Sri Lanka Navy expels resettling Muslims, destroys huts in Musali, Mannaar

[TamilNet, Monday, 03 September 2012, 23:31 GMT]
The occupying Sri Lanka Navy (SLN) personnel in uniform and civil clothes, numbering around 70, went amok on the temporary settlement of Muslims at Maraikkaar village in Musali division setting fire to 15 huts and smashing another 10 huts Monday evening around 7:00 p.m., residents said. The SL Navy has ‘warned’ the civilians, who had resettled there in 2010, to vacate the area, the sources further said. In the meantime, a Catholic school that started to function on Monday at Mu'l'likku'lam was also vacated by the SL Navy.

The SL Navy, which has militarised the division it captured from the Tigers, has been very reluctant in allowing the people to resettle in their own villages.

The occupying navy of Sri Lanka has built up a large cantonment with its regional command in Mu'l'likku'lam.

The resettling Muslims have put up around 150 temporary huts. Plans were also afoot to construct 40 permanent houses there, the Muslim people said.

Meanwhile, Mu'l'likku'lam Roman Catholic Government School, which was re-opened on Monday after five years with 21 students and three teachers was also interrupted by the SL Navy. Claiming that the area ‘belonged’ to them, the SL Navy said the area belonged to them and ordered the teachers and students to vacate the school building.

The administration of the school said it had informed the Zonal Education office and the SL military bases well in advance of the reopening of the school.

SL Minister operates armed gang causing ethnic tension in Mannaar

[TamilNet, Saturday, 14 July 2012, 12:01 GMT]
A Muslim gang, carrying guns, stormed the fishing village of Koanthaip-piddi in Mannaar Town division on Friday and destroyed 23 fishing huts and two fiberglass boats with axes, causing ethnic tension between Tami Catholics and Muslims. Rishard Badurdeen, a politician from Mannaar, who has become SL minister of Industry & Commerce in Mahinda Rajapaksa’s cabinet after defecting the Sri Lanka Muslim Congress (SLMC), is alleged of inciting ethnic violence in Mannaar attempting to woo Muslim voters in favour of Rajapaksa's ruling SLFP.

About 800 of 3,200 fisher families, most of them Catholics, who had displaced from Vidaththal-theevu village in 1999 following a military operation by the occupying Sri Lankan forces, sought refuge and later settled down in ‘Joseph Vaas Nakar’ village in Mannaar DS division.

A fisheries jetty was constructed at Koanthaip-piddi to facilitate the livelihood of the Catholic fishermen settled in Joseph Vaas village.

In the meantime, Muslims, who were evicted by the LTTE in 1990 and who have begun to resettle in recent years, have been claiming that the jetty of Koanthaip-piddi belonged to Muslims, who lived in Uppuk-ku'lam.

The dispute was being resolved through civil sources at the divisional and district level.

According to a decision taken at a conference held on 26 June 2012 by the civil officials, new lands were allocated at 2nd Mile Post along Mannaar main road for the 800 fisher families from Vidaththal-theevu.

But, the newly allocated lands were already subjected to a legal dispute. An interim injunction order restricting settlement was issued on 29 June.

As a result, the Catholic fisher families were deprived from residing in Joseph Vaas Nakar and also in the new land located along Mannaar main road as the said land is in legal dispute.

The fisher families, undergoing hardship to earn for their day to day survival, resumed their usual fishing activities using the jetty at Koanthaip-piddi as earlier.

It is at this juncture, the armed gang, allegedly operated by the SL minister Rishard Badurdeen triggered a section of Muslims, numbering around 300, who concluded Jumma Prayer on Friday noon to walk with them to threaten the Catholic fishermen.

The latest episode of deploying armed Muslim gang and inciting violence is reported while the SL minister was staying in Mannaar.

Rishard Badurdeen, engaged in land grab and exploitation, has also gone on record threatening Rt. Rev. Dr. Rayappu Joseph, the Catholic Bishop of Mannaar, in a public address in the Sri Lankan Parliament.

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SL minister Badurdeen diverts Indian aid to his supporters in Mannaar

இந்திய நாடகத்தில் தரும் நிதியுதவியும் ஈழத்தமிழர்களுக்கு அல்ல!

 

SL minister Badurdeen diverts Indian aid to his supporters in Mannaar

 

[TamilNet, Saturday, 23 June 2012, 23:29 GMT]

Sri Lankan minister of Industries and Trade, Rishard Badurdeen, a politician behind many controversies in Mannaar, has recently instructed the civil officials in Mannaar to divert the humanitarian aid from India, intended to war-affected fishermen in Mannaar, to his supporters in the district, according to reports from Mannaar fisheries sector sources. Mr Badurdeen has given a new list of 175 names as beneficiaries of the aid. The list prepared by Badurdeen includes only names of 12 Tamils, who are his supporters. Names of genuine fishermen are not included in his list.

A consignment of fishing boats, each worth about 600,000 rupees, fishing nets and outboard motor engines with 15 horsepower, which have been donated by India to be distributed among 200 fishermen in Mannaar.

About two hundred beneficiaries are recommended by more than forty Fisheries Co-operative Societies in the district and approved by the Indian High Commission in Colombo as beneficiaries of the aid.

However, these materials are stored in the office of the Musali DS office and District Fisheries Department office.

The SL minister functions as the top most colonial agent in Mannaar in implementing its colonial strategy of divide and rule, which had been stalemated by the Eezham Tamils armed struggle throughout the past three decades.

Recently, Rishard Badurdeen issued veiled threats, during a speech in SL parliament, against Rt. Rev. Dr. Rayappu Joseph, the Catholic Bishop of Mannaar, evoking strong protests from Catholics as well as Muslims in the district to humanitarian activists around the globe.

Badurdeen, who broke away from the Sri Lanka Muslim Congress and joined the SLFP of Mahinda Rajapaksa, is behind creating ethnic tensions by disturbing the resettlement pattern not only in Mannaar, but also in the entire Vanni region, cooperating with the military governor of colonial Colombo in North, Maj Gen (retd) GA Chandrasiri, according to civil officials.

Several tractors from a consignment donated by the Government of India last year to farmers in Ki'linochchi and Mullaith-theevu had been diverted to Sinhala farmers in the Anuradhapura District.

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US Ambassador meets Mannaar Bishop

[TamilNet, Thursday, 14 June 2012, 10:28 GMT]
The United States Ambassador to Sri Lanka, Patricia Butenis, Wednesday, during an official visit to Mannaar, paid a courtesy call to Rt. Reverend Rayappu Joseph, Bishop of Mannaar Diocese, and talked to him for more than three hours on the current situation faced by Tamils in the NorthEast, sources close to the Bishop said.

Rt. Reverend Rayappu Joseph was summoned last month to the notorious Colombo’s Fourth Floor of the Criminal Investigation Unit by the Terrorist Investigation Department and was grilled by the TID officials over the evidence the Bishop gave to the Lessons Learnt and Reconciliation Commission (LLRC) in regard to civilian massacres, human rights violation and other atrocities committed in past.

National and International NGOs and Civil society organizations fearing threat to Mannaar Bishop's life appealed to the Government of Sri Lanka and Vatican to ensure security to the Bishop.

The US envoy, who arrived by a helicopter, met Bishop Rayappu Joseph in the hostile climate faced by the Bishop who was threatened recently by a Minister based in Mannaar and holding an important position in the Mahinda Rajapakse Government.