Colombo beefs up borders of Sinhala military colonization in Jaffna

[TamilNet, Thursday, 29 October 2015, 00:09 GMT]
The occupying military of ‘Sri Lanka’ is once again strengthening the borderlines along the former ‘High Security Zone’ areas in Valikaamam North in Jaffna. Most of these lands were permanently seized from Eezham Tamils by the previous regime of Colombo. The SL military and the new regime in Colombo, buying time citing ‘step-by-step’ release, have been reluctant to release the illegally seized lands back to Tamil owners. When the uprooted Tamils stepped up their protests demanding the SL President Maithiripala Sirisena to officially gazette the release of the lands, the new regime openly claimed that the release of lands was a matter to be decided by the SL military. Now, after coming to terms with the USA through UNHRC discourse, Colombo is again restricting access across the borders of the former HSZ that encloses the KKS harbour, Palaali airport and the SL military base at Palaali.

In the meantime, the SL military is also deployed in strengthening its garrison at Palaali.

New barbed-wire fences are being put up, military posts along the borders are being beefed up and the public are not allowed beyond the arch the SL military had constructed earlier on Palaali Road. The archway was conceived as an entrance to future Sinhala Military Zone and township in the fully militarized Valikaamam North.

In the meantime, D.M. Swaminthan, the SL cabinet minister of rehabilitation and resettlement, has again gone on record stating that it was the SL military that ultimately decides on the issues related to lands in Valikaamam North.

The SL minister was ‘requesting’ the public to send written submissions to his ministry to be forwarded to SL military officers. Mr Swaminathan was responding when the representatives of uprooted people and Tamil journalists confronted him with questions on 15 October when the SL minister attended a meeting at the Union College in Thellippazhai. The SL military is still occupying a portion of the Union College.

As a propaganda measure, the new regime in Colombo earlier announced that it was to release more lands to the public in Valikaamam North.

However, only a few pockets of lands were released to the public. The uprooted people are unable to commence proper resettlement in their native villages as their residential and fertile lands are still under the military occupation. The SL military also cut off the access routes, making it difficult for the people to access their released lands. School buildings and public facilities remain occupied.

The UNHRC discourse in Geneva, which has been exploited by the USA for its geopolitical ends, has further enabled Colombo's structural genocide against Eezham Tamils to continue unabated, commented Tamil activists voicing for the rights of the uprooted Tamils from Valikaamam North.

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