Uprooted Tamils to launch mass struggle against SL military housing deception

வியாழன், 9 மார்ச், 2017

Uprooted Tamils to launch mass struggle against SL military housing deception

[TamilNet, Tuesday, 07 March 2017, 20:50 GMT]
The organizations representing the uprooted people from Valikaamam North in Jaffna, who are all fed up by decades of deceptions by the changing regimes in Colombo that refuse to de-militarize and allow the people to resettle in their fertile villages, have resolved this week to step up their struggle by joint action in the future. Only some of the occupied lands were returned at Keappaa-pulavu and at Puthukkudiyiruppu. The occupying military is undeterred in its project of militarization. The human rights politics in Geneva advanced primarily by Obama’s USA bandwagon had completely neglected Tamil demands. While deploying Tamil victims and activists at side-events, the discourse targeting regime change through appeasing the genocidal State of Sri Lanka, has only contributed to accelerated militarization of Tamil homeland.

Continous protest in Ki'linochchi

Continuous protests are being waged by self-mobilized uprooted people and the families of victims subjected to enforced disappearances at Ki’linochchi, Mullaiththeevu and Vavuniyaa.

SL President Maithiripala Sirisena who visited Jaffna on Saturday was visibly annoyed by the trend of protests and told his national list parliamentarian Angajan Ramanathan to tell the protesters to go and protest in Geneva if they had no trust in him. Even Mavai Senathirajah was now taking a ‘different’ approach, Sirisena said while citing Sumanthiran as an example for collaborative politics with Colombo. His visit was aimed at boosting the SL military and advocating collaboration for Tamil politicians.

Recently, the occupying military of genocidal Sri Lanka created a housing scheme in Kaangkeasanthu’rai (KKS) to dump a section of the people who were born in IDP camps and had no paper to document their traditional land rights. The housing scheme was called ‘Amaithi-puram’. The deceptive move was targeted to create similar pockets of housing schemes and sustain the militarization of the villages of the uprooted people in Valikaamam North.

But, 130 families who were deceived into accept the Sinhala military-constructed ‘housing scheme’ in the cement factory quarry lands in KKS, have now started to move out of their houses one by one due to the high level of militarization prevailing there and due to the lack of livelihood.

Continous protest at Keappaa-pulavu

People of Keappaa-pulavu in Mullaiththeevu district were also dumped at a so-called ‘model village’ by the SL military while their fertile lands were seized by the occupying SL Army and Air Force.

Uprooted families from Pulak-kudiyiruppu in Keappaa-pulavu have gained 48 acres of their lands back after waging a continuous struggle for one month in February. More than 128 families, demanding their 486 acres of lands are still continuing their protest along the road in front of Keappaa-pulavu SL Air Force base. The protesting families also demand demilitarization.

The people of Valikaamam North, living for three decades in more than 34 ‘welfare’ camps and several thousand residing outside the camps, are going to mobilize against the continued militarization of their villages. They are also considering to protest against India that has been assisting the SL military with the reconstruction of KKS Harbour and the runway of militarized airport in Palaali.

In the meantime, Asian Development Bank, World Bank, UNDP and other NGOs working according to external agenda are also abetting the military-conceived plans of pocketing uprooted Tamils in Valikaamam North while preserving the military zone under the so-called ‘development’ assistance.

Mr S. Balasubramaniam, who represents the common forum of uprooted Valikaamam North people told TamilNet that all the organizations have joined hands with the demand of demilitarization and return of original lands.

In the meantime, SL military in Palaali is trying to deceive the uprooted people with another military housing of 400 houses with the aim of enslaving uprooted Tamils into pockets of slums.

The same military is engaged in destroying the houses and trees in the lands even few days before releasing the lands. The scorched-earth policy is applied even today, 8 years after the end of war as the SL military is perceiving the uprooted people waging struggle as their enemies. This scorched-earth policy is recently evidenced in Keappaa-pulavu and in Puthuk-kudiyiruppu a few days ago, where some of the lands have been released.

The occupying military is also trying to set sections of people against each other by selectively releasing pockets of lands.

The continuous protests being waged by the families of enforced disappeared in Ki’linochchi for 16th day and in Vavuniyaa for 12th day are also mobilizing the people and students. The escalating protests have sparked political mobilization among the younger generation, activists in Trincomalee said. Activists and families of missing persons are on a continuous struggle for 3rd day in Trincomalee.

The families of Keapppa-pulavu continue their struggle after one tenth of occupied lands were released 7 days ago. SL military deployed large number of police commandos and threatened the protesters with violent reaction if they continued to block the road towards the SL military base in Keappaa-pulavu. The people who were blocking the road on 04th and 05th March now continue their protest along the side of the road.