Lands that belong to 183 Tamil families in Thirumu’rika’ndi in Ki’linochchi district have been appropriated by the occupying Sri Lanka Army for a military housing scheme. The Tamil families have filed cases in law courts pleading that they should be allowed to resettle in their own lands in Thirumu’rika’ndi. In the meantime, the SL military intelligence officers visit each family, who reside in Vavuniyaa, and intimidate them to withdraw their cases and to settle at a different place.
The Tamil families have rejected the demand by the SLA to go for settlement in new lands allocated to them at Kokkaavil by the SLA.
117 of the uprooted 183 families live with their friends and relatives and 46 families stay in the so-called welfare centres in Vavuniyaa.
The SL Army says it wants to construct one thousand houses for disabled Sri Lankan soldiers at Thirumu’rika’ndi.
The plan to colonise the ‘conquered’ Vanni by retried Sinhala soldiers and their families has long been hatched, even during the genocidal war, by Sinhala intellectuals close to Jathika Hela Urumaya (JHU), the chauvinistic Sinhala Buddhist party.
Writing in Sunday Times on January 18, 2009, Dr. Susantha Goonatilake, an engineer turned Sinhala sociologist, close to some JHU ministers said: “This victory should not be lost in the peace. [….] The mono-ethnic nature of the North should be dismantled. [….] ‘Defence Colonies’ defence settlements should be established all over the North. Retired husband and wife ex-employees of the armed forces should be settled in such strategic settlements. Like in mainland China, and earlier in Korea, Armed Forces owned industries should be established in these areas for both defence and civilian production. Our forces should be further strengthened to deter any future attempts.”
Susantha Goonatilake also cited the Indian example of “Defence colonies”, that should be implemented all over the North.
At that time, many considered Dr. Goonatilake, ‘a bit off’ in his thoughts. But, later it turned out that an entire State and an abetting International Community of Establishments were ‘dangerously off’ in their outlook.
So far, neither the IC of Establishments nor India has done anything to stop the structural genocide that goes on in the country of Eezham Tamils.
After the genocidal war, some Norwegian funding agencies and their supporters among Tamils, exerted pressure on diaspora development organisations to go to the island and work under JHU-run NGOs. The Diaspora Tamils rejected it and even Tamils who agreed to work under the programme got disillusioned later.
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