The Sri Lankan army seized large areas of local-owned land around the Jaffna Security Forces Headquarters (SFH) and declared it a "High Security Zone". Thereafter, military-owned agricultural farms were set up and chillies produced at the Palaly SFH farm, were distributed to local markets.
Tamil residents who lived in the area were displaced for 32 years in refugee camps, family homes and rental houses. They have been fighting for permanent resettlement for more than 11 years. However, their land was seized by the military under the guise of national security and the army has since set up agriculture and livestock farms on the land.
The Army is engaged in chilli production on the farms under the "Thuru Mithuru Nawa Ratak" project created by Sri Lankan army commander and accused war criminal Shavendra Silva.
Tamil land in the North-East is constantly expropriated for the needs of the state with an increase in incidents of Tamil residents facing intimidation and displacement. Additionally, the normalisation of military-owned businesses limit local economic development and leave the Tamil population unable to sustain themselves independently.
