B B C NEWS SOUTH ASIA
[TamilNet, Tuesday, 01 June 2010, 16:49 GMT]
Jaffna Bishop House sent an appeal to the Holy See in Vatican to urge Sri Lanka government to renovate and restore the churches in Vanni destroyed or badly damaged during the war on Vanni, sources in Jaffna said. No one except Jaffna Bishop had been permitted by Sri Lanka Army (SLA) in Vanni to see the churches in Vanni after the war and Jaffna Bishop, Rt. Rev. Thomas Saundranayagam, had been greatly shocked and distressed to find the churches destroyed and plundered, Bishop House circles said. Meanwhile, Sri Lanka government has announced financial aid for renovating the churches in Vanni where people have been allowed to resettle.
7 March 2011 Last updated at 11:19 ET
The army says it was allocated the plot as government land and that it was unaware of "unhappiness" over the site.
The Tamil Tigers departed from Hindu traditions of cremation and built large graveyards which experts say was part of a cult of martyrdom.
In May 2009 government forces defeated Tamil Tiger rebels fighting for a separate homeland. More than 70,000 people are estimated to have died in Sri Lanka's civil war which lasted for 26 years.
The army website has a full illustrated account of Friday's opening of the new headquarters for the 51 Division near Jaffna.
The website said it was declared open "amidst religious rites and rituals".
But it did not mention that on the same spot there used to stand a cemetery built by Tamil Tiger militants but destroyed by the army last year.
Tamil nationalists have already criticised the destruction of other Tiger graveyards in past years.
A former MP, MK Shivajilingam, said he was shocked because there were about 2,000 bodies of Tiger fighters on the site and there had been twice that number of memorial stones.
"How can the government build national reconciliation like this?" he said.
But army chief Jagath Jayasuriya told the BBC that having vacated its temporary premises in a Jaffna hotel, the 51 Division had to move to government land.
He said the military had been allocated this site which was owned by the prisons department, and he was "not aware of people expressing unhappiness".
Last year the government demolished the ancestral house of the late Tamil Tiger leader, Prabhakaran.
It says its policy is to wipe out any trace of the Tigers and ensure that their violence is forgotten.
It has however built several memorials to fallen government soldiers.
*JDS
--------------------------------------------------------------- Tamil nationalists have criticised the destruction of the graveyard
A new military headquarters in northern Sri Lanka has been built on the site of a Tamil Tiger graveyard earlier flattened by the army, it has emerged.
The construction has come in for sharp criticism. The army says it was allocated the plot as government land and that it was unaware of "unhappiness" over the site.
The Tamil Tigers departed from Hindu traditions of cremation and built large graveyards which experts say was part of a cult of martyrdom.
In May 2009 government forces defeated Tamil Tiger rebels fighting for a separate homeland. More than 70,000 people are estimated to have died in Sri Lanka's civil war which lasted for 26 years.
The army website has a full illustrated account of Friday's opening of the new headquarters for the 51 Division near Jaffna.
The website said it was declared open "amidst religious rites and rituals".
But it did not mention that on the same spot there used to stand a cemetery built by Tamil Tiger militants but destroyed by the army last year.
Tamil nationalists have already criticised the destruction of other Tiger graveyards in past years.
A former MP, MK Shivajilingam, said he was shocked because there were about 2,000 bodies of Tiger fighters on the site and there had been twice that number of memorial stones.
"How can the government build national reconciliation like this?" he said.
But army chief Jagath Jayasuriya told the BBC that having vacated its temporary premises in a Jaffna hotel, the 51 Division had to move to government land.
He said the military had been allocated this site which was owned by the prisons department, and he was "not aware of people expressing unhappiness".
Last year the government demolished the ancestral house of the late Tamil Tiger leader, Prabhakaran.
It says its policy is to wipe out any trace of the Tigers and ensure that their violence is forgotten.
It has however built several memorials to fallen government soldiers.
51 Division New Headquarters In Cemetery
*JDS
Jaffna Bishop House sent an appeal to the Holy See in Vatican to urge Sri Lanka government to renovate and restore the churches in Vanni destroyed or badly damaged during the war on Vanni, sources in Jaffna said. No one except Jaffna Bishop had been permitted by Sri Lanka Army (SLA) in Vanni to see the churches in Vanni after the war and Jaffna Bishop, Rt. Rev. Thomas Saundranayagam, had been greatly shocked and distressed to find the churches destroyed and plundered, Bishop House circles said. Meanwhile, Sri Lanka government has announced financial aid for renovating the churches in Vanni where people have been allowed to resettle.
Jaffna Bishop inspecting the desecrated statue at one of the churches in Mullaiththeevu, occupied by the Sri Lanka Army
