KAMALIKA PIERIS

This essay looks at the main element in Muslim expansion in Sri Lanka, the takeover of land. This is a systematic, calculated take over, and it has been going on for a long time. The money comes from Saudi Arabia. This land grab is part of the silent process of taking over Sri Lanka for Islam.

In the mid 1970s, I had a conversation with a fellow passenger on a train. He told me ‘Some one must look at what is going in the villages.  A Muslim comes in, starts a shop, gives items on credit and when the villager cannot pay, takes his land. This is happening all over,’ he concluded.

Ratanapala’ writing in 2017 confirms this. He says, ‘Even 30 years ago in some areas it was only the village temple that was left after Muslim encroachment.   Today I believe after the demise of the temple priest the temple land too is in their hands, he said.

In the urban sector, Muslim brokers openly accost house owners and offer to buy their houses at prices which are way above the local selling price. A relative told me that, ten years ago, she had received an unsolicited offer of Rs   60 million, for a modest house which she had no intention of selling. We have all had the experience, in Colombo, of Muslims driving in and offering to buy the very house we are living in. They offer exorbitant prices and they are very persistent.  Two days after the Easter Sunday bomb blasts, a friend who lives close by was asked whether she would sell her house. 

There is a brazen takeover of public land as well. In the area in which I live, a Muslim travel company cordoned off the area in front of it’s newly built office. They took in the whole pavement, which was 14 feet wide and a CEB transformer as well. No one challenged this, until the UDA came to re-pave the pavement. They kicked aside the cordon and returned the pavement to the public. In Nugegoda, Muslims tried to take over a whole chunk of the town. Residents found that Enderamulla had become a part of adjoining ‘Akbar Town’. 

There is blatant abuse of the   law. The owner of a piece of land in the suburbs of Colombo sold it because urban laws said he could not go up three storeys in that area.  He later found that under the new owner, a Muslim, a three storey building was coming up. 

In Kandy, I was shown a house newly built by a   Muslim, where the area marked off as road reservation was also built on.  In Colombo, storm water drains are built over by Muslim house owners, regardless of protests by the neighbours. Muslim officers in the municipality give the approval.

Some of the anti Muslim scuffles going on today are definitely related to land. There was a clash recently at Pothupitiya, a coastal village, near Negombo.  This was linked to two unauthorized structures, a beach restaurant and a mini mart, owned by Muslims. These had been built illegally on Coast Conservation Department land with the support of a local Muslim politician. The minimart was owned by his nephew. (Sunday Times 12.5.19 p 10)

Muslims are taking over in the Eastern Province too, particularly in the Batticaloa district.  Muslims are pushing Tamils out of the Eastern Province by taking over the lands owned by them. Researchers declared that Muslims in the east are engaging in questionable land acquisition”. They are buying paddy land from absentee Tamil owners. They are buying up Tamil owned businesses.  There is also the ‘creeping spread of Muslim villages into Tamil villages’, they added.

Muslims have created exclusive Muslim settlements in the Eastern province. These are set in strategic locations, by the sea. Kattankudy is the best example.  Some settlements   encroach into conservation areas such as the forests, estuaries, and waterways flowing to the sea. The bogus deeds were prepared by Muslims working in the kachcheri or District office administering the area, said critics. 

Derana television news of 4.1.2018 featured a settlement in Thillaiyadi, Puttalam, for 1000 houses. It had been established by Rishard Badiurdeen with funds from UAE.  The settlement was named after a member of UAE’s Supreme Council. There is   ‘Ashraf Nagar’ in Ampara close to Deegavapi temple. 500 houses were built with funding from the Middle East, to house 89 Moslem families who had been displaced by the 2004 tsunami, said observers.

A very comprehensive account of the Muslim land grab has been given by “Ratanapala” (pseud) writing to Lankaweb in May 2017. Here it is.

