New Delhi, Colombo, jointly ‘cherish’ IPKF memory at Palaali SMZ

[TamilNet, Saturday, 23 February 2013, 22:13 GMT]
New Delhi Establishment’s envoy in Colombo, Ashok K. Kantha, accompanied by his wife Mrs. Sharmila Kantha paid tribute at the newly ‘rediscovered’ IPKF memorial at Palaali in the Sinhala Military Zone (SMZ) on Saturday. Joining the couple in cherishing the legacy of the IPKF was Colombo’s occupying Sinhala military commander in Jaffna, Maj. Gen Mahinda Hathurusinghe, senior officers of the SL military, New Delhi’s Defence Advisor at the Colombo High Commission and the Establishment’s Consul General in Jaffna. New Delhi already has a memorial built for the war-crimes-accused IPKF at Colombo. New Delhi’s current gesture of rediscovering another memorial at Palaali along with the occupying genocidal Sinhala military signals negatively when there is demand for international investigation of war crimes in the island.

New sources in Jaffna say that the memorial was ‘discovered’ along the border of the Sinhala Military Zone (SMZ). The low resolution photos released by the Indian consulate are not clear on the background of the locality. Something screens the background. [Photo: Consulate General of India, Jaffna]

“A long-forgotten memorial of Indian soldiers inside the Palaly High Security Zone has been re-discovered,” reported The Hindu known for its pro-Colombo and anti Eezham Tamil stand on Saturday, adding, “as in the case with forgotten historical structures, the discovery was an accident.”

The IPKF ‘memorial’ at Palaali, consisting of 7 structures, remembers 33 ‘martyrs’ of the Indian elite special forces of the 10 Para Regiment. A company of the Regiment suffered casualties while it was heli-landing to raid the LTTE headquarters on October 12, 1987, The Hindu further reported.

The Hindu’s ‘historical concern’ found elucidation in the speech of genocidal Sri Lanka’s Commander, Hathurusinghe, at Palaali on Saturday, when he said that the LTTE committed a ‘war crime’ in shooting the parachute troops while they had not landed and were still descending.

Hathurusinghe's ‘new discovery’ of LTTE war crimes against the IPKF set the intent of Saturday's event, news sources in Jaffna reporting his speech, told TamilNet.

While The Hindu was reporting on the ‘High Security Zone’, Hathurusinghe speaking to media in Jaffna on Saturday denied the existence of the HSZ. He said that out of the 11,284 acres of land, 5,282 acres had been handed back to people and another 6,000 would be handed over soon in different stages. His claim was that most of the land is the property of the State in Colombo and therefore there was no question of occupation.

A permanent Sinhala Military Zone (SMZ) has already been created around Palaali, replacing the so-called HSZ, is the observation of news sources in Jaffna.

New Delhi’s envoy Ashok K. Kantha is currently engaged in fulfilling many of the programmes of genocidal Colombo in the territory of Eezham Tamils, news sources in Jaffna said.

While sections of news circles in India indicate that there is a favourable response in the New Delhi Establishment in promoting cases of war crimes investigations against Colombo, such as what the Channel 4 is currently engaged in, another section of political observers citing the actual activities of New Delhi say that that the aim is to get only strategic land in the island at the cost of justice to Eezham Tamils.

The political observers refuted views that the New Delhi-The Hindu mission is merely to pass the blame of war crimes on the LTTE to diffuse the current public sentiments in India, especially in Tamil Nadu.

New Delhi’s direct war crimes in 1987-89, complicity in war crimes in 2006-2009 and continued abetment of structural genocide of Eezham Tamils are yet to be investigated internationally.

According to the observers, the whole thing of promoting the war crimes awareness against Colombo on one hand but simultaneous deal with genocidal military of Colombo on the other hand is engineered to gain New Delhi’s interests in the island either in competition or in ‘strategic partnership’ with Washington.

The political parties, civil movements and above all the public in Tamil Nadu should not be carried away by the machinations making them deviating from achieving fundamental justice to the question of Eezham Tamils, the observers said.

The peoples movements in Tamil Nadu and elsewhere in India have to guard themselves against deceptions, the observers further said.

• Press Release from the Consulate General of India, Jaffna

[Photo: Consulate General of India, Jaffna]

[Photo: Consulate General of India, Jaffna]

[Photo: Consulate General of India, Jaffna]

[Photo: Consulate General of India, Jaffna]

[Photo: Consulate General of India, Jaffna]

External Links:

The Hindu:

Forgotten IPKF memorial rediscovered in Palaly

Yaazh(Jaffna) HSZ becomes SMZ 4 videos

2ND LEAD (Adds video)

SL commander admits converting HSZ into permanent Sinhala Military Zone (SMZ)

[TamilNet, Tuesday, 12 February 2013, 07:04 GMT]
Sri Lanka’s military commander occupying Jaffna, Maj. Gen. Mahinda Hathurusinghe, on Monday openly admitted to media in Jaffna that the so-called High Security Zone of Valikaamam on the Northern coast of Jaffna Peninsula, occupied and displaced of its Tamil inhabitants in the guise of High Security Zone (HSZ) two decades ago, will now be converted into a permanent Sri Lanka/ Sinhala Military Zone (SMZ). Meanwhile, genocidal Sri Lanka’s President Mahinda Rajapaksa, visiting Jaffna on Monday, has opened a ‘tourist resort’ of the SL Navy at Mayiliddi in the said SMZ. The major fishing port of Eezham Tamils at Mayiliddi will cease to exist hereafter and the occupying Sinhala military has undertaken cultivation of onions using spring irrigation in the traditional horticultural lands of Eezham Tamils in the SMZ that has been created.



