3. (c) Being used to shield military operations or objectives; (d) Being made the object of reprisal; and (e) Being destroyed or appropriated as a form of collective punishment. Property and possession left behind by internally displaced persons should be protected against destruction and arbitrary and illegal appropriation, occupation or use. Legal systems pertaining to property in the conflict-affected areas Different personal laws apply to different communities in Sri Lanka. For example, Tésawalamai applies to the Tamils of the Northern Province, Kandyan Law applies to the Kandyan Sinhalese, and Muslim Law applies to Muslims throughout Sri Lanka. Roman-Dutch Law is the common law of Sri Lanka and applies where the personal laws are silent. Several statutes that touch upon property rights have also been enacted by Parliament and have national application. Statutes such as the Prescription Ordinance, Prevention of Frauds Ordinance, Agrarian Services Act, Paddy Lands Act, Land Development Ordinance, Rent Act, Mortgage Act and Partition Law apply with full force in respect of property rights throughout Sri Lanka. In certain specific areas such as commercial law, English law has been introduced by statute, and is relevant to disputes relating to property subject to mortgage. The intermingling of these different systems of law has, not surprisingly, caused much confusion. As observed by Ivor Jennings and H W Tambiah, “the law of Sri Lanka is embarrassed rather by the richness of its sources than the lack of them”2. The question as to which law applies to the resolution of any particular conflict has taken up valuable judicial time over the years. Roman Dutch Law applies to most of the private property-related disputes we consider in this report. For example, the legal avenue for a displaced person wishing to return to property now occupied by an unauthorised person would be to apply to the civil courts for an eviction order under Roman Dutch Law. In the case of Crown land (largely located in Vavuniya, Batticaloa, Trincomalee, Anuradhapura, Killinochchi and Mannar), property interests are regulated by statute, and the remedies available to a Crown land grantee or permit holder will be determined by the Government Agent with regard to the Land Development Ordinance. Tésawalamai is relevant to a limited number of property-related disputes in the Northern Province of Jaffna, in particular, the issues related to co-ownership and succession. Tésawalamai has both personal and territorial application. It is personal to those who fall under the legal definition of the Malabar inhabitants of the Province of Jaffna, in layman's terms, Tamils resident in the Northern Province of Sri Lanka. Residency is decided by an intention to reside (animus residendi) in the Province of Jaffna (Velupillai Vs. Sivakamipillai3) and would include displaced persons (sometimes even those who have become foreign nationals) who intend to reside in the Province of Jaffna. Tésawalamai also applies to all those who are resident in the Province of Jaffna, irrespective of the community to which the owner belongs. Where Tésawalamai is silent, the common law (Roman Dutch Law) applies. 2 3 The Dominion of Ceylon, London, Stevens, 1952, p184. 13 NLR 74 6