Buddhist Stupa to become ‘cultural landmark’ of Jaffna harbour

[TamilNet, Thursday, 05 April 2012, 21:30 GMT]
A massive Buddhist Stupa that is being constructed at the Beach Road of Jaffna harbour by the occupying Sinhala military will be the new ‘cultural landmark’ of Jaffna city for vessels coming towards its harbour. The Stupa with pre-fabricated parts and statues, brought from the South, is being built day and night by the Sinhala soldiers. The Stupa is built in the locality of a Saivite Amman temple, between Jaffna Fort and Kurunakar, known as Aluppaanthi, meaning the wharf of the harbour. Many more Buddhist Stupas are hurriedly constructed by the SL military and one of them with extensive residential facilities is going to be just in front of the Jaffna Railway Station. During the liberation war, colonial Sri Lanka constructed a huge Buddha statue overlooking Trincomalee to give a Sinhala Buddhist cultural image to the world-renowned harbour of Eezham Tamils in the East.

There is no difference between what the European colonialists did after their military conquests and what the Sri Lanka's Sinhala military is doing now in the country of Eezham Tamils, commented civil officials in Jaffna.

In the meantime, Sinhala Buddhist Colombo has set its ‘agents’ to engage in a menacing ‘development’ campaign that people in the Jaffna peninsula need ‘cosmopolitanism’ and Tamil lands in the North and East need demographic changes for ‘development’.

The Stupa that is being built in Jaffna harbour is located in an area of predominant Tamil Catholic population. There is not even an iota of Sinhala presence in that area other than the occupying Sinhala military. While Tamil people uprooted from that part during the war are still not allowed to resettle, occupying Colombo has reclaimed land in the adjacent sea to build this new Stupa.

Hundreds of SLA soldiers were engaged in the work since Wednesday evening. The entire area has been lit up during the night to enable to soldiers to work during the nights, said Tamil National Alliance (TNA) politician A. Paranchothy, who is an opposition member of the Jaffna Municipal Council.

Sinhala Buddhist clergy to man the new Buddhist Stupas being built, have already arrived in Jaffna, informed sources said.

Already it has been noticed that building Buddhist Stupas in strategic locations along the main highways and in other places have become the most important job assignment of the occupying Sinhala Army in Vanni and in other parts of the North and East.

Jaffna city already has an extensive Buddhist establishment at the Naga Vihara, built in 1950s in the heart of the Jaffna city.

While genocidal Sri Lanka reverts back to medieval times, in what way the international system is able to deliver justice to Eezham Tamils facing structural genocide enacted through a new military model set by the Sinhala Buddhist Sri Lanka, ask social activists in Jaffna.

Colombo's rule of the Tamil country cannot be tolerated any more. India and the international community cannot pretend of not knowing the realities, they further said.