Scheme afoot to Sinhalicise part of Mullaiththeevu district

[TamilNet, Wednesday, 07 July 2010, 09:36 GMT]
The leader of Tamil National Liberation Alliance (TNLF) and former MP Sivajilingam said in a press meet Tuesday in Jaffna that Sri Lanka government has built 5,000 houses for families of Sri Lanka Army (SLA) soldiers on the east of A9 road between Maangku’lam and Mu’ruka’ndi with the aim to Sinhalicise Mullaththeevu district reducing the numerical strength of Tamil population. Sivajilingam accused the government for being a ‘dog in the manger’ as it refuses local and foreign volunteer organizations to assist the resettled uprooted civilians in Vanni who suffer without even food and drinking water. Government’s ‘Resettlement’ is nothing but taking the uprooted civilians from the camps in trucks and unloading them in places without any basic facilities, Sivajilingam further said.

The TNLF leader said that their team had met several people in Vanni who had been left uncared for by government authorities in the name of resettlement and that 80 percent of them were women who had lost their husbands and males of the family either killed in the war or arrested and taken away.

“Recently SLA Northern Commander had told the visiting Buddhist priests in Vanni that 12,000 families of SLA soldiers will be settled in Maruthangku’lam area in the first stage and 5,000 houses have been constructed for them.

The Commander had also told that lands and assistance will be given to the Sinhalese families to engage in cultivation of paddy and vegetables.

Nearly a hundred thousand uprooted Vanni civilians are left abandoned to suffer while the government is spending millions of rupees to colonize Mullaiththeevu district with Sinhalese,” Sivajilingam said.

Sivajilingam, however, said that no one form outside is allowed to see the colonization complex that is being constructed in Maruthangku’lam.