SLA constructs military cantonment in lands of Eezham Tamils in Ampaa'rai

[TamilNet, Tuesday, 07 August 2012, 22:02 GMT]
The occupying Sri Lanka Army in Ampaa'rai district is constructing a military cantonment in the land of sixty acres extent at Ka'napathipuram, situated in Chammaanthu'rai DS division of Ampaa'rai district. The lands belong to 350 Tamil families from the lower echelons of the society, who remain uprooted for 22 years now, according to Tamil civil officials in the district.

In 1990, the Sinhala police installed sentry points in the area after chasing out the Tamil families.

Muslim paramilitary men, who were known as ‘homeguards’ at that time, were deployed by the SL military to evict the Tamil families.

Later, pro-government Muslim politicians appropriated the lands under the guise that these lands were needed for the construction of a university.

Now, the preliminary work for the construction of the SL military cantonment has begun at the same lands, civil officials in Ampaa'rai said.

There is already another SLA camp at Ko'ndaiveddavaan, 4 km away from Ka'napathipuram.

In the meantime, Muslim politicians aligned with the Rajapaksa regime are also attempting to appropriate the lands of Tamils in Puthiya Va'laththaap-piddi village, located in Chammaanthu'rai DS division.

The Colombo government has been ignoring a request made by Tamils to create a separate DS division for Malvaththai area, comprising 18 other DS divisions with more than 7,000 Tamil voters.

But, a ‘Sinhala Only’ DS division was set up for the Sinhalese of I'rakkaamam area with fewer number of people than that of Malvaththai area, civil sources further said.