Speaking after an investigatory visit to the former war zones of Mullaitivu, Vadamaradchchi east, Kokkilai and Naayaru areas, the leader of the Tamil National People’s Front (TNPF), Gajendrakumar Ponnambalam said that there is currently a systematic campaign, with a motive to “eliminate the very existence of the traditional Tamil nation as a whole”, reported JDS on Friday.
Describing an evident mechanism that was decimating the traditional Tamil nation in the area, Ponnambalam said,
"While preventing the war-affected Tamil people from carrying out fishing livelihood in their native places, the government and the security forces have established systematic Sinhala settlements in these areas and allowed them to carryout fishing at their will with full protection.”
Noting the damaging settlement of over 300 new fishing Sinhala families in the traditionally Tamil area, Ponnambalam invited all Tamil political forces to jointly fight for the rights of the native Tamils.
Echoing Ponnambalam’s concerns, Jaffna District Parliamentarian of the Tamil National Alliance (TNA), Suresh Premachandran, agreed that the situation was the same when his party members visited the areas just 2 months ago.
The Jaffna MP outlined that the Sinhala colonisation, settlement of Sinhala fishing families, land grabs establishment of Buddhist temples on private land and further expanding military cantonments were at its ‘peak’ in the region.
Commenting on the unmistakable impunity that government personal were acting with, Premachandran said,
“Last week, a statue of Lord Buddha was unveiled in Kanakarayankum.
"The military can do anything in these areas and they are not answerable to anybody.
"Those who highlight these issues in the media or take it up with members of the international community are intimidated and threatened. We don’t see any effort to stop such activities.”
MP Premachandran described the continued land grabbing in the Tamil north as “open secrets” that the President was well aware of.
“It is a complete lie to say nothing of that sort is happening. I reiterate here that this government is working hard on eliminating all the historic and traditional Tamil identities systematically.
"All Tamil forces should work together to stop this while efforts should be made to mount international pressure on this government to arrest this dangerous trend,” he said.
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