SL military, police engineer land disputes between Tamils and Muslims in Trincomalee

[TamilNet, Wednesday, 15 August 2018, 20:48 GMT]
A systematic pattern of SL Police encouraging Tamil-speaking Muslims from Ki'n'niyaa division to seize the lands of Eezham Tamils and the intelligence officers of the occupying SL military instigating Tamil land-owners to act against the Muslim settlers engaged in clearing agricultural lands, owned by Tamils in Mahaweli river delta. A recent dispute went to the extent of a physical clash in Ve'l'lai-ma'na'l area, sources in Trincomalee said. Some of the disputed lands belong to the Tamil farmers from Kaddai-pa'richchcaan, Cheanaiyoor and I'raal-kuzhi in Moothoor division. SL Police in Ki'n'niyaa was backing the Muslim settlers, while Sinhala military intelligence unit from the SLA camp located near Kaddai-pa'richchaan bridge in the northeastern sector of Moothoor division was instigating Tamil owners to confront the Muslims.

In the meantime, a similar clash was also reported Tuesday morning near Paaddaa'li-puram and Naloor, located in the southeastern sector of Moothoor division. The same unit of the SL military intelligence was backing the Tamil villagers to oppose Tamil-speaking Muslims who were clearing the jungle lands to expand their settlements into the Tamil villages.

Civil sources at Trincomalee District Secretariat, when contacted by TamilNet, said that the intelligence wing of the SL military was manipulating the conflict at the absence of Tamil and Muslim politicians addressing the disputes in the remote areas of Trincomalee Gravets and Town division as well as in the divisions of Ki'n'niyaa and Moothoor.

The District Secretariat sources said that the SL Army in Thiriyaay, an ancient coastal hamlet, located north of Trincomalee city in Kuchchave'li division, has been clearing the lands of Tamils by bulldozing the structures and jungles between Kaddaik-kaadduk-ku'lam and Thiriyaay town. The SL Police, when confronted by Tamil land-owners, was trying to strike a compromise with them by proposing equal share between Sinhala settlers and Tamil land-owners.

However, at Thiriyaay hilltop area, which the SL Army, Archaeology Department and Theravada Buddhist monks from South are thoroughly opposed to Tamil landowners claiming their lands, they said.

The occupying Sinhala Navy of genocidal Sri Lanka, which is being groomed by the United States Indo-Pacific Command (USINDOPACOM), has seized vast tracts of coastal lands belonging to Eezham Tamils in Moothoor East.

The SL military, which wants to divert the focus away from such strategic military-to-military collaborations and their consequences, is attempting to engineer communal disharmony between the Tamils and Tamil-speaking Muslims in Trincomalee.

The latest ‘conflict management’ of the SL Army intelligence is similar to ‘gang violence management’ in the North, Eezham Tamil grassroots activists in Trincomalee commented.

It is under these circumstances, the US Department of State has announced on Monday that it wants to provide USD39 million in foreign military financing to the unitary state of genocidal Sri Lanka.

“We look forward to discussing with the government of Sri Lanka how this contribution can support our ‘Bay of Bengal initiative’ and Sri Lanka’s humanitarian assistance and disaster response priorities,” the US Embassy in Colombo said in a statement on Monday.

The proposal is pending congressional approval in the USA.

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