2ND LEAD

Sinhala settlers in Jaffna rob rain-affected Tamils

[TamilNet, Sunday, 05 December 2010, 09:57 GMT]
Tamil families who had to temporarily leave their houses in low lying resettlement lands in Naavatkuzhi and returned back have found their properties robbed by settlers of a newly established Sinhala colony. According to latest reports, the number of families in the Sinhala colony in Naavatkuzhi has increased to 186 as Colombo was scheming ways to set up more Sinhala settlements in the peninsula. Resettled Tamil families also complain of theft during nights.



The number of uprooted Tamil families resettled in areas other than encroached by the Sinhala in Naavatkuzhi stands at 360.

In the meantime, relief materials for the Sinhala families, including three-wheelers, motor vehicles and electronic equipments have been arriving from the south amid claims by encroachers that they are not provided enough relief by their government and politicians.

On Thursday a group of Buddhist monks from the south brought a consignment of relief materials and handed them to the Sinhala families.

Meanwhile, the encroachers say that their children are still in the south and they would be brought to Jaffna peninsula for their education from the beginning of 2011. They further say that they have requested Sri Lanka's President to re-open Sinhala medium school in the area to educate their children.

Sinhala families have displayed posters welcoming Sri Lanka’s President Mahinda Rajapakse, Defense Minister Gotabhaya Rajapaksa and EPDP leader and Minister Douglas Devananda in their area.



Chronology: