Occupying SLA hoodwinks resettlement of uprooted people in Champoor, Trincomalee

[TamilNet, Monday, 08 July 2013, 14:55 GMT]
The occupying Sri Lanka Army and the Trincomalee district Government Agent, who is also a retired Major General in the army, have been spreading false information via media regarding the resettlement of uprooted Tamil villagers from Champoor area in Trincomalee. Uprooted people are not resettled in their original villages in Champoor area. Some selected displaced who preferred to move out of the IDP camps due to personnel reasons are settled in alternative sites that are not fit for habitation, according to reports emerging from the area.

53 families accepted resettlement at Seethana-ve'li area which was offered by the army as an alternate site, amid several shortcomings including water and other essential services. They preferred Seethana-ve'li because it is close to Santhoasha-puram, one of the villages they were living while being evacuated due to war. They were given 20 perches land per head and a small house. Only two wells are in the village for drinking purposes.

Acute malnutrition and hunger still prevail among uprooted Champoor families now staying in ‘welfare centres’ that are located at Kaddai-pa'richchaan, Ma'nat-cheanai, Ki'liveddi and Paddiththidal in the Moothoor East.

About 4,036 members of 263 families from Champoor uprooted six years ago due to SL military operation launched in 2006 are staying in these camps as the government had refused to allow them to resettle in their own villages in Champoor area. According to reports by civil groups that the stoppage of distribution of dry ration relief under the World Food Programme for the last six months has led to the tragic situation in welfare camps.

Male members staying in the camps go for daily manual work for their earning and sometimes they go for small scale fishing. But the income derived from these sources is not enough for their survival, according to a report of by a non-governmental organization.

The entire village of Champoor has been grabbed by Colombo in complicity with New Delhi for demographic changes in the country of Eezham Tamils and for structural genocidal purposes, according to Tamil sources.

In June, an Indian corporate, Gateway Industries signed a 4 billion dollar direct foreign investment deal with genocidal Colombo to create a special industrial zone for heavy industries in Trincomalee in the land grabbed earlier for the High Security Zone by the Sinhala military.

Residents of Champoor, in the Trincomalee District have filed a Fundamental Rights (FR) petition in the Supreme Court on 15 June 2012, challenging the demarcation of a Special Zone for Heavy Industries (SZHI) through Gazette Extraordinary No. 1758/26 issued on 17 May 2012, Colombo media reports said. 640 acres including residential plots belong to 208 families have been appropriated for the proposed construction of Coal Power Plant and about 818 acres have been appropriated under a Special Gazette Notification under the Special Economic Development Project. Ancestral lands belong to 774 families have been brought under the high security zone.

Eastern province under flood, uprooted people of Champoor suffer

[TamilNet, Thursday, 20 December 2012, 23:44 GMT]
In the fourteen divisional secretariat divisions in the Batticaloa district more than one hundred and fifty thousand people had been rendered homeless following heavy rain with winds at high speed for the last few days. They have sought asylum in public buildings but the Colombo government has been showing indifferent attitude in providing immediate relief through its regional and divisional officials, complain affected people. In Trincomalee district four temporary welfare centers at Ki'liveddi, Paddith-thidal, Ma'nat-cheanai and Kaddaip-pa'richchaan where more than two thousand uprooted people from Champoor are residing are submerged in flood water due to the heavy rain for a week.

The entire belongings of the uprooted people of Champoor are damaged in flood water and they find no place to cook their meals.

There are no potable water and no toilet facilities as all latrines and wells in these temporary shelters are submerged in flood water.

No medical facilities are provided to them as the medical officers were unable to visit these welfare centres as the areas are surrounded with flood water.

The normal life in the three districts in East, Batticaloa, Trincomalee and Ampaa'rai has been disturbed since Sunday due to the outbreak of heavy rain.

Villages that come under the Divisional Secretariat divisions of Koa'ralaip-pattu North, Koralaip-pattu, Ea'raavoor Chengkaladi, Koa'ralaip-pattu South, Kaththaankudi, Ma'nmunaip-pattu, Theruvilpattu, Paddippazhai and Periya Poaratheevup-pattu in the Batticaloa district are under flood water.

Following four feet flood entering into the village Chiththaa'ndi in Ea'raavoor-pattu Chengkaladi DS division, all inhabitants in the village have been shifted to Chiththaa'ndi MMV school.

The Colombo government has not shown any interest in providing urgent relief assistance such as cooked meals and good drinking water to the flood victims to them as they could not move out for the last three days due to the bad weather from their homes in Vellaave'li DS division.

Vanthaa'rumoolai, Aiyangkea'ni, Tha'lavaay, Ea'raavoor, Kommathu'rai, Mu'rakkoaddaagn-cheanai, Thevapuram and Koppaave'li, Eerak-ku'lam, Periya-vedduvaan, Poalak-kaadu, Pe'nduka'l-cheanai, Ilukku, Chanthive'li, and Kiraan in Paduvaankarai area and villages Mayilavedduvaan, Veappavedduvaan along Badulla road have also been affected due to heavy rain and flood.

Batticaloa Disaster Management Unit said 154 villages had been affected by rain and flood.

135,464 persons from34,753 families were rendered homeless up to now 154 houses had been completely damaged and 607 houses partially damaged and those displaced had been had been sheltered in 17 temporary sheds.

In the same time low lying areas in Ampaa'rai district have been affected by flood and several roads are under flood water and the transport services had been suspended.

More than ten thousand people in twenty GS divisions that come under Naavithanve'li DS division have been badly affected by the flood.

Mini cyclone has hit around 17 houses in Cho'rikal-munai area.

The main road near Kiddaangki Bridge is under four feet of flood water.

Transport between Batticaloa and Vaazhaich-cheanai and Batticaloa-Colombo have been affected due to rain flood.

Floods caused by torrential rains in the island have affected over 180,000 persons, in eleven districts.

According to the figures issued by the Disaster Management Centre (DMC), 180,054 persons of 46,627 families have been affected while the death toll has risen to twenty.

Thirty-four persons have been injured in flood related accidents. The worst affected districts were Hambantota, Matale, Kandy, Nuwara Eliya, Polonnaruwa, Badulla, Moneragala, Batticaloa, Kurunegala, Puththa'lam and Kegalle.

SL Disaster Management Ministry said that the 14 people had gone missing in several flood affected districts.