in Batticaloa for its founder Ravi Jayawardene

Ravi Jayawardene, the son of former Sri Lankan President J.R. Jayawardene, has been given 60 acres of lands that belonged to Eezham Tamils at Kiraanku'lam, which is situated on Kalmunai - Batticaloa Road in Ma'nmunaippattu DS division of Batticaloa district. Sri Lankan Special Task Force commandos have fenced off the seized lands that are located in front of a military camp. Claiming that Ravi Jayawardene has bought the lands, the STF personnel have been bulldozing coconut trees in the lands. They are also aiming to seize a total of 400 acres of lands in the area, the people from the area complain. Ravi Jayawardene was a former ‘National Security Advisor’ of genocidal Sri Lanka.

During the times of former SL President J.R. Jayewardene, Mr Ravi Jayewardene was tasked to form the notorious Special Task Force as an elite commando force.

He was also behind distributing guns to the Sinhala border villagers in order to drive Tamils away from their villages in the mid 1980s.

The owner of the lands that are being seized now had earlier sold these lands to other Tamil villagers. A significant portion of these lands has now been transferred to Mr Ravi Jayawardene using new documents, the villagers say.

The villagers organised a protest on 09 December and tried to lodge a complaint to the SL Government Agent of Batticaloa. But, the SL police have been subjecting them to various harassments. They were also blocking the protesting villagers from meeting the Government Agent.

The SL police were telling the villagers to pursue legal action if they were in possession of documents to prove their ownership.