Tamil farmers in Trincomalee have threatened legal action against Sinhala Home Guard members for the continued encroachment of their cultivation lands.
The lawyers of five Tamil farmers from the Thennamaravady village on the Trinco-Mullaitivu border in the Kuchchaveli division have written to five Sinhala Home Guard members as a first step to initiating court action against the encroachment.
The people of Thennamaravady were resettled after the end of the war following over two decades of displacement. The villagers fled to Mullaitivu and other places following an outbreak of violence and killings unleashed by Sinhala Home Guards in 1985.
The villagers who mainly depended on agriculture and livestock breeding returned to their homes to find that their livelihood lands had been taken over and were being cultivated by the Sinhala Home Guards.
Although some villagers were able to re-obtain access to their lands following several protests and appeals to local authorities, several residents’ lands continued to be forcibly occupied and cultivated by the Sinhala Home Guards.
With complaints to police and appeals to local authorities proving fruitless, the affected Tamil farmers decided to prepare for court action.
