
Security practices affect the people
The security exercises currently performed by the Sri Lankan Armed Forces in the no man's areas and High Security Zones(HSZ) impose serious inconveniences to the general public around and about the locations where armed forces are stationed or sheltered. These constantly repeated practices of the armed security men of the state pose nuisance and hindrance especially to the peasant population of the area says the Thellippalai Farmers Co-operative Society pinpointing how they are rid of their productive fertile soil now and then.
Detailing the enormous number of farmers suffering from the loss of livelihood caused by the state security activities, the society further laments that the farmers who resumed cultivating their crops in and around the areas, where the HSZs and Front Defence Lines are now located and secured by the security forces, are now unable to continue their cultivation to the extent they have been hitherto doing. Despite the hindrances posed by the security forces, the people had come back to their farmland after the Government of Sri Lanka signed the CFA with the LTTE.
But the security forces have been gradually enforcing several constraints on the cultivators. The forces limited the area of cultivation to 600 meters away from the security zones. Cultivation was further limited especially because of the prohibition of movement of the public anywhere close to the HSZs and FDLs for the convenience of the security forces. To confirm and to keep the public reminded of these constraints, signboards and banners have been displayed by the security forces. It is now found that hundreds of farmers have been very badly affected and in the vicinity of HSZ alone and as high as six hundred are without any farming to do.
17 August 2004
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