The UN offers help to resolve North-East land issues

The UN has no practical way or manner to ensure these disputes can be settled to the satisfaction of all parties to the dispute.

OMG! The UN wants to help resolve land issues in the north-east of our country. Wow! sounds like something out of ‘Bob Ripley’s ‘Believe it or Not’. 

Our sister paper the ‘Sunday Times’ quoted UN Resident Co-ordinator Marc-Andre French as saying,a new United Nations programme aims to assist our government in resolving long-standing land-related issues in our country’s war-affected northern and eastern provinces. According to Marc-Andre,  a large number of claims remain unresolved despite it being sixteen long years since the ethnic war  ended.

Why on earth does Marc-Andre believe the UN has expertise in this field? Is the UN Resident Representative  so cut off from reality, that he is unaware of the problem the UN created over 78 years ago when it divided  the then undivided and peaceful state of Palestine?

It then proceeded to resolve land issues arising from the newly created countries.Under the UN division of land (UN Resolution 181), Palestinians -- original residents -- comprising around 66.3% of the total population were allocated proximately 11,500 square kms or 43% of the land.The proposed Jewish state comprising around 33.7%   of the population, received approximately 15,200 square kilometers (about 56% of the land).

The plan also stipulated that Jerusalem would become an internationally administered city, making up the remaining portion of the territory. 

From day one of the UN ‘resolving’ the land rights of Palestinians and the Jewish people, the Jews began attacking the Palestinians, driving them out of their homes and lands. About 750,000 Palestinians – over 80% of the population living in the territory of what became the State of Israel – were expelled or fled from their homes and became refugees in the immediate aftermath of UN involvement in Palestine. 

Eleven Arab towns and cities, and over 500 villages were destroyed or depopulated.Rape of Palestinian women by regular and irregular Israeli military forces have been documented, and more are suspected.  Israelis used psychological warfare tactics to frighten Palestinians into flight.

Today, the land allocated by the UN to Palestine has shrunk to an area of 6,020 square kilometres (2,320 sq miles), because of Israeli occupation of Palestinian lands. The Palestinian Central Bureau of Statistics released a report marking the 76th anniversary of the Nakba (Great Catastrophe),revealing that since 1948, approximately 134,000 Palestinians have been killed by Israel.The UN cannot do anything about it.

Records show that since 7 Oct. 2025, the start of the Israel’s attack on Palestine’s Gaza Strip, at least 35,034 Palestinians have been killed in Gaza, with 14,944 being children and 9,849 women.The bodies of around 7,000 people are yet to be recovered. In the Palestinian West Bank, 492 Palestinians have lost their lives due to attacks by Israeli soldiers and Jewish settlers since 7 October 2025.

With a record such as this, our government needs be extremely cautious to even think of permitting UN officials to involve themselves in helping settle what basically are Sri Lankan problems.  We do not deny there may be, as the UN Residential Representative claims, land disputes which are hanging fire. But we do not need the UN or any other third force sticking their noses into problems of this country.

The UN has no practical way or manner to ensure these disputes can be settled to the satisfaction of all parties to the dispute. We do not want or need to create a 78-year-long dispute such as the UN created in Palestine in our country. 

This time round, we have a government which has been elected by all ethnicities in the country. Unfortunately our NPP-led government has not been unable to find solutions to the hunger that stalks this land. Thousands of our young people are leaving the country. According to the Sri Lanka Bureau of Foreign Employment since January 2025, a total of 144,379 Sri Lankans have migrated seeking employment abroad.

Government has however, succeeded in diverting people’s attention away from their pressing problems via the anti-corruption drive. But, it will only be a matter of time before people turn on the  government if it does not ensure citizens are able to keep the wolf from the door.