3RD LEAD

SLA active in grabbing strategic lands in North

[TamilNet, Tuesday, 23 November 2010, 14:54 GMT]
Sri Lanka Army (SLA) authorities in Ki’linochchi have threatened 18 Tamil families in Irathinapuram where they were each given 5 acres of land to live in 1994 by Sri Lanka government for which they have the documents proving ownership. SLA now claims that a Sinhala school had been located in the said area and therefore the land belongs to the government. SLA further says that it wants the land to be used as cattle grazing ground, the families said. Similarly, SLA officials in the Achchuveali camp have claimed areas in Puththoor and Vaatharavaththai in Valikaamam East saying that a Sinhala school called Panjaseeva and a Buddhist temple had been functioning in the said area. A military establishment and Sinhala colony at strategic Vaatharavaththai will check free movement of Tamils among the sectors of Valikaamam, Vadamaraadchi and Thenmaraadchi regions of the Jaffna peninsula.



The officials have also put up notices in some of the above lands identified as government property informing that they had been reserved for SLA use, local residents said.

Sri Lanka government is using SLA to grab lands in the North with the view of colonizing them with Buddhist Sinhala families, civil society circles in Jaffna said.

The eighteen Tamil families in Irathinapuram find themselves in a desperate situation being threatened by SLA to vacate their lands where they had owned and lived since 1994.

Meanwhile, SLA men are attempting to remove a Vairavar Temple erected by the Saiva people in Puththoor and Vaatharavaththai areas.

Heavy vehicles are being used day and night to clear the lands in Puththoor and Vaatharavaththai areas claimed by the SLA as government lands, local residents said.

A few months ago, a Sinhala sociologist, Dr Susantha Goonatilake visited Puththoor andn told the local people that the village had been Sinhala-Buddhist in the historical past. Dr. Goonatilake is closely connected to some Sinhala ministers of Colombo. During the war he expressed opinion that military families should be settled in the ‘conquered’ land. Many Sinhalese consider him insane in his views, but those are ones chosen by Colombo for implementation.