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High Security Zone provision challenged

B. Muralidhar Reddy

Sri Lankan Constitution violated: petition

COLOMBO: The Centre for Policy Alternatives (CPA) on Friday filed a fundamental rights petition challenging the establishment of the High Security Zone (HSZ) in parts of Trincomalee district and the subsequent prohibition on entering and residing there.

In its petition, the CPA contended that Article 12 and Article 14 of the Constitution had been violated. Article 12 states that all citizens are equal before the law and ensures that no citizen shall be discriminated against on grounds specified in the Constitution and Article 14 provides for the freedom of movement and the right to choose one’s residence.

The HSZ was established by regulations issued by President Mahinda Rajapaksa under the Emergency Regulations (Section 5 of the Public Security Ordinance) published in the Gazette on May 30. The areas covered are Muttur East and Sampoor in the Trincomalee district. These include some areas wrested by the security forces from the LTTE control in August/September last year.

The Gazette specifies that no person shall enter or remain in the area unless written authority is obtained by the Competent Authority, Major General Parakrama Pannipitiya, who is cited as a respondent.

The petition said the land covered in the HSZ also came under the Trincomalee Special Economic Zone (SEZ) as notified in October 2006. The petitioners contended that though commercial activity is allowed within the SEZ, thereby enabling commercial enterprises to enter and remain in the area, the HSZ prohibits civilians from entering and residing in their lands.

Incidentally on the occasion of Independence Day on February 4, Mr. Rajapaksa announced that National Thermal Power Corporation (NTPC) is to set up a 500 mw power project in Sampur. However, the Indian side maintains that there is no agreement yet on the site of the proposed plant.

The NTPC had signed an MoU in December 2006 with the Government and the Ceylon Electricity Board for setting up of the power project in Trincomalee district. In January, a team from NTPC inspected four sites it had earmarked for the power project but deferred a decision on the exact location.

Many of the internally displaced persons (IDPs) from Trincomalee district were displaced to Batticaloa district in 2006. Since March 2007, there have been several efforts by the Government to return the IDPs to their land in Trincomalee. The exception has been Sampur and Muttur East.

The CPA petition maintained that many of the civilians owning land that fall in the HSZ are Tamil citizens and argued that the establishment of the HSZ and the recent directives by high ranking Government officials of the Defence establishment aimed at changing the ethnic demographics in the North and East and certain parts of Colombo.

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