Sinhala Army builds Buddhist temple in front of church in Valveddiththu’rai

[TamilNet, Saturday, 15 October 2011, 05:37 GMT]
The virtually Sinhala Army of Sri Lanka that occupies the country of Eezham Tamils, is building a new Buddhist temple at Valveddiththu’rai Junction, in front of the historic St. Sebastian Church. Valveddiththu’rai, the birthplace of the LTTE leader Pirapaharan, never had any Buddhists, except the occupying Sinhala Army. The act is a naked show of Sri Lanka’s jubilation over the genocide of Eezham Tamils, mocking at those who talk about ‘post-war reconciliation,’ civil activists in Jaffna said. Meanwhile, former TNA parliamentarian MK Sivajilingam on Friday has appealed to the Vatican to take immediate ecclesiastical and diplomatic action to stop the military’s Buddhist construction as it seriously hurts the feelings of the Tamil Catholics of the town. Similar acts of the SL Army are also reported from Mannaar, a major Tamil Catholic city.

Mr. Sivajilingam said that he would discuss the Valveddiththu’rai matter with the Bishop of Jaffna, Thomas Saundaranayagam.

Sri Lanka’s Archdiocese and the Sinhala Archbishops in Colombo were always more conscious of their Sinhaleseness than their Catholicism and hence the Vatican in the past was largely hooked to genocidal Colombo against the national question of Eezham Tamils.

The Eezham Tamil Catholics have long been asking for their own Archdiocese.

The Wikileaks documents show that the Sinhala Archbishop and the head of Sri Lanka’s Anglican Church were virtually conning the US embassy in Colombo on ‘changed attitude’ of the Sinhalese in favour of ‘reconciliation’, basically to protect the regime of Rajapaksa and the genocidal State of Sri Lanka.

* * *

Knowing the weakness of the US and India that the orientation of their past approaches, resulting guilt and geopolitical entanglements would prevent them from acknowledging genocide of Tamils in the island, Mahinda Rajapaksa has accelerated a process so that there will be ‘perpetual genocide’ and no political solution other than conceding to Sinhalicisation could be possible for anyone in future.

Sri Lanka has long back reached a point where nothing could be done without international intervention upholding the right to self-determination of nations in the island, but by sitting on acknowledging it the US and India bring in perpetual turmoil to the island, political observers in Jaffna said.

In such a scenario, if any political party in the island or organisation in the diaspora is under the deception that either a piecemeal solution or interim arrangement coming from Colombo could give a respite to Eezham Tamils, it makes a suicidal mistake, the political observers said, pointing to the confirmed genocidal attitude of Colombo.

If Tamils demand on any procedural matters such as lifting the emergency, grease devils or registration of persons and lands, and if there is international pressure, Colombo may withdraw one, but will come out with ten new issues worse than the earlier, to make Eezham Tamils madder and madder with perpetual rage at the helplessness, the observers further said, pointing to the need of Tamil polity’s determined stand with the international community on the fundamentals of liberation.

If the present political lot among Tamils thinks that they are simply incapable of going beyond their subordinations to Establishments, they should at least announce it publicly and totally stop engaging with the political deceit of the Establishments coming from Colombo, New Delhi and Washington, was the opinion of some veteran Tamil political activists in the island.

The sentiment even reflects in the opinion of the ordinary folk among the Eezham Tamils as well.

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Captured from the LTTE in 1995, the coastal town of Valveddiththu’rai in the Jaffna Peninsula is occupied by the Sinhala Army for the last 16 years. The Army occupies many of the houses in the town and most of the houses along the shore. It refuses to hand over them to the owners.

Not leaving even the foundation, Pirapaharan’s parental home at Valveddiththu’rai was recently razed down by the genocidal Army.

The Valveddiththu’rai Junction, where the new Buddhist temple is being built is close to the coast and to the enclave of the Army-occupied houses.

Already a Buddha statue was placed under a banyan tree in the junction from where highways towards Jaffna city and KKS harbour deviate. The main military camp and SL police station are located in that place.

It has now become a common practice to place a Buddha statue under every Bo tree and banyan tree in the country of Eezham Tamils occupied by the Sinhala Army.

Presently the SL Army is planning a big statue of Buddha and a large temple in the locality of the Banyan tree at the Valveddiththu’rai Junction, obscuring the historic St. Sebastian church in front of it.

The occupying Sinhala military in recent times particularly targeting coastal towns of Catholic fisher folk such as Naavaanthu’rai, Kurunakar, Maathakal and now Valveddiththu’rai in Jaffna and Pa’l’limunai in Mannaar, has deeper reasons, political observers in Jaffna further said.

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