‘Sinhala Gammana’ colony gets expanded in Ko'ndaichchi, Mannaar

[TamilNet, Friday, 02 March 2018, 13:17 GMT]
The Forest Department of genocidal Sri Lanka is silently expanding the so-called ‘Sinhala Gammana’ colony in the traditional Tamil village of Ko'ndaichchi in the Musali division of Mannaar district. The majority of the colonisers are Sinhala Army, Navy and Civil Defence Force paramilitary personnel in addition to the Sinhala workers of SL State-owned cashew corporation. Construction workers from South who were deployed by the occupying SL military and Rajapaksa regime for the post-war infrastructure and militarisation of North were settled there by the occupying Sinhala military.

Each Sinhala settler family in Ko'ndaichchi has received half an acre (80 perches) of lands.

The SL Forest Department, which grabs the lands of Eezham Tamils and chases Tamils and Muslims away even from collecting dead wood to be used as firewood, is allocating more lands for Sinhala colonisers in Ko'ndaichchi Sinhala Gammana and is having its office there, Tamil-speaking civil officials in Mannaar said.

80 families have been settled so far in the Sinhala Gammana at Ko'ndaichchi.

Most of the settlers have come from Gampaha district in the Western Province, followed by Anuradhapura and Polonnaruwa in the bordering North Central Province. Some have also come from Kegalle district in the Sabragamuwa province.

The colonisation has gone to the extent of naming the village as an exclusive ‘Sinhala village’ and nominating their Rural Development Society leader as a candidate in the recent civic elections. The candidate was canvassing in support of former SL President Mahinda Rajapaksa. A Buddhist monk had come from South to promote him among the Sinhala voters.

In the meantime, 50 Sinhala Catholic fisher families from Negombo have settled in the neighbouring Chilaavaththu'rai village, located north of Ko'ndaichchi village. The colonisers in Chilaavaththu'rai have received 20 perches of lands per family. Now, they are getting a second plot in the Sinhala Gammana colony in Ko'ndaichchi.

Ko'ndaichchi, which is well-known for cashew plantation, has been targeted for Sinhalicisation for a long time. However, the armed struggle put an end to the Sinhala colonisation scheme in the late 80s.

However, Rajapaksa regime relaunched the colonisation scheme after the genocidal onslaught on Eezham Tamils in 2009.

The entire division of Musali was made no-man zone by Colombo after it evicted Tamils from the division in 2007.

Rajapaksa regime was clearing around 400 acres of forest lands for the establishment of the colony in 2013.

The Tamil term Ko'ndaichchi is a short form of Ko'ndaichchik-kudaa, meaning the cove shore found with Ko'ndaichchi birds. It is also a coastal village.

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12.04.11   Sinhala colonization threatens coastal areas of Mannaar


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