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A Visit with PA Partners
By Thomas John, JH Companionship Facilitator
It was a joy to visit our Joining Hands friends in Sri Lanka - the Steering Committee of Praja Abhilasha (PA) - from May 4 to 6, 2011 and learn of the progress they were making in various fronts.
It was also an opportunity to visit the Kalpitiya Islands, particularly the Dutch bay, which is under imminent threat of being ravaged by the Government’s design to develop it into a tourism hotspot.
Kalpitiya Islands, soon to be ravaged
Kalpitiya Islands are a fabulous part of Sri Lanka's beautiful landscape that is threatened by large scale displacement of people from land and livelihood, and by destruction of very valuable but delicate ecosystem.
Herman Kumara (PA chairperson) and Raajan Francis (PA co-ordinator) were very generous with their time and resources to provide me with a relatively complete exposure to the issue of earmarking the whole area as Tourism Zone, involving 14 islands and the water bodies associated with them.
I was provided with a one-day tour through the extensive sea bed – a land mass that divides the Indian Ocean from the Mundal Kalapuwa lagoon.
We visited Mohothtuwarama and Uchchamunai areas and the famous Dutch Bay which is a wonder of nature’s own creation: a narrow strip of land mass that separates a sea from a lagoon. The ecosystem is extremely fragile as it is a work of nature.
The Dutch Bay, a narrow strip of land that separates the sea from a lagoon |
The eco-systems
Any human intervention can upset this delicate balance and create havoc. It is a hot spot of bio-diversity with extensive mangroves. The Bar Reef - a system of coral reefs just offshore from Sri Lanka's Kalpitiya peninsula - is also quite close to this region. It has the greatest biodiversity of any coral reef in the waters around India and is one of the few pristine coral reef systems in Sri Lanka.
The people
The population in these islands is dispersed widely over these disparate land masses. They mostly depend on fishing as a source of livelihood. The majority of population in this region are Christians belonging to the Catholic Church and then, Muslims constitute the second largest religious group.
Meeting with one of the communities |
Since this location is away from the mainland, they are cut off from the mainstream culture and its affluent life style. The fisher folk are content with a rhythm of life very much suited to fishing and the satisfaction of their modest needs. This population, however is living under an imminent threat of eviction by the navy, which commands all activities on the coastal areas of Sri Lanka.
A catastrophe in the making
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The sad thing is that the government of Sri Lanka has not consulted them, or shared any of their plans for development of the region, let alone notifying them of the eviction and resettlement plan. As such, they remain completely oblivious of and unprepared for the catastrophe awaiting them. Besides, their displacement will not only have economic consequence but also emotional, social and cultural consequences. Social costs of this development program have not been calculated.
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Learning from the fisher folkOne of the fishermen in this region, echoing the general sentiment said, “We have been living here for generations. While the government gave land to the tourism industry, they are least concerned about us. We live here without title deeds for our land and clean drinking water and proper schools for our children. Despite all these realities, we will not move out. (Pointing to the church) Here is our church and all that we consider as valuable.” This statement came readily from several mouths as I asked about the possibility of a better placement and rehabilitation in a different site.
Displacement for them would be complete alienation from their heart, home and livelihood, which all implicitly
give meaning to their life.
Rallying for land and livelihood
In this context, the organizations that are working in this area for the land and livelihood rights of people like NAFSO (National Fish-workers Solidarity Forum) and PA (Parja Abhilasha) are faced with an uphill task:
1. Already one can see sign boards of
At an increasing rate signboards are erected to indicate that companies have already obtained land for their tourism projects |
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companies that have already bought or leased out land in this area. That means the government has gone much with their action plan without being transparent. Some of these actions have to be considered as a fait accompli.
2. The people in the region are not politically organized and mobilized and hence, lack the necessary political strategy to fight a more sophisticated and powerful enemy.
3. The Catholic Church hierarchy is under tremendous pressure from the government to make its people submit to any eviction plan of the government, describing this development as one that eventually would bring prosperity to all concerned.
4. Sri Lanka is still kept under “emergency” rule using the bogey of threat from the separatist militant organization Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE), despite ruthlessly wiping out its leadership through a bloody war, which still under investigation for alleged war crimes.
5. Though it is now governed by a democratically elected government, the emergency rule provides enough powers to the president to be ruthless in suppressing dissent. Much of the governance is shrouded in secrecy. So Praja Abhilasha is confronted with questions of governance, democracy, and human rights. They are to represent the aspirations of Internally Displaced Poeples (IDP) of Tsunami, civil war, development and threat from wild elephants due to shrinking of the forest cover. This context demands lots of advocacy, joining of hands, from across the seas.
Speakers and audience at the founding meeting for a broad coalition on the Rights for Land and Livelihood |
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Formation of larger Coalition
A gathering of Civil Society Organizations was called on June 6, 2011 by the Praja Abhilasha Network, National Fish-worker’s Solidarity and All Ceylon Fish Worker’s Trade Union at Library Services Council, Colombo. About 100 organizations were represented at the meeting. The main objective of the meeting was to share information regarding the developments in Kalpitiya and to close their ranks for a strategic intervention on this matter.
The Coalition has resolved to file a case against the destruction of environment and the people's deprivation of their right to livelihood. Other strategic actions are in the making. In the context of a repressive and determined administration, the way ahead is strewn with many thorns and needs to be tread very carefully.
