“Gazettes are affecting Northern Muslim IDPs”

The four gazettes reportedly impacting the Northern Muslim resettlement process in Wilpattu proximity are to be bulldozed.

“I informed the officials that I will present a Cabinet Paper to remove the gazettes affecting resettlement of Northern Muslim IDPs” said Minister of Industry and Commerce and Vanni District MP Rishad Bathiudeen on the evening of 31 March in Colombo.

Minister Bathiudeen was speaking to some members of the Press shortly after he met a team of government officials led by Permanent Secretary to the President P.B. Abeykoon at the Presidential Secretariat, Colombo on the afternoon of 31 March. Minister Bathiudeen who met them to present his side of facts, made a specific demand in earnest– to de-gazette the Weppal, Karadikkuli/Marichakatti, and Wilathikulam areas gazetted by Extraordinary Gazette 2011/34 of 24 March 2017 since they are inhabited by people, including Northern Muslims displaced at one time. The recent Gazette 2011/34 also gazetted and claimed Mavillu, and Periyamadu reserves in addition. “But I did not insist on these two locations since they are not inhabited and gazetting them do not affect Northern Muslim IDPs” he said.

The gazettes Minister Bathiudeen wants de-gazetted through a Cabiner Paper are the Gazette 1779/15 of 10 October 2012 which claimed 6042 Hectares  of  Marichikaddi/Karadikkuli Forest Reserve,  the gazette numbered 1759/2 of 21 May 2012 which claimed 2108 hectares of Vilathikulam Forest Reserve, and  gazette numbered 2011/34 dated 24 March 2012  which claimed 40030.525 Hectares of Mavillu Conservation Forest. “I called them to return them to the original families living in those villages prior to eviction in 1990. Apart from presenting Cabinet paper to withdraw the three gazettes of 2012, I also directly requested the officials to withdraw the recent Extraordinary Gazette 2011/34 of 24 March 2017. As for this March 24 Gazette, they responded saying that they would consult HE the President Maithripala Sirisena and Prime Minister Ranil Wicjremesinghe and shall work for a positive, fruitful outcome. They also informed me that future Northern wildlife gazetting may not come under “Wildlife Conservation” but mostly under Forest Conservation” said Minister Bathiudeen, and added: “The LTTE forcibly evicted the entire Muslim Population of the North in 1990-the worst ethnic cleansing exercise in the history of Sri Lanka.  These Muslim victims were forced to leave their homes in 24 hours from these lands now said as conserved forests.”

Among the 24000 Northern Muslim families expelled by LTTE on 1990 October 30 from their traditional homes and became overnight IDPs, was the eight-member family of Vanni MP and Minister Rishad Bathiudeen.