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Efforts to trade off land in Eastern Province behind the abrogation of ceasefire
Sri Lanka Government suddenly decided to abrogate the ceasefire agreement (CFA) with the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Ealam (LTTE). This CFA signed in 2002 was actually defunct since President Mahinda Rajapakse came into power in 2005. However, neither party of the CFA pushed to be the first to withdraw from it. The Government's notice to withdraw from the CFA came in an unexpected time and it did not catch much enthusiasm since it was in rags since many months and the war was raging in full throttle.
The Government has plans to utilize the land in the Eastern Province for communally sensitive colonization as well as economically intense ventures.
There were proposals from the Government to settle Nomadic Sri Lankan 'Ahiguntika' community in recently liberated Vakarai. The proposal was criticized as a measure to create more clashes and to put the Nomadic 'Ahiguntika' community in further trouble.
The Government's attempts to grab the traditional lands of Eastern Province Muslims led to Sri Lanka Muslim Congress to revoke its support to the Government.
Sinhala Buddhist nationalists are claiming the Eastern Province traditional lands as their heritage on the basis there are many ruins of Buddhist shrines. There is long drawn animosity between the majority Sinhala community and the minority Tamil and Muslim communities over land issues in the Eastern Province.
The Government has declared an 'Eastern Reawakening' programme and plans to 'develop' the Eastern Province under the Ministry of Nation Building that comes directly under the supervision of Basil Rajapakse, the brother of the President.
There is massive propaganda on the development plans of the Eastern Province although there are serious doubts of their implementation. The Government outlined a number of such development work when it obtained the massive US $ 500 million (Rs. 56 billion) international loan although the dollars quickly evaporated in settling the previous debts obtained basically for military purposes.
However, there is a plan for setting up a coal power plant in Sampur in Trincomalee district. The Government has declared the area High Security Zone and the residents displaced from the area are not allowed to resettle there.
The Indian National Thermal Power Corporation (NTPC) signed an agreement at the beginning of last year with the Ceylon Electricity Board (CEB) to set up a coal power plant in Trincomalee and there were discussion with China as well to set up coal power plants in the Eastern Province. The Indian plant is supposed to come online in 2011. An Indian team comprised of technical experts and scientists visited three sites proposed by the government to choose a suitable location for the power plant, CEB sources said.
However, there was dispute over the land since the 2002 MOU had demarcated certain areas as LTTE held territory. The Government's step to abrogate the CFA falls in this backdrop and there is the aspect of claiming the sole state ownership of of the land in the Eastern Province without legal hindrances to trade them off to the investors to set up business ventures.
