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Veddah man, Eastern Sri Lanka. |
One hundred Wanniyala-Aetto
tribespeople have returned to their land, more than twenty years after
they were evicted. The Wanniyala-Aetto were forced to move to
government resettlement areas when their last forest refuge was turned
into the Maduru Oya National Park in 1983. Park guards have threatened
to take those who have returned to the Park to court in an attempt to
force them out once again.
The Wanniyala-Aetto are the indigenous people of Sri Lanka, and are
thought to have inhabited the island for many millennia, long before
the arrival of the Sinhalese and Tamils. In the 1950s, the government
began to settle thousands of Sinhalese on the tribe's land, bulldozing
their forests and flooding their hunting grounds.
Since the 1983 evictions, the Wanniyala-Aetto have been unable to
practice shifting cultivation, and struggle to grow enough food on the
small plots of land they have been allocated. Hunting and gathering in
the forest is also banned. Some men now have permits to hunt in a small
area of the park, but those without risk fines or imprisonment if
caught hunting. Three hunters, all with permits, have been shot dead by
park guards in recent years.
Please write to the President of Sri Lanka urging his government to
immediately allow all those Wanniyala-Aetto who so wish to return to
their land, to hunt for their own consumption and to gather forest
produce inside the park, without fear of further eviction, harassment
or violence.
His Excellency the President of Sri Lanka
Mr Mahinda Rajapakse
Presidential Office
Colombo 1
Sri Lanka
Fax: +94 112 4333 46
