Ex-garrison town gets new school buildings

[TamilNet, Tuesday, 28 February 2006, 11:29 GMT]
German Technical Co-operation (GTZ) of the German Federal Government and the Tamil Rehabilitation Organization (TRO) announced that new buildings to house a school and a pre-school in Thattuvankotti, a village in close proximity to Elephant Pass are to be opened Wednesday at 10 a.m., marking an important milestone in the development of the village after the residents were displaced 1996.

Thattuvankotti and other towns including Umayalpuram and Uriyan were completely destroyed and absorbeds as part of the Elephant Pass-Paranthan Sri Lanka Army (SLA) garrison in 1996. Residents began resettling after the garrison was captured by the Liberation Tigers in 2000.

GTZ and TRO began rehabilitating Thattuvankotti in early 2004. With basic amenities including housing and water supply schemes resettlement of displaced families started in early 2005.

The school buildings mark a major milestone in the development of the village and indicates that life in the ex-garrison villages are returing to normalcy, TRO officials responsible for the village development said.

Families from the garrison towns fled as Sri Lanka army advanced from village to village since 1996. fled the Sri Lanka army’s advance from village to village since 1996. Elephant Pass Govt. Tamil Mixed School (GTMS), Paranthan GTMS, Paranthan Hindu Mahaviththiyalayam, Umaiyaalpuram GTMS and the Thattuvankoddi GTMS were occupied by the military inside the SLA's sprawling Paranthan Elephant Pass base until May 2000 when the Liberation Tigers overran the strategic gateway to the northern Jaffna peninsula.

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