Speaking to media at the ‘Civil Coordinating Office’ of the genocidal SL military occupying Jaffna, and ‘officially’ admitting the conversion of Jaffna HSZ into SMZ, Hathururusinghe compared the appropriation of lands to the creation of old Ratmalana airport at Colombo and the Katunayake zone near Colombo, where Sri Lanka’s Air Force Base, International Airport and an international corporate industrial zone are now located.

An ‘official’ notification would follow and people who lost properties would be compensated, the announcement ironically came from the occupying military commander, while such announcements have to come from the parliament in the island after a debate and voting, if the Eezham Tamils and their lands are actually part of the jurisdiction of that parliament and if that parliament means anything to Eezham Tamils, Tamil political circles questioned.

Even in such a case Sri Lanka’s parliament and the Sinhala military are the same, but the current SL military modus operandi clearly demonstrates the Rajapaksa regime and the military superseding the parliament and becoming extra-constitutional when it comes to Tamil matters. If the USA and India in complicity actually don’t have any direct hands in what is going on, what qualms do they have in taking measures extra-constitutional against the militarized and genocidal State in the island, asked the Tamil political circles.

The SL Commander comparing the KKS-Palaali complex with Rantmalana and Katunayake didn’t compare the differences between the Sinhala nation’s regime in Colombo creating a zone in its territory with the silent assent of its people and the regime creating a zone in the occupied territory of another’s nation amidst militarized intimidation and colonisation.

The Royal Air Force of the British colonial empire created the airfields at Palaali, Ratmalana Katunayake, China Bay (Trincomalee) and at several other places more or less at the same time. The major bases were at Katunayake and Trincomalee, which the British wanted to retain even after the so-called independence in 1948, but they were asked to quit by SWRD Bandaranayake regime in 1956.

Mrs. Bandaranayake’s regime built the international airport at Katunayake and Jayawardane’s regime brought in the Free Trade Zone there by appropriating more lands with the assent of people, as they were not involved with the question of one nation annihilating another.

What does Hathurusinghe mean in comparing the Jaffna SMZ to Ratmalana and Katunayake? Does he mean the British colonialism and think that his military is its successor, asked new generation political activists in Jaffna.

Meanwhile, a yoghurt factory run by the SL military was recently opened at Maathakal where it has set another military enclave. A military tourist resort in Sinhala name, Del Sewana, was opened at KKS some time back. Two more tourist hotels for the SL soldiers and their families to relax were also opened in this January inside the SMZ. The star tourist resort that was opened by Rajapaksa on Monday was in the same lines.

What is introduced and experimented by the Sinhala military or through the Sinhala military by the powers in complicity is a very unique model of structural genocide, similar to the ‘genocide without witnesses’ they demonstrated on Eezham Tamils in the Vanni War.

This is Cantonment Corporatism by converting an ethnic military into Lascarin military, commented new generation political activists in Jaffna.

Meanwhile, Mayiliddi, the only fishing harbour in the northern coast that had facilities for long-stay fishing in the seas is not going to belong to Tamils anymore. With the open declaration of the Sinhala military on the creation of SMZ and Mayiliddi coming under it, the Mayiliddi fishermen are now asked to move to Tho’ndaimaanaa’ru, which according to the fishermen is not as suitable as the Mayiliddi coast.

Besides, Mayiliddi and its two landing points, Veeramaa’nikkath-theavan-thu’rai and Periya-naadduth-theavan-thu’rai are traditionally prestigious settlements of the chieftains of the coastal folk as the names indicate.

Selvarasa Pathmanathan, alias KP, who while in the captivity of Colombo called for the diaspora to collaborate with the Rajapaksa regime, comes from Mayiliddi. With nostalgic feelings he recently took pictures of him in front of Mahajana College, Thellippazhai, where he had studied. He should better take pictures of Mayiliddi before it is lost forever to him and to Tamils, commented a villager displaced from Mayiliddi.

Chronology:

12.02.13  SL commander admits converting HSZ into permanent ..

11.02.13  SL military demolishes Hundreds of Tamil houses in..

08.02.13  Poonakari becomes another major hub of Sinhala mil..

03.02.13  Colombo converts Jaffna ‘HSZ’ into zone of Sinhala..

14.01.13  Sinhala military opens ‘holiday resorts’ in occupi..

30.07.12  SLA restricts access to temples, churches in Jaffn..

15.07.12  SLA appropriates more lands for militarisation of ..

14.07.12  SL military grabs more lands in Maathakal

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11.02.13 23:47  
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