Joining Forces against Landgrab
Herman Kumara National Convener - NAFSO Special Invitee - WFFP
There are thousands of people in Sri Lanka displaced due to various development projects of the government and of private sector. This is very much seen among farming communities, fishing communities as well as among slum dwellers in the country today. We can see this is a somewhat growing phenomenon and people are displaced in many different settings around country.
Fisherfolk during a protest last November against the Seaplane project in Negombo |
Landgrab-a growing phenomenon
Landgrab in agricultural lands as well as in the coastal areas are very common. They leave people helpless and nobody seems ready to take on this issue due to fear and threats. But we should start somewhere to end this situation. Take for example the case of Negombo where fisher people struggled and achieved certain degree of victory. The biggest victory yet against this undemocratic, anti-people project was in fact defeating the Private Sector Pension Scheme by FTZ workers. So, what we experience is, if people join their forces we can defeat the powerful government with 2/3 majority.
Invitation to join the movement
This is why we want to unite and bring them to one coalition on Land grabbing issues in Kalpitiya islands on tourism, Panama Lagoon people, Sampur displaced people due to Special Economic Zone, Polonnaruwa people due to tourism project at Parakrama Samudra, Pigeon islands people due to marine protected area for tourism, in Colombo the slum dwellers, Negomb people who fought against Sea Plane issue at Negombo lagoon, Uma Oya community who are displaced, and many more as this list is not exhaustive.
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We want to contribute as much as we can in support of the ongoing campaign. Most important thing is to give moral support to the leaders in the struggle and demonstrate our solidarity with them. So, we would like to invite all possible organizations to take part in the 6th September meeting and bring the members according to your ability.
We seek your fullest cooperation during this seminar as well as for the future activities.
Recently I went to Jaffna and met with the communities of Walithundal and Koovil. I Even though they were fearful due to security concerns, and hesitant to identify themselves, they nevertheless shared with me their grievances.
Walithundal Walithundal is a particularly beautiful coastal village where fisher people have for generations lived off the ocean. Before the 1990's, fishing constituted for 80 families their livelihood. But ever since, this fishing community has been disrupted first by war and then Tsunami, which wiped out the entire village. The families dispersed to several different places, most of them seeking their refuge in Vanni. When the war ended in 2009, the families tried to return to Walithundal but the government didn’t allow them. Thinking about their future, these people became upset. In February 2011 they were finally allowed to return to their village but had to live without any basic facilities. The government had provided only 12 tin sheets per family. Currently only 16 families have settled back.
The rest of them don’t know whether to return, as the Sri Lankan Navy is not allowing the fisher people to go to sea or otherwise engage in the fishing activities. Besides, during the war they lost their fishing gears and etc. So without livelihood, these people are stuck. Furthermore, inhabitants from neighboring villages have been coming over to fish in their traditional fishing grounds, but the original Walithundal fishers refused them. Out- board fishing has meanwhile been banned, so they asked the Navy permission to at least allow them to take their Catamaran up to 300m into the sea. When the Navy once again refused, one fisher man wondered “Is this fair”? The fisher people also asked the Navy: "why don’t you allow us while you let other villages enter our fishing area by using out- board?". But these questions went unanswered, and the fisher people are now confused what to do. They are nervous to protest because the army soldiers outnumber the civilian population in Jaffna. As they shared their frustrations with our team, the fisher people requested us to take this message to the media and get the attention regarding this problem. They said, they themselves felt helpless and marginalized in this matter. Without livelihood, houses, water, electricity and other basic necessities of life, the villagers exclaimed “How can we live?”. And they wondered how come that, at the time of their displacement there were only 80 families but now the number has increased to up to 120 families.
In the 1990's there used to be 150 families residing in Koovil. Most of them were farmers and five families were fisher folk. Then war came, and displaced the villagers. Most of them went to Wanni, and some flew abroad. For more than twenty years, the people could not return to their village, not even after the war was over in 2009. Only by December 2010, after twenty years of displacement, they were allowed back, .
The Koovil villagers had to start rebuilding their lives from zero. They had lost their entire livelihood, their homes were shelled and in ruins. Some of houses’ roofings and windows had been taken by the army to build barriers and etc. Altogether, only four of the families were able to reuse their house. There are currently almost 120 registered families in Koovil, but they have no basic facilities. Only 55 of these families received tin sheets from the government, twelve per family. The government further gve 90 families 5000 ($45) rupees to buy basic goods for cooking. None of the other families got the roofing sheets or aid. Besides, 20% families don’t have a land title because they lost it when they were displaced time after time, and went from one place to the other. There are 35 widows living in this village without any income. “I don’t like to say that we are living, in fact, we are suffering,” lamented one of them. Because the land has become overgrown and is looking like a jungle, the affected families have to pay someone to help them clear the land. To this extent the government has given each family 1000 rupees ($9) for a day's work. But it takes more than one day to clear the land as it is difficult to remove the big trees that have grown up during their absence, and so the amount is not enough. Children have to walk a ditnce of 4km to reach the Maikanda School which is located in Ilawalai.
Recently, some of these families have mobilized and formed a rural civil society organization named “Koovil Rural Development Society”. When we talked to the Secretary of KRDS, he pointed out these problems. He further said that, if the government has plans to implement a development program, they should contact KRDS for a better execution. The villagers further told us they are in trouble because they don’t have any facilities to restart their farming. And so they request the government and NGOs to look into these concerns. The villagers of Koovil hope to benefit from the 50000 houses project of India. But I fear this may only stay a dream. |
A family in Walithundal living in a temporary shed besides their own broken house.
