Commemoration
for the international Human Rights Day
National Fisheries Solidarity
Movement, Society for Threatened Peoples (STP), Praja Abhilasha Network have conducted a Media Conference on Military occupied land issues at the Laksman
Kathirgamar Institute in Colombo. A number of organizations
including media, and specially people from the districts of Mannar, Jaffna,
Ampara participated for the meeting. Members of the district organizations explained
the situation they are living and explained how the government has been
violated their rights since so many years. They claimed specially their rights
to the land. As we know, government displaced many people from their homes
since the civil war, and even after that, and they have not been allowed to
come back to their own lands.
One representative from Manner and
Cilavathurai explained to the audience that they have land problems because
government forces took over their lands and displaced them. Representatives from Ampara and Pothuwil said
that they are also experiencing the same land problem because of government. In
all the cases, their basic human rights have been violated because they were
displaced and were not allowed to come back to their traditional villagers.
A university lecturer from the
University of Ruhuna was conducted a presentation on the ‘Current Political
Situation of the Country’. A representative from a civil Society Organizations
from North explained the Social and Economic problems that they are
experiencing due the situation that they living in and also due to lack of
facilities in the area.
A discussion was held with the
participation of some representatives on the ‘Colombo Port City’ and the impact
of this construction to the environment and to the people living in Negombo especially
in Basiyawatta village. Environmentalist Sajeewa Chamikara explained the
negative impact to the environment caused by the Colombo Port City.
This meeting was the occasion to
present three different reports about National Status on Natural Resources in
Sri Lanka, International Fact Finding Mission on the Colombo International
Financial City.
Petitions were made by those
people suffering land problems and displacement and they were address to four
embassies in Colombo (UK, USA, AUSSI, RUSSIA)
Finally, people participated in a
protest in Colombo Fort to raise their voices and protest against the Government for not handing over their
lands.
