‘Grease devil’ scare, confrontations trigger displacement from Vavuniyaa villages

[TamilNet, Monday, 22 August 2011, 01:22 GMT]
Following reports of attempted violent attacks targeting Tamil-speaking women and robberies by armed Sinhala personnel, allegedly belonging to Sri Lankan police and military, the Tamil and Muslim people in the remote villages with dispersed settlements in Vavuniyaa district have displaced in large numbers and sought asylum in buildings in densely populated areas. Tamil residents from the Poovarasang-ku'lam and Muslim residents from Pampaimadu have confronted Sinhalese men belonging to ‘home guards’ and the Sri Lankan Police personnel who have attempted to rescue the captured intruders from the protesting villagers.

There have been widespread reports of attempted sexual attacks and robberies in the remote villages. Villagers have caught groups of armed men, speaking in Sinhala, while they attempted to sexually abuse or rob the houses that are dispersed with farmlands.

On Sunday, when a group of Sinhala intruders attempted to enter a house at Pampaimadu, Muslim villagers who were on alert, chased the intruders and captured them. The captured group admitted that they were ‘home guards’ operated by the Sri Lankan military and the police.

Known as ‘home guards’ in Sinhala Tamil border areas, the personnel of Sri Lanka Civil Defence Force, act as the protection unit of the Sinhala colonisation.

The Sri Lank Civil Defence Force comes directly under Sri Lanka Defence Ministry and is recognised by the Sri Lankan state as an official supplementary force supporting and assisting the SL Army, Navy, Air Force and the SL Police.

Following the capture, the Sri Lankan Police had come and rescued the Sinhala ‘home guards’ from the hands of the protesting Muslim villagers.

Tension prevailed in the remote villages during the nights in the weekend. People from dispersedly populated areas were seen displacing, especially during the nights, to Vavuniyaa suburbs or to densely populated areas.

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