Sri Lanka decides to continue northern HSZ despite military victory

JDS
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Despite riding sky high on the military victory over Tamil Tiger rebels and making maximum political mileage out of it, Sri Lanka said Thursday that it will continue to maintain its military High Security Zones (HSZ) in the private lands in the northern Jaffna province.

According to reports from Colombo, government spokesman has made it explicitly clear that “in the absence of State land, the government will be compelled to use private land situated at strategic locations for this purpose (HSZ).

Responding to a question at the weekly cabinet press briefing, Media Minister Keheliya Rambukwella has said Thursday that when the US has military bases overseas for security purposes Sri Lanka has a right to have security zones on its own soil to maintain security.

However, in April this year ex-militant Eelam People Democratic Party (EPDP) leader, Minister Douglas Devananda had assured that all the High Security Zones in the Jaffna peninsula will be removed gradually as there is no more security threat owing to the military victory over the LTTE.

The government decision has come exactly a day after President Mahinda Rajapaksa presided over a special cabinet meeting in the former LTTE capital of Kilinochchi, demonstrating to the world that the LTTE threat is existing no more.
At the cabinet meeting held the at the former LTTE political headquarters, President Rajapaksa has also spoke of developing the north and the need for economic reunification of the war-hit north with the rest of the island.

Several thousands of Tamil people remain displaced since early 90s due to the expansion of the Palaly-Kankesanthurai military base. A Sri Lankan high court last year ordered the government to scale down the presence of the HSZ in the north as soon as possible and hand back the lands to the authentic owners.
The successive Sri Lankan governments have been rejecting the humanitarian call for allowing the people live inside these HSZ, saying that the heavy gun presence of the LTTE has been a threat to the Palaly-Kankesanthurai military base.

It may well be recalled that Sri Lanka’s former army commander, General Sarath Fonseka, who is now facing court martial, had said when he was the commander of the north that these HZS could only be scaled down, if the LTTE moved back their long-range heavy guns away from Pooneryn and Kilinochchi.

© Journalists for Democracy in Sri Lanka