HSZs - from 1951 till today

The pruning of the High Security Zones (HSZs) in the North is something that was expected ever since the wiping out of the LTTE.

So when it was announced yesterday that the troops would be withdrawn from private property which formed part of the HSZs it did not come as a surprise.

However what should not be forgotten is that while the zoning of the areas was done in the 1980s with the rise of the LTTE, the security mechanism, which included camps and deployment of troops in strategic places in the North and the East, was started some 60 years ago.

The bulk of the camps in the North and the East came into being under what was called Operation Monty (Named after Major Montague Jayawickrama) launched in 1951 by the government.

These camps were established taking the issue of ‘internal security’ and the need to counter “external aggression” into consideration.

Among the key purposes of the move was minimizing material and human smuggling which was rampant between Sri Lanka and India at that time.

The first camp to open in the North was one in Mannar soon to be followed by similar establishments in Pooneryn, Palaly, Elephant Pass, Thalladi, Karainagar and Mullaitivu and later in other areas in the Eastern province as well.

While the respective governments increased the deployment of troops over the years, in 1980 with the security situation beginning to deteriorate the J.R. Jayewardene government introduced what was called the ‘Defence Stations Act” to arrest the situation. The purpose of the Act was to “make provisions for the establishment of Boards of Control for the administration and development of areas in or in the vicinity of which defence establishments are situated.”

In short to streamline the administration work of the areas in the vicinity of military establishments.

For some reason a few years after the concept of Defence Stations got off the ground the Act, was suspended.

What led to the amalgamation of camps to form zones was the intensification of the LTTE attacks and the tactics used by the LTTE during the ceasefires to encroach the territory of the Army.

On the other hand there were regular attacks on air force flights and helicopters while landing and taking off from Palaly as the LTTE was using adjoining civilian areas to launch attacks.

Strategic reasons therefore contributed to the urgency to link up the camps by amalgamating them into zones and the acquisition of land was done after due gazette notification.

The rest is history.

The war is over. Still a sovereign state’s security concerns remain.