Colombo brings Sinhala private partnerships to wage structural genocide in Vanni

[TamilNet, Saturday, 07 October 2017, 23:21 GMT]
Occupying Colombo has alienated 600 acres of farm lands in Ki'linochchi district to a private Sinhala trader from South in the name of ‘development’ and bringing ‘investment’ to the north, civil sources in the district said. A Cashew farm is to be established in the lands being alienated through a central ministry in Colombo. The occupying SL military is already running cashew farms in more than 1,500 acres of lands along the A-32 highway. Colombo has started to occupy new lands for Sinhalicisation of the occupied homeland of Eezham Tamils through what it calls Public Private Partnership (PPP) initiatives, the sources further said.

The LTTE started many farms, particularly in Poonakari region, during the times of de-facto Tamil Eelam for the benefit of war-affected and poverty-stricken Tamils.

After the war, occupying Sinhala military seized these farms, including the ones that were started by the SL government before the times of the LTTE.

Former LTTE members were exploited as enslaved workers under the so-called ‘Civil Security Department’. Apart from paying the ‘salaries’ to the enslaved former LTTE member, the Sinhala military has also been controlling the lives of the families, numbering around 10,000.

Even the pre-schools for the children of former Tiger members are being operated by the Sinhala military, which has gone to the extent of introducing ‘uniforms’ with CSD branded Lion insignia to the pre-school children.

Democratically elected Northern Provincial Council has been urging the SL State to hand over the operation of these farms and pre-schools to civil authorities. But, Colombo has been dodging even after giving assurances that the operation would be transferred to civil authorities under the purview of the NPC.

Former SL President Mahinda Rajapaksa's siblings Basil and Gotabhaya Rajapaksa as well as Rajapaksa's son Namal Rajapaksa are also in control of lands they had seized from Tamils in Poonakari after the end of genocidal war in 2009.

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