2ND LEAD

Colombo to seize more Tamil lands in Moothoor East, Trincomalee

[TamilNet, Sunday, 12 January 2014, 23:48 GMT]
The survey department of the occupying Sri Lankan State is engaged in marking lands for further appropriation in Moothoor East, where uprooted people were promised resettlement earlier. The genocidal land grab is taking place according to the instructions from Colombo’s Defence Ministry and Economic Development Ministry, both run by the siblings of SL president Mahinda Rajapaksa. The Sri Lanka Navy (SLN) wants to expand its camp situated at Champoor MMV School. At the same time, the Board of Investment under Basil Rajapaksa wants to seize further lands for corporate exploitation. 232 acres of lands have been already surveyed for seizure by the SL State, informed sources told TamilNet.

There is a particular significance in Colombo hurriedly appropriating large tracts of lands in KKS and Trincomalee, political observers commented. This could be at the behest of some external forces that on and often visit these two places for the supervision of the ‘progress’ in the project, the observers further said.

The lands now being seized in Trincomalee belong to both resettled people and those who are yet to be allowed to resettle.

In 2006, people from 11 GS areas were uprooted from Moothoor East.

After the war, Colombo seized thousands of acres of lands for India’s thermal power project, thereby permanently de-populating a large section of the Tamil villages. The area was declared as ‘High Security Zone’.

Even the resettlement that has taken place in the remaining lands was ‘allowed’ only after continuous struggle by the uprooted people who have been firm in going back to their villages.

The uprooted people from Champoor East and West GS divisions and in Kadatkaraich-cheanai are still completely denied resettlement in their own villages.

The latest survey is targeting appropriation of lands also in Koonith-theevu, Choozhak-kudaa and Navaradnapuram, where people have been allowed to resettle, the sources further said.