No Muslim families displaced by Navy deployment-MoD

18 April 2014 11:51 am Views - 5858

The Defence & Urban Development Ministry and the Sri Lanka Navy today strongly denied allegations published in the media that the Muslim families who had encroached into the Willpattu National Park were those displaced as a result of naval deployments in the area.

In a statement Army Spokesman Ruwan Wanigasooriya said the Naval Deployment in Mullikkulam and Marichchikaddu had displaced only one Muslim family and that family was not among those seeking resettlement within the sanctuary.

“The Sri Lanka Navy together with civil authorities had made arrangements to provide alternate land to this family in Marichchikaddu. No other Muslim family has ever approached the Sri Lanka Navy claiming displacement resulting from deployments in the area,” the statement said.

However, according to reports published in the media quoting political sources that, "The Muslim families who put up temporary shelters within the sanctuary but outside the border of the Willpattu National Park had gone there on their own after being evicted from their lands by the Navy, which has since occupied the area is false and totally baseless.”

Brigadier Wanigasuriya said the families who sought shelter within the sanctuary of the Willpattu National Park were not displaced due to any naval deployment in the area as alleged in the reports published on April 18.

“It is hoped that the civil authorities would endeavour to solve this problem without dragging in the security forces that are committed to safeguard the national security interests of our Motherland,” he said.

Meanwhile Minister Rishad Bathiudeen at a news conference on Thursday claimed that the housing issue of 300,000 displaced Muslims in the North-Western Province was because of the Sri Lanka Navy occupying their traditional lands and the government having failed to provide alternative lands for resettlement.