Ratanapala says that Col Gaddafi, who came here to attend the1976 Non Aligned Nations Conference in Colombo, gave a radio interview to the local Muslims. (See Radio Ceylon Transcripts of 1976) In the course to the interview Kaddafi had asked them about their population strength. He gave them the following advice and guide lines: To increase their population from what was around 7% at that time. To buy land alongside major roads – Economic arteries that emanate from major economic centres. To construct mosques so that the call to prayer ( Azan) can be heard from the next mosque.

It is in this background and context we have to understand how far the Muslims have come since 1976. Population has increased from around 5% to now near 10%.  This increase is facilitated by funding for such practices from the Middle East.  Increase in numbers has also brought about a new militancy in challenging the indigenous Buddhist Culture, Buddhism and the Sinhalese, observed Ratanapala.

As for the purchase of land, they have over achieved what Col Gaddafi wanted them to realize. One only has to go along the major road arteries that emanate from Colombo or other major cities to understand this creepy crawly encroachment – on either side of these roads to find out who owns these trading establishments.

One has to look at what is happening to the suburbs of Colombo – all prime land is being bought over by Muslims to make a clean sweep of Colombo and her environs. Then it goes to other areas down the southern coast line – Wadduwa, Kalutara, Beruwala Aluthgama. In Colombo and its environs, as it is in a multiplicity of other major cities towns and suburbs, Sinhalese are replaced at an ever increasing pace as more and more land – real estate is passing hands from Sinhalese to Muslim for rupees which only has a transient value,  continued Ratanapala.

Now that Muslims have cornered the inner-city, gradually they are moving onto city outskirts in a deliberate and methodical way displacing Sinhalese street by street by street! They follow the law of the land where it is convenient and find all the loop holes to creep through to buy land quite legally – that is under the current laws which are quite unfavorable to the Sinhalese.

Currently areas around Dehiwala, Galkissa – Mt Lavinia, Kalubowila are under intense attack; other areas around Colombo too are similarly attacked the difference is only in the degree.  A friend of mine who recently returned from Sri Lanka having visited his wife’s house in Waidya Road, Mt Lavinia mentioned to me that this street is unrecognizable from what it was 20 years before and now almost entirely Muslim, said Ratanapala.

Large contingents of Maldivian Muslims seem to prefer this area.  People have reported seeing foreigners in Islamic attire being ‘very busy’ at all time of the day in these areas – purchase of land and building of mosques are going a pace.

Another friend of mine who is living abroad and has his parental house in Dickmans Road, is having a court case with a Muslim man in the adjoining land, who claims a half of his parapet wall as belonging to him. This is a classic case of a Bedum Naduwa where the weaker party gets overwhelmed, as  owners of this – property  living abroad cannot participate in lengthy court proceedings. Eventually frustrated owners will sell the land to the Muslim who will go on to ‘offer’ a ‘good’ price for the land and property, said Ratanapala.

 Elsewhere in the country they are buying up land in all economic centers as well as cornering all businesses under their control. Today they control most of wholesale economy and what the Sinhala trader does is just the drip of what they can get out of retail trade – outcome of which is very much determined at a higher level by the wholesaler.

 Movement of Muslim enterprises to purchase prime land in economic zones is going a pace. Many a little shop in Colombo as well as in other major cities and towns with Sinhala sounding name boards in front are in fact owned and operated by Muslim enterprises.

In Kandy, Muslims have ‘ring circled’ the Temple of the Tooth – Dalada Maligawa with clever purchasing of land from unpatriotic Buddhist Priests and other landowners.  A mosque built on land leased out by the Temple is now getting ready to rival the very pinnacle of Buddhist faith in Sri Lanka.  Ring circling of Buddhist places of worship is now happening all over Sri Lanka. Kuragala, Dambulla, Kekirawa, Matale, Polonnaruwa, Mawanella –  to name only a few.  At Kuragala they are extending the territory by burying their dead in the adjoining government lands – another ploy they use to capture land, observed Ratanapala.

All this is happening in a majority Buddhist country where the minorities are making inroads to erase our history and our relationship to our past in the North and East. Already in the East, Buddhist places of worship are being desecrated and Buddhist land occupied while a hapless government is looking askance. Mosques are mushrooming all over the island, apparently there is a mosque for every 50 Muslim families in the island. In total they now outnumber all the Buddhist Temples and Hindu Kovils.

In the West, Wilpattu wild life sanctuary is already being bulldozed, making land for Muslims settlements. How many of these are illegal immigrants, the government has no clue,  concluded  Ratanapala.

Environmentalist are concerned about the  Muslim encroachment at Wilpattu National Park. Wilpattu is a valuable pristine forest within the villu eco-system . Environmentalists firmly oppose any human settlements within Wilpattu. Wilpattu was thick forest from 1984-2011. There was not a single settlement. Satellite pictures   and Survey Department maps  indicate    this.   In 2010, human settlements   started in Wilpattu.  The activity was  re-started in 2013. Aerial photos taken in 2006 and 2015 show the increase in settlements. They show that around 2500 acres have been cleared in the last 9 years.

Environmental  organizations such as Wilpattu Surakimu and National Sangha Council compiled a report on Wilpattu in 2015.  The report says settlement started in 2010, it took place in Wilpattu North and Kallaru forest reserve. About 50 acres of Wilpattu North sanctuary and 2500 acres of Kallaru forest reserve have been destroyed and people settled there.  

In 2015 Centre for Environmental Justice (CEJ)  filed  petition saying that 2000 hectares of  the forest complex adjoining Wilpattu national part northern sanctuary and Marichhukkaddi/karaddikkuli reserved forest  west ward of Wilpattu block UU and IV, has been cleared, divided into plots, paved road and unauthorized settlements established, making irreparable damage to the environment.

 Approximately  1000 hectares of forest in Madu, Periyamadu and Sannara  area which is part of the forest complex . Madu road sanctuary  and Madu road reserve forest has similarly been destroyed to make way for settlement. 1500 families have been illegally settled  in these areas. Approximate 50 acres in the northern sanctuary of Wilpattu, have also been cleared.  Permanent and temporary houses and other structures have been erected,  and roads constructed, said the petition.

 The petition alleged that Minister Bathiudeen was behind the venture. The petitioner  has information that the Minister of Industry and Commerce Rishard Bathiudeen had been involved in mobilizing the deforestation of these forest reserves and establishing settlements under the pretext of the resettlement of Internally Displaced People (IDPs),   CEJ said.

There was also a News 1^st” expose on television on 28.6.15 showing that deforestation was taking place. The destruction caused, could be seen by air. The carnage that has befallen on this reserve took a new turn in 2013 with the intervention of Minister Bathiudeen,  said News First.  1080 acres in the Mannar District belonging to the Department of Wildlife had been released on  February 14, 2013  to resettle  displaced persons. The  President of Sri Lanka , when informed, had  ordered  the deforestation stopped. But when News First” went there, in 2015, they  found that deforestation of Kallaru forest area was continuing.  News First” correspondent was accosted by  an organized group.

In 2017, Rukshan Jayawardene   publicly drew attention to the fact that the Wilpattu forest is being pushed back using bulldozers, backhoes, chain saws and other heavy machinery. In many areas you can see the remaining forest as a wall where the clearing ends containing trees perhaps a century or more in age. Thousands of hectares have been cleared of forest cover. These forests contain valuable hardwoods such as Ceylon ebony, calamander, satin wood and last but not least red and white sandalwood. Where is that timber now, Rukshan asked.

A new road  travels like an arrow through the heart of Wilpattu, five kms from the park, said Rukshan. New houses, new towns, road networks, power and communication towers are all being established. There is creeping expansion into the wilderness of the park. The Park boundary is quietly shifted. These lands, formerly forest reserves, have been fraudulently obtained .  Meanwhile, some of the old settlements such as Mullikulum are deliberately neglected and allowed to remain overgrown, concluded Rukshan.

In 2018, Derana television featured a protest led by Ven. Pahiyangala Ananda on the encroachment at Wilpattu. Ven Ananda accused the officials of the Department of Wildlife Conservation of doing nothing to stop the matter. Environmentalists charge that Minister Rishard Bathiudeen is the person  responsible for  settling Muslims in Wilpattu.  More than 2500 acres of land in the buffer zone of Wilpattu had been destroyed and  Minister Bathiudeen was settling Muslims there, said  environmentalists.

Minister Rishard Bathiudeen has cleared a large stretch of thick forest land between Marichikaddi and Kallaru River, to create new Muslim settlements, they said. A vast area approximately 2,000 hectares in the forest adjoining the Wilpattu National Park , at the Northern sanctuary of the Wilpattu National Park and Maraichukkaddi / Karadikkuli Reserved Forest,  west ward of Wilpattu blocks II and IV,  had been cleared, divided into plots, provided with  paved roads and an unauthorized settlement established .

Approximately 1,000 hectares of forest land in Madu, Periyamadu and Sannara area which is part of the forest (Madu Road Sanctuary and Madu Road Reserved Forests) has  been destroyed for settlements. Around 1,500 families have been illegally settled in the cleared area belonging to the Maraichukkaddi /Karadikkuli forest reserve and in the forest complex of Madu Road Reserve and Madu Road Sanctuary ,  said environmentalists.  Bathiudeen  has also cleared 50 acres belonging to Forest Conservation Department in Wilpattu north. 2500 acres in Kallaru have   been cleared  and a further area around  800 acres is being cleared  . Kallaru forest  though not considered a part of Wilpattu, comes under the Forest Conservation Ordinance of the Forest Department. And, therefore, any encroachment in this forest is illegal and  a punishable offence, said environmentalists.

Environmentalists are definite that these settlements at Wilpattu are recent ones. They were totally new settlements and not resettlements, they said. Bathiudeen’s statement that Muslims have come back to a settlement which was there in 1990, has been firmly rejected. . There were no villages before this in the now- cleared Kallaru area.  Kallaru is an illegal housing project  ,on encroached crown land in a conservation area.

Rishard’s strategy  is to first build some concrete or cemented houses in unauthorized state or private land, and hurriedly resettle people of his choice. These illegal settlements are thereafter made legal.

 At Kallaru, Bathiudeen has   used another strategy. From Marichikaddi to Kallaru, on either side of the nearly five kilometer main road, he has built hundreds of houses with very long spaces between them, only for Muslims, said observers.  There are paved roads and permanent houses already in place, with  further road extension and house construction underway.

One settlement has been named Hunais Farook City, after his  one-time political ally,  Hunais Farook. Another settlement of 179 houses has been named  Jassim City’. There is a board saying  funds were provided by Sheikh Jassim Bin Jabor Al-Thani Charitable Foundation  of Qatar.  Most of the houses in these  settlements are unoccupied.  Muslims living elsewhere appear at Wilpattu when necessary.  

Rishard’s land-grabbing campaigns  are going on unchecked  in Mannar and Vanni, too,  said critics. Some of  his illegal settlements are located between Silawathurai and Nanattan in Musali, and between Tharapuram and Thalvupadu in Mannar. Many new colonies have also mushroomed in state lands between Murunkan and Silawathurai. An illegal resettlement scheme is built opposite  the Doric Fort between Silawathurai and Arippu. A lot of state land along Mannar- Talaimannar road, is encroached and illegally owned by his relatives and party supporters, they said..

On   24 March 2017 President Maithripala Sirisena signed a gazette notification declaring 100,000 acres of lands adjacent to Wilpattu National Park  as conservation forest” , with immediate effect,  thereby stopping people with political backing clearing more areas in the forest. The gazette notification gives wide powers to the Forest Department’s five forest reserves – Mavillu, Wepal, Karadikkuli/Marichchakatti, Wilaththikulam and Periyamurippu . These have now been gazetted as ‘Mavillu Conservation forests’ and have the highest protection under the Act. National Environment Act, probably.  Hereafter, Presidential and Parliamentary approval will be needed to acquire or clear  the  land.  Entry will be restricted and entrance would only allowed for educational or research purposes. There is no information as to what will happen to the illegal  Bathiudeen settlements. (Continued)