Sri Lankan appetite to devour Tamil homeland has a long history
In September 2006, demonstrating arrogant disregard to the ceasefire agreement, the Sri Lankan military occupied Sampur that was under LTTE administration, displacing people, destroying property, and killing civilians. A few days ago, the GoSL announced its plan to build a coal powered electricity generating plant in the occupied Sampur with Indian aid.
This pattern of displacing Tamils in Trincomalee and taking over their land has a long history. The methods have changed some what over the years. It started with state sponsored colonization schemes such as the Gal Oya scheme. This state sponsored colonization was acknowledged in the one of the many abrogated pacts between the Tamil and Sinhala representatives, the 1957 Bandaranayaka-Chelvanayagam pact, as follows, “The instrument of colonization should not be used to convert the Northern and Eastern Provinces into Sinhalese majority areas or in any other manner to the detriment of the Tamil-speaking people of these areas”. Since then using violence to displace Tamils and then occupy their areas have been a common practice of the Sri Lankan state. In one incident in the first two weeks of June 1985, in Trincomalee, a total of 150 people were killed and 200 people were abducted. The following villages were all set on fire, Menkamam, Kankuveli, Paddithidal, Palathadichenai, Arippu, Poonahari, Peruveli, Mulampodivaththai, Parathipuram, Lingapuram, Eechchilampatrai, Karunkalmuani, Mavadichenai, Muththichenai and Valaithoddam. In total 1000 houses were set on fire. People from these villages displaced en-mass. The Sampur occupation and land grab is part of this ongoing saga of Sri Lankan appetite for Tamil land. With the eviction of the Tamil people from Sampur and the plan to build an electricity generating plant there the Trincomalee harbour has been made devoid of Tamil population. The result of this long history of land grab, the demography of Trincomalee was dramatically altered.
08 October 2006
|
Europe which has a total population of 800 million is made up of 45 language based nation states. South Asia which has a total population of one billion, (1000 million) is comprised of four states. Who is preventing and therefore benefiting by limiting new nation-states in South Asia?
Print this
Email this
more
