Maithiripala's ministry escalates Sinhala-Tamil coastal disputes in Mullaiththeevu

[TamilNet, Wednesday, 22 August 2018, 22:19 GMT]
The Colombo-based Mahaweli Authority, which is the implementation agency coming under SL President Maithiriapala Sirisena's Mahaweli Ministry of the unitary state of genocidal Sri Lanka, has recently allocated permit lands in the occupied country of Eezham Tamils to two main violent proponents of SL Navy backed Sinhala occupation at Kokku'laay in Mullaiththeevu. Mr Maithiripala's ministry and its implementing authority were intervening to sustain their conflict of fisheries occupation by allocating new public lands to the violators after the three judges of SL Supreme Court in February defended the initial verdict of Mullaiththeevu District/Magistrates’ Court that had instructed the encroachers to vacate from the public lands used as their base.

Providing documentary evidence, Tamil legal activists who are advising the fisheries federations in Karai-thu'raip-pattu division, told TamilNet that it was now time to expose the perpetrators and the kind of backing they are receiving from the occupying Sinhala State Establishment.

“What we witness today in Kokku'laay and Naaya'ru is not an isolated conflict between fishing factions of Tamils and Sinhalese engaged in commercial competition. It is not even a legal dispute. It is a political battle of enormous significance after the genocidal onslaught in 2009,” commented one of the legal activists.

The underlying occupation is part of a systematic and concerted move by the SL State to demographically de-link Northern and Eastern provinces to denounce the sovereignty claim of Eezham Tamils in preserving the territorial integrity of their traditional homeland, the legal activist further said, explaining the background.



Two Sinhala encroachers, Mr Mihindukulasooriya Rukmal Thushara Livera and Ms Salina Marian Dedunu Dias, were occupying the public lands with the backing of the SL Navy.

The land in question is a fishing Paadu (an area of coastal sea-bed falling within the scope of a 10-feet long draw-net). The Paadu is known as Maathalvaraayap-paadu. It is an area of 1 acre sandwiched between Kokku'laay sea and the lagoon.

As the illegal encroachers were harassing Tamil fishers and engaged in the unlawful fishery at large-scale, the Tamil fishermen started to agitate and complain. Also, the Divisional Secretary was forced to seek the legal avenue at Mullaiththeevu District/Magistrates’ Court in February 2017.

The defendants were arguing that the said lands were in their domain of control for a long time. Since they had deployed the area [with SL Navy backing] for a long time, they were now entitled to the ownership of the Paadu/land, they argued. One of them, Mihindukulasooriya Rukmal Thushara Livera, was also claiming that he had to displace from the area during the times of war due to “terrorism”.

District Judge MSM Sumsudeen delivered a verdict in January 2018 in favour of the application filed by the District Secretary.

However, the Sinhala encroachers continued to occupy the lands defying the order of the courts with the backing of the occupying SL Navy and the SL Police.

They also appealed at the SL Supreme Court against the decision of Mullaiththeevu District Court.

However, their appeal was dismissed by the SL Supreme Court in February 2018.

In May 2018, the Mahaweli authority has provided new lands to the encroachers, strengthening the two encroachers, who are also alleged of escalating hatred and deploying violence against Tamil fishers.

Documentary evidence of the initial ruling by the District Court, the dismissal of the appeal by the encroachers and the latest move by the SL President's Mahaweli Authority providing alternative lands to the same perpetrators in Kokku'laay, are provided below:













Chronology: