Army Returns Less Than 7 Acres in Keppapilavu While Families Wait for 170 Acres Still Under Military Occupation

The Sri Lankan Army has handed over just 6.97 acres of land in Keppapilavu, a village in the Mullaitivu district, even as approximately 170 acres remain under military occupation — leaving dozens of displaced Tamil families still unable to return to their ancestral homes.

A Fraction of What Was Promised

The latest land release, while welcomed in principle, has done little to ease the frustration of residents who have spent years campaigning for the full restoration of their properties. For many families in Keppapilavu, the handover of fewer than seven acres represents only a symbolic gesture against the backdrop of a far larger tract of land that continues to be held by the military.

The village of Keppapilavu became a focal point of the post-war land rights struggle in Sri Lanka's North, with residents — many of them war-displaced Tamils — staging prolonged protests demanding that the Army vacate lands it has occupied since the end of the civil conflict in 2009.

Decades of Displacement

Families from Keppapilavu have argued that military occupation of their agricultural and residential lands has denied them their livelihoods and their right to return home. Despite successive governments pledging to address land occupation in the Northern Province, progress has remained painfully slow.

The roughly 170 acres still held by the Army include land on which families once built their homes and cultivated their fields. Community members and Tamil civil society groups have repeatedly called on the government to expedite the full release of these lands without further delay.

Broader Context of Northern Land Issues

Keppapilavu is not an isolated case. Across the Northern and Eastern provinces, significant extents of private and community land remain under the control of the Sri Lankan security forces, a legacy of the decades-long armed conflict. Land release has become one of the most sensitive and politically charged aspects of post-war reconciliation in the country.

Tamil political parties and human rights organisations have consistently pressed the government to establish a clear and time-bound plan for returning all occupied civilian lands, arguing that genuine reconciliation cannot move forward while displaced communities are kept from their homes.

As of now, no official timeline has been announced for the release of the remaining 170 acres in Keppapilavu, leaving affected families in continued uncertainty over when — or whether — they will be permitted to fully reclaim what is rightfully theirs.