New Buddhist stupa constructed in Pachchanoor village in Moothoor

[TamilNet, Thursday, 14 June 2012, 10:41 GMT]

A Buddhist Vihara has been constructed in Pachchanoor, a village in Moothoor DS division of Trincomalee district, by the Colombo government and its Sinhala Buddhist clergy with the backing of the occupying Sri Lanka Army under the patronage of the SL presidential sibling and Defence Secretary Gotabhaya Rajapaksa, news sources in Moothoor said.

Pachchanoor, which has traditionally been populated by Tamil speaking people, is situated on Moothoor-Verukal Road, 5 km south of Trincomalee city, near 3rd Mile Post in Pachchanoor, where only six Sinhala families were living before 2009.

After the conclusion of the war, around 110 Sinhala families were brought from the South. They were given lands which had been appropriated from the Tamils by the occupying SL military.

A Sinhala Buddhist school was established in Pachchanoor for Grade-1 children of the settlers.

Preparations are also under way to bring more Sinhala settlers from the South as Colombo was stepping up the Sinhala colonisation schemes in the district with the aim of changing the demographic composition of the district.

The Colombo Establishment has been appropriating lands belonging to Tamil and Muslim communities in several parts of Trincomalee district to create new Sinhala villages. Civil activists in the district complain that many Buddhist Vihares have been set up in recent times under the guise of reconstruction and development.

The Sinhala military has been planting Bo-saplings at several localities in the district throughout the years of its occupation. In the meantime, the SL Defence Secretary has gone on record saying that lands with Bo trees were to be regarded as ‘ancient Buddhist sites’.

Buddhist stupa built in Kokku’laay after brutal attack on Tamil landowner

[TamilNet, Tuesday, 18 October 2011, 08:26 GMT]
An Eezham Tamil landowner in Kokku’laay in Mullaiththeevu district was brutally attacked receiving serious injuries when he refused to part with his land for the construction of a second Buddhist stupa in the locality. He was even chased away from the hospital where he was admitted, after severe warning. Koku’laay lagoon is the focus of Sinhala colonisation presently, as it is the key location for wedging the demographic contiguity of the north and east of the country of Eezham Tamils in the island, as well as direct communication between Mullaiththeevu and Trincomalee. A new Sinhala administrative division ‘Weli-oya’ comprising of Sinhala-Buddhist colonies has started functioning in the region last week and the division is expected to include Kokku’laay to cut off north and east permanently up to the very coastline.

The land confiscated for the construction of Buddhist stupa in Kokku'laay

The Buddhist monk to whom the confiscated land is given for the construction of a stupa

A Buddhist monk has recently come to Kokku’laay to supervise the construction of the Buddhist stupa in the Tamil coastal village. He is functioning with the full support of the occupying Sinhala military.

Three fourth quarter of an acre of land was confiscated by force from an Eezham Tamil landowner of Kokku’laay by the occupying forces and the land has now been given to the Buddhist monk.

The construction of the stupa is coupled with Sinhala fishermen colonising the surroundings of the lagoon rich in marine resources, while the resettled Tamils of the traditional villages are not permitted to go for fishing.

Colonizing Sinhala fishermen have permanent shelters and families living in Kokku'laay

‘Resettled’ Tamils living under trees in Kokku'laay

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