The Sri Lankan military took students from a college in the south of the island on a tour of the Palali High Security Zone (HSZ) in Jaffna this week, an area that the army has blocked off to local Tamils that own private land there.
Students from the Bandaranaike Central College in Veyangoda were shown around Palali airport by the Sri Lankan military. “The visitors were greeted with a warm welcome by the Sri Lanka Army,” stated an official website.
The area remains off limits to Tamils that own land there, having been occupied by the Sri Lankan military for years. Across the North-East, Tamils have launched protests calling for the demiltiarisation of the region and a return of private lands, a demand that has been echoed by Tamil politicians for years. Despite pledges by the Sri Lankan government to do so, the region remains heavily militarised.
