Colombo's propaganda on releasing lands in former HSZ proves futile
[TamilNet, Sunday, 12 April 2015, 21:08 GMT]
After making propaganda announcements naming entire GS divisions as to be released for resettlement in Valikaamam North and Valikaamam East, the Sri Lankan State and its occupying military, once again demonstrated on Saturday that only a small pocket was being released, that too under appalling conditions of militarisation near Chaanthai Junction in Valikaamam North. The people of Thaiyiddi and Mayiliddi who went there to see their lands had to return without gaining access to their lands. The SL military has put up fences around the pockets of lands being released to the public while maintaining the militarisation of the occupied villages with all their military installations being intact, the people of Thaiyiddi said.
The Divisional Secretary was explaining to the people that he was a government employee and that he could not comment anything further than saying that the access road to Chaanthai Junction has been opened. A parliamentarian of the Tamil National Alliance (TNA), who has been virtually aligned with the nominated parliamentarian M.A. Sumanthiran, has admitted the situation for resettlement in the released pockets as “terrible”. “The doorframes have been recently removed from these houses,” TNA parliamentarian S. Sritharan told journalists, standing inside the destroyed house of a doctor. “It is terrible to see the level of military presence here. The prying eyes of military are everywhere you turn. It is a resettlement surrounded by a military machine. The people have no security to even engage in clearing and preparing their released lands. The situation for resettlement is terrible,” Sritharan told the journalists. “It is obvious that the people have no freedom at all here till the military presence is removed,” he said.
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