SL Navy refuses to release Hindu cremation ground in Trincomalee

The occupying Sri Lanka Navy has been refusing to release the Hindu cremation ground at Kadatkaraich-cheanai in Moothoor East of Trincomalee district since it occupied the area in 2006. Despite a section of the people were allowed to resettle in Moothoor East, the SL Navy is still holding the cremation grounds causing difficulties for the resettled people to cremate their dead and conduct the funeral rituals, says Eastern Provincial Council opposition member Kumarasamy Nageswaran.

The resettled people staged a protest with a dead body demanding access to their cremation ground at Kadatkaraich-cheanai in 2010. After the protest, the SL military officers said they would grant permission to cremate their dead at the cremation ground. However, the occupying SL Navy had refused to allow the residents access their cremation ground.

More than 700 families of Eezham Tamils from Kadatka’raich-cheanai, Chaalaiyoor, Champuk-kuzhi, Cheanaiyoor, Cheethana-ve’li and Chanthoasa-puram have been using the cremation ground for several decades till the SL military occupied the land in 2006.

The locality is not a so-called High Security Zone and should be handed over to the people, the Tamil councillor says.

The resettled people have to walk a long distance to Kaddai-pa’raichchaan to cremate their dead with funeral rituals.

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