Sinhala goons, monk erect Buddha statue by force at coastal Tamil village in East

[TamilNet, Monday, 11 July 2016, 23:03 GMT]
Tension prevailed at Chaampal-theevu junction, situated 7 km north of Trincomalee city, as Sinhala goons assaulted Eezham Tamil travellers on the coastal road after putting up a Buddha statue where a Hindu Pillayar statue was situated for decades. SL Police was giving protection to the goons who were led by a Buddhist monk. The violent episode took place Monday morning after the villagers had removed a Buddha statue planted by someone a few days ago at the locality after removing Pillayar statue, news sources in Trincomalee said. The villagers had also removed a Bodhi tree that had been planted by the occupying Sinhala navy at the locality. On Monday, SL police was deploying Sinhala goons to ‘demonstrate’ to Eezham Tamils how it was implementing the ‘foremost place to Buddhism’ paragraph of the unitary constitution of genocidal Sri Lanka, commented Tamil activists in Trincomalee.



SL Navy was occupying the coastal locality for a long time and the Sinhalese navy personnel had removed the Hindu elephant-deity that existed at the locality for several decades. At the same time, the Sinhala Navy also planted a Bo tree at the junction.

A month ago, when the SL Navy relocated its military camp situated in the area, it had also taken away the Buddha statue and the residents of the Tamil village were able to peacefully install a new statue of Pillayar deity at the same locality. They didn’t remove the Bo tree.

But, the Pillayar statue disappeared a few days ago and unknown persons had put up a new Buddha statue at the locality.

Wherever a Bo tree is found, a Buddha statue should also be there is the mentality prevailing among the occupying Sinhala military.

After seeing this, a section of Tamils responded with removing the Buddha statue and cutting down the tree.



On Monday, a Buddhist monk was present at the locality with the Sinhala goons to re-install a bigger Buddha statue. Buddhist flags were also flown. SL Police was providing ‘security’ to the Sinhala goons and the gang was assaulting the Tamils traveling on the road.

According to SL Constitution, Buddhism enjoys ‘foremost’ place in the entire island. Although the SL Constitution attempts to project all religions as having equal status, the constitutional provision of ‘foremost place’ and various other arrangements such as the SL police having a special division to protect the Buddhism under the guidance of SL Ministry of Buddha Sasana, have made it a crime if anyone attempts to peacefully dismantle any Buddha statue in the occupied country of Eezham Tamils.



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