Northern Politicos Not Happy (by Roshani Nathaniel)
Sampanthan, Sidharthan and Suresh Premechandran
The Tamils in the North played a pivotal role in the change of regime and they expected their burning issues, mainly the resettlement, releasing of political prisoners and reduction of the military presence in the North to be fulfilled. Some election promises have been partially activated but according to the Northern people the majority of their expectations have not been fulfilled.
The Tamils in the North are also rather disgruntled with their elected leaders and feel that their issues have been neglected for political gain. According to TNA member Suresh Premachandran the government process is very slow and still the armed forces are holding onto the private lands and still the people cannot return to their own area. “The government used to say that once Maithripala Sirisena takes over as the President about 4,000 acres of land from the North including Trincomalee has been returned. However, according to the Chief Minister’s estimation about 67,000 acres of land is being held by the armed forces. More than half of that land belongs to private people. This is the biggest problem as far as the Tamils are concerned,” he said. Read more
