Gotabaya's ‘Task Force’ monk threatens Tamils to stay away from their paddy fields in Thiriyaay

[TamilNet, Wednesday, 02 September 2020, 22:03 GMT]
The extremist Sinhala Buddhist monk based in Arisimalai in Pulmoaddai, Panamure Thilakawansha Thero, has threatened Eezham Tamil farmers of Thiriyaay in Kuchchave'li division of Trincomalee district to stay away from their agricultural lands on Wednesday. Panamure Thilakawansha is the monk whom the SL President Gotabaya Rajapaksa has referred as “chief prelate for the Northern and Eastern Provinces” in his Presidential Task Force for ‘archaeological heritage management’ in the East. He has claimed that ancient Buddhist artefacts were lying spread across more than one thousand acres spanning six farming tracts. The Tamil farmers have demanded the Tamil National Alliance and other Tamil national political parties to act against the move.

Thilakawansa Thero has threatened the villagers of immediate arrest if they continued to engage in agricultural activities.

The monk has refused to engage with the administrative officials of Kuchchave'li division and the Tamil politicians as he holds the view that the SL Presidential Task Force was far superior to all such authorities.

Thiriyaay is one of the remaining places with strong legacies of Tamil Buddhism in the island belonging to Mahayana Buddhism. It is located 42 km north of Trincomalee city in Kuchchave'li administrative division.

The ancient Tamil Buddhist site was protected by the Tamil Tigers when the area was under their control.

After 2009, the occupying Sinhala colonists have been destroying Saiva (Hindu) temples, and they have also been distorting the Tamil Buddhist heritage.

Due to the latest harassment, Tamil farmers are unable to engage in agriculture in more than 1,000 acres of lands in Aaththik-kaadu, Neeraavik-ka'ndal, Pa'l'la-paavankai, Paddaa'nip-paavi, Paavalang-ka'ndal and Kanthappan-vayal.

The Tamil farmers were cultivating in their lands after they had resettled in Thiriyaay. During the height of the war, they were displaced in Mullaith-theevu and Trincomalee.

The latest move of blocking Tamil farmers from engaging in agriculture during the onsetting northeast monsoon season has come a few days after a similar episode was reported along the Trincomalee - Mullaiththeevu border. SL Departments of Forest and Wildlife conservation had detained Tamil farmers who commenced seasonal cultivation in their private farmlands along the border.

Various departments of the unitary state of genocidal Sri Lanka as well as the Buddhist monks and the Sinhala military and Police are involved in a coordinated move of seizing lands for future Sinhala colonisation wrecking the contiguity of the Tamil homeland.



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