500 acres லேபிளுடன் இடுகைகளைக் காண்பிக்கிறது. அனைத்து இடுகைகளையும் காண்பி

ஞாயிறு, 15 செப்டம்பர், 2013

Genocidal Sinhala Buddhists appropriate 500 acres

Genocidal Sinhala Buddhists appropriate 500 acres at North-East border

[TamilNet, Sunday, 15 September 2013, 09:53 GMT]
Under the so-called Buddha Pooja Boomi project, the Colombo government has decided to appropriate about five hundred acres of land in Chuvaami-malai area in the traditional Tamil village of Thennaimaravadi, north of Trincomalee district, informed sources in Trincomalee said. Of the five hundred acres, four hundred acres are to be allocated for the construction of a Buddha Vihara and one hundred acres to the Department of Archaeology. Interestingly, this brand of Buddhism finds patronage from both the Congress as well as the BJP of New Delhi. In the meantime, one of the ‘Singapore principles’ proposed by the South African ‘initiative’ is to provide foremost place to Buddhism, informed circles said.

Note the location of Thennai-maravadi in the interior and Pulmoaddai in the coast along the border of the Northern and Eastern provinces. [Satellite Image Courtesy - Google Earth. Legend by TamilNet]

Sri Lankan government surveyors have been assigned to survey these lands under the auspices of the Kuchchaveli Divisional Secretariat, according to government officials.

The occupying Colombo has already appropriated several acres of lands at Arisi-malai and Naaka-malai in the traditional Muslim village of Pulmoaddai despite the opposition made by the Eastern Provincial Councilor M.R.Anwer, Kuchchaveli Piradesa Sabai Vice Chairman Mohamed Thowfeek and the Ulama council.

The action of the Colombo government to set up a Buddha Vihara in a land where the Muslims have been traditionally living claiming that it is a ‘holy land’, has triggered widespread protests among the general public.

Muslims say that Colombo government has been involved in seizing about 1,500 acres of land in Pulmoaddai under Kuchchave'li secretariat spread over 60 villages.

When officials came to survey the lands on 09 September, they faced stiff resistance from the public and Ulama members following which they were forced to stop the land surveying.

Consequently, the land survey office has lodged complaint in Pulmoaddai police station against five members of Ulama council claiming that they have caused interruption in the work of government officials.

The arrested members were later released on bail.

* * *

The following example cited in a recent ICES publication, ‘History’ after the war: Historical Consciousness in the Collective Sinhala Buddhist Psyche in Post-War Sri Lanka, written by Nirmal Ranjith Dewasiri, illustrates how the mindset is being cultivated by the SL State among the Sinhala-Buddhists in the island:

“Following the end of the war there was a sudden glut of Sinhala-Buddhist North-bound tourists. A similar trend was visible during the cessation of hostilities between the LTTE and Sri Lankan armed forces under the Norway brokered agreement in 2002. The political and ideological significance of the phenomenon after May 2009 is, however, more pronounced. The implications of this phenomenon are pithily encapsulated in a Sinhala caption on a sticker displayed on Jaffna-bound SLTB (Sri Lanka Transport Board) buses, which reads: “This is the Realm of Gauthama Buddha” (mey gauthama buddha rajjayayi).

“Pasting small stickers with this, or other similar, captions on cars, three-wheeler taxis and entrances to houses became a popular practice among Sinhala-Buddhists in the last decade or so. This could be read as a popular manifestation of the ‘Buddhist revival’ that became a significant feature of the politics and ideology of the Sinhala-Buddhist South. The appearance of a ‘mega-version’ of this sticker on the Jaffna-bound state-owned buses, however, is a peculiar phenomenon and it is important to note some features of this mega sticker: a large picture of a smiling President Mahinda Rajapaksa and red and blue shapes with a lotus; all being symbols of the propaganda campaign of the United People’s Freedom Alliance.”

ICES publication on ‘History’ after the war by Nirmal Ranjith Dewasiri

புதன், 4 செப்டம்பர், 2013

Sinhala contractor scoops 500 acres of prehistoric gravel in Mannaar

[TamilNet, Tuesday, 03 September 2013, 04:36 GMT]
While a section of 400 Tamil families, who had sought refuge in Tamil Nadu 23 years ago in 1990 from Parappuk-kadanthaan village in Maanthai West in Mannaar, are trying to come back to their village, 1,500 acres of their lands have been appropriated with the backing of an SL minister and 500 acres of these lands have been illegally sold to a Sinhala trader from South, who has been scooping gravel deposits in the village. The gravel deposits are part of a geological feature called Ira'nai-madu formation that bears crucial evidence for prehistoric human habitation in the island. As such gravel deposits are mostly found on floodplains, scooping the gravel could cause environmental disasters related to drainage, cautioned the local people living with the environment and knowledgeable about the consequences of gravel scooping.

But, the local officials subservient to the occupying SL State are helpless on one hand and self-centered on the other in collaborating with the irresponsible environmental destruction of the country of Eezham Tamils, the local people accused.

Although the Rural Development Society of Parappuk-kadanthaan had managed to block the building projects in the appropriated lands, the Sinhala trader from South had obtained a permit to scoop gravel through exerting pressure on the village (GS) officer.

Following the end of war in 2009, the agents of Colombo have been engaged in large scale scooping of gravel and sand dunes from the country of Eezham Tamils, causing environmental disaster in several parts of the Tamil homeland.

Two weeks ago, a Tamil man, who was confronting a similar exploitation at Kooraay was abducted and later ‘released’. The Sinhala trader had deployed 22 workers from South in sand-removal at Kooraay.

A young Tamil environmentalist, Ketheeswaran Thevarajah, who confronted such exploitation in Ma’nat-kaadu, Kudaththanai, was assassinated on the eve of 2011 New Year in Jaffna.

Large-scale sand scooping has also been reported in Ma’n’nith-thidal, which is a landmass of sand dunes, projecting towards Jaffna, from the Poonakari part of Vanni. Poonakari has become a major hub of Sinhala militarisation and colonisation.

Also in Batticaloa, the SL military has been issuing death threats after severely assaulting the Tamil villagers who protested against the environmental destruction caused by sand scooping at Chanthana-madu river basin in 2011.

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