Structural genocide targets Kudumpimalai despite Tamil protests, media focus

[TamilNet, Wednesday, 22 June 2016, 16:05 GMT]
Despite repeated protests coming from Village (GS) Officers in Batticaloa district against the recent assault on Tamil GS Officer Shanmugam Guru by a group of Sinhala soldiers, the occupying Sinhala military is continuing illegal logging of trees in the interior jungle hamlet of Kudumpimalai. The demograhic genocide is being spearheaded by Colombo’s Forest Department that comes under the direct supervision of SL President Maithiripala Sirisena, Divisional Secretariat officials in Kiraan told TamilNet. The SL Forest Department is planning to create a Sinhala colony for agricultural farmers from the bordering Anuradhapura district and elsewhere in the South, they said.

The SL military is playing a crucial role in the illegal logging of trees by involving Muslim traders from Oadda-maavadi area and through deploying Tamils as slave labourers, the civil sources said.

In the meantime, SL Forest Department officials and the so-called ‘Home Guards’, a Sinhala paramilitary operated by the Sinhala military, have stepped up their attacks against Tamil dairy farmers in the area.

SL Forest Department operatives have been chasing away Tamil cattle herders from the pasturelands in Periya-maathava’nai area, situated in the same division. Usually, they act against the Tamil dairy farmers and their cattle herders blaming them of violating Forest Department regulations.

GS Officer Shanmugam Guru was investigating illegal logging of trees by Sinhala soldiers on June 01. He was taken to a nearby SL military camp and was brutally assaulted. Following the incident getting media focus, a Tamil family received death threats. The alleged military operatives were harassing the family blaming it for alerting the GS officer on illegal logging.

While Mr Shanmugam was receiving medical treatment, ‘unknown’ callers were demanding the GS officer to drop his case against the brutal assault and wanted him to urge other GS officers to call off their protests.

The issue was gaining some media attention.

The SL Police, which is supposed to investigate the case, has been trying to downplay the issue.

However, the SL military and its trading collaborators have stepped up illegal logging with the active support of SL Forest Department, the Tamil officials said.

The structural and demographic genocide was blocked during the times of war as the area was under LTTE control.

The interior hamlet of Kudumpimalai is situated 63 km northwest of Batticaloa city in Koara'laip-pattu South (Kiraan).

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