Sri Lanka’s indigenous population seek first people’s law
COLOMBO – Sri Lanka’s indigenous people, said to number half a million, have sought a special law to ensure their traditional rights are upheld.
Uruwarige Wannila Aththo, the de facto leader of Sri Lanka’s indigenous people, has told Minister of Justice Wijeyadasa Rajapakse, during a recent meeting, that there was a community of about 500,000 people in the Badulla, Moneragala, Amparai, Batticaloa, and Polonnaruwa districts and that there were impediments to practicing their traditions as there was no clear legal recognition of their social, cultural, civil and political rights.
Pointing out that legal restrictions prevent the Vedda people from following their traditional economic activities in forests and around tanks, he asked the minister for special laws that guarantee their heritage and solve their problems.
Wannila Aththo also told the minister officials were impeding the activities of the indigenous people, as a consequence of which many were leaving their traditional life.
Pointed out the indigenous people were suffering from micro-finance loans, Wannila Aththo noted that various solutions had been promised at different times, but they have not been kept.
He also asked a census on the Vedda people be carried out.
Minister Rajapaksa had said though Canada and Australia had special laws for indigenous people, he did not believe it was required in Sri Lanka. But agreed, a set of regulations would be prepared to protect the rights of the indigenous people.
A committee headed by the Secretary to the Minister of Wildlife and Forest and representatives of the Departments of Wildlife, Irrigation, Attorney General’s Department, and the Mahaweli Authority would look into it, he assured.
Another discussion will be held on December 7, he said,
–economynext.com/ENCL
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