Sri Lankan President Maithripala Sirisena met with Buddhist organisation Bodu Bala Sena in a wide ranging meeting to discuss threats to Sinhalese villagers “from Tamil separatists”.
“About 4,500 families in five remote villages in the Bogas Weva region in Vavuniya, who had been resettled by the previous government, have now started to get back to their previous places,” said BBS General Secretary Galagoda Aththe Gnanasara.
“The attention given to them by the Government and the influence from several Muslim Ministers and threats from Tamil separatists resulted in the villagers returning to their former places,” he added.
He went on to state,
“Those villages have been set up by the help of tri forces. I am pleased to inform that the President had informed the Army Commander to take immediate action regarding the issue. We hope the President will take fruitful decisions in the future.”
“We will conduct an inspection tour to the Bogas Weva villages within the next few days and we hope President will pay more attention to Sinhala people as he paid attention to Muslims and people of other religions,” he said.
Mr Sirisena has previously declared his admiration of controversial state-sponsored colonisation projects started by previous Sri Lankan governments and stated he hopes to complete them. During his first year in power, the Sri Lankan military also continued to expand Sinhala military villages in the Tamil North-East.
See our earlier posts:
Sri Lankan president pays tribute to UNP minister (25 Oct 2015)
Army constructs community hall for Sinhala military village in North-East (28 Oct 2015)
Also discussed during the meeting was a proposed new bill relating to the Buddhist clergy, which has stirred opposition from Sinhala Buddhist groups. Mr Sirisena said after the meeting that he has “directed the Prime Minister, Buddhasasana Minister and other relevant authorities to submit this bill to the Maha Sangha and table in Parliament again with necessary amendments".
Also see our earlier posts:
New act supports different Buddhist sect claims opposition MP (18 Jan 2016)
JVP led monks threaten street protests if bill against Buddhist clergy passed in Sri Lanka (16 Jan 2016)
Buddhist monks will not answer to 'white man' legal system says BBS Gen-Sec (16 Jan 2015)