In a landmark step towards reconciliation between the Tamils and Muslims in eastern Sri Lanka, leaders of the Muslim community reached a deal with the Liberation Tigers last week for the return of the majority of land occupied by Tamil farmers.
The agreement has raises hopes that dialogue between the two communities can lead to resolution of other contentious issues in the region.
Over sixty five percent of formerly Muslim land presently occupied by Tamil farmers in the LTTE controlled areas of Paduwankarai in Batticaloa, were formally handed back to Muslim leaders at a meeting at Mandavathady in Thalaiyadi on Saturday.
Whilst many Muslim farmers’ homes are in the Sri Lanka Army controlled parts of the Batticaloa district, their farms are in LTTE-held areas.
During the conflict, these plots became increasingly inaccessible, either due to fighting or to communal animosity. In many cases, Tamil farmers in adjoining areas gradually began farming on land owned by absentee Muslims.
Even after the February 2002 ceasefire, Muslim efforts to secure the return of their plots had struggled, partly due to resistance by Tamil farmers. The issue has bedeviled Tamil-Muslim relations and the LTTE’s relations with the Muslim community.
Last Saturday’s agreement is thus amongst the most significant of a number of recent confidence building measures between the two communities, with one of the Muslim representatives at the meeting saying that the handover of land was a sign of significantly improving Tamil-Muslim relations in the region.
The Tamil Eelam Economic Development Organisation (TEEDOR), the LTTE’s development arm, had organized a series of discussions. Legal documents ratifying the exchange of ownership were issued at the meeting.
Saturday''s meeting where legal documents were re-issued on an initiative by the LTTE was a significant step towards improving Tamil-Muslim relations, according to an attending Muslim official.
Local correspondents say, however, that the land return could prove unpopular amongst Tamil farmers disadvantaged by the move.
They point out that LTTE is already under pressure to deliver dividends promised by the peace process, including the return of military-occupied lands and properties and the return of normalcy to Tamil areas.
The two communities have suffered a history of animosity, which has been strategically fuelled during the conflict by Sri Lanka’s security forces.
The state-sponsored colonization of Tamil villages in the east included creating armed Sinhala and Muslim militias. Tamils in the Amparai-Batticaloa region suffered numerous atrocities by these paramilitaries, which included large scale massacres carried out as part of a programme of ethnic cleansing.
Retaliatory attacks on Muslim militia and villages by Tamil militants led to a spiral of violence, the scars of which are now beginning to heal, over a decade later.
In the wake of years of mutual violence, efforts to rebuild trust between the two communities have been painstakingly slow, bedeviled by attempts by paramilitary organization to destabilise the region again.
The December 26 tsunami had helped bring the two communities closer together. Both felt neglected by the Sri Lankan state, with Muslims echoing Tamil claims of chauvinism state. Moreover, the Tamil Rehabilitation Organisation (TRO) has extended its assistance to Muslim and Sinhala victims of the waves.
The recent improvement in relations are the culmination of three years of efforts between the LTTE and Muslim religious and community leaders.
Earlier attempts by the LTTE to engage with Muslim political leaders, including the Sri Lanka Muslim Congress (SLMC),once the island’s largest Muslim party before it suffered internal splits, proved unsuccessful.
The agreement has raises hopes that dialogue between the two communities can lead to resolution of other contentious issues in the region.
Over sixty five percent of formerly Muslim land presently occupied by Tamil farmers in the LTTE controlled areas of Paduwankarai in Batticaloa, were formally handed back to Muslim leaders at a meeting at Mandavathady in Thalaiyadi on Saturday.
Whilst many Muslim farmers’ homes are in the Sri Lanka Army controlled parts of the Batticaloa district, their farms are in LTTE-held areas.
During the conflict, these plots became increasingly inaccessible, either due to fighting or to communal animosity. In many cases, Tamil farmers in adjoining areas gradually began farming on land owned by absentee Muslims.
Even after the February 2002 ceasefire, Muslim efforts to secure the return of their plots had struggled, partly due to resistance by Tamil farmers. The issue has bedeviled Tamil-Muslim relations and the LTTE’s relations with the Muslim community.
Last Saturday’s agreement is thus amongst the most significant of a number of recent confidence building measures between the two communities, with one of the Muslim representatives at the meeting saying that the handover of land was a sign of significantly improving Tamil-Muslim relations in the region.
The Tamil Eelam Economic Development Organisation (TEEDOR), the LTTE’s development arm, had organized a series of discussions. Legal documents ratifying the exchange of ownership were issued at the meeting.
Saturday''s meeting where legal documents were re-issued on an initiative by the LTTE was a significant step towards improving Tamil-Muslim relations, according to an attending Muslim official.
Local correspondents say, however, that the land return could prove unpopular amongst Tamil farmers disadvantaged by the move.
They point out that LTTE is already under pressure to deliver dividends promised by the peace process, including the return of military-occupied lands and properties and the return of normalcy to Tamil areas.
The two communities have suffered a history of animosity, which has been strategically fuelled during the conflict by Sri Lanka’s security forces.
The state-sponsored colonization of Tamil villages in the east included creating armed Sinhala and Muslim militias. Tamils in the Amparai-Batticaloa region suffered numerous atrocities by these paramilitaries, which included large scale massacres carried out as part of a programme of ethnic cleansing.
Retaliatory attacks on Muslim militia and villages by Tamil militants led to a spiral of violence, the scars of which are now beginning to heal, over a decade later.
In the wake of years of mutual violence, efforts to rebuild trust between the two communities have been painstakingly slow, bedeviled by attempts by paramilitary organization to destabilise the region again.
The December 26 tsunami had helped bring the two communities closer together. Both felt neglected by the Sri Lankan state, with Muslims echoing Tamil claims of chauvinism state. Moreover, the Tamil Rehabilitation Organisation (TRO) has extended its assistance to Muslim and Sinhala victims of the waves.
The recent improvement in relations are the culmination of three years of efforts between the LTTE and Muslim religious and community leaders.
Earlier attempts by the LTTE to engage with Muslim political leaders, including the Sri Lanka Muslim Congress (SLMC),once the island’s largest Muslim party before it suffered internal splits, proved unsuccessful.
