Sri Lanka: Land Grab Designed to Break up Traditional Tamil Land, Says New Report

Ongoing land grabbing by government institutions including the military in Sri Lanka’s Tamil majority north and east is aimed at changing demographics and deny Tamil communities access to their land, says a USA base think tank.

As the 46th session of the UNHRC assesses the new resolution on Sri Lanka, a new report from the Oakland Institute, "Endless War: The Destroyed Land, Life, and Identity of the Tamils in Sri Lanka", brings forth shocking new evidence on the extent of the continued persecution of the minority Tamil population in the North and East of the country.

The 44 page report details how 12 years after the brutal end of the civil war, the island nation has increasingly become an ethnocratic state — intensifying the colonization and Sinhalisation of Tamil lands.

Fragmenting Tamil land

"Under the guise of “development projects,” government driven Sinhalese colonization is growing within Tamil areas with the intent to change demographics and deny Tamil communities access to their land," the Oakland Institute said in a statement.