Occupying SL military allowed to appropriate lands in Trincomalee

[TamilNet, Wednesday, 08 May 2013, 21:28 GMT]
The occupying Sri Lanka Army has been given permission to appropriate about four hundred acres of land in Trincomalee district. A decision to this effect was reached at a conference held this week at the District Secretariat. The conference was presided by the Government Agent T.T.R.De Silva, a retired Major General of the Sri Lanka Army. 

About three hundred acres including some private lands earmarked for the appropriation are located in the Trincomalee Town and Gravets Divisional Secretariat division. 

The conference was specially held with the participation of several heads of SL military and Land Appropriation Committee based in Colombo to decide on the extent of lands to be appropriated. 

Fifty acres of lands in Thiriyaay, a Tamil village and about fifty acres in Pulmoaddai, a Muslim village, are also to be appropriated for the use of the occupying Sri Lanka Navy in these villages.

Uthayan Office In Jaffna Set On Fire Again

By Colombo Telegraph -

Early this morning at around 4.45, three armed men came to the Uthayan Newspaper office at Kasturiar Road in Jaffna and having fired shots in the air entered the premises. They fired inside the premises also and chased away the employees, none of whom were fortunately injured.

Thereafter they poured fuel and burnt the main printing machine and the stacks of newspaper that were there. The printing machine has been damaged beyond repair. This is the sixth in a long series of attacks on Uthayan in recent times, in the heavily militarized environs of the Jaffna and Kilinochchi districts. Uthayan belongs to TNA Jaffna Parliamentarian, E Saravanapavan.

“Within a couple of hours of this attack, the Director General of the Media Centre for National Security stated that ‘investigations’ have revealed that this is an inside job done in order to tarnish the government’s image.This is astonishing, nay, very revealing indeed!” says TNA.

Udayan fanning communal flames - Maj. Gen. Hathurusinghe

Rakshana Sriyantha

The Editorial published in the Udayan Newspaper on April 30 was a deliberate attempt to stoke the flames of communalism in this country once again and drive the Tamil people towards another war, Security Forces Commander in the North Major General Mahinda Hathurusinghe said.

He said the Editorial stated that the government had resorted to political deceit by killing time to hold the Northern Provincial Council elections.

"However, the government is forced to hold the election due to international pressure. Now the government is acquiring the traditional lands belonging to the people in the North prior to the elections with the intention of giving them over to Sinhala people. Now the government has started settling Sinhalese in the North in a subtle manner. Certain politicians in the North are only holding candles (Kavadi) to the government," the Udayan Editorial had claimed.

Maj Gen Hathurusinghe commenting on this Editorial said it was an attempt made by the owner of the Udayan newspaper to further his political prospects by taking undue advantage of the internal split in the TNA. This could be stated as a very unpatriotic statement.

He said as civilian life should be brought back to normal before an election is held, the resettlement programme is now being completed. The government's sole intention was to hold an election in the North soon as it never feared to face elections, he said. He also said the presence of the armed forces in the North is also being drastically reduced. The armed forces strength which was 43,000 during 2007-2008 period has now reduced to 13,350.

He said the army camps set up at Subash and Gnanam hotels in Jaffna have been withdrawn and the hotels are now in operation as normal.

The Udayan Editor was jealous of the friendship and amity prevailing between the armed forces and the general public in the North. As such the paper was trying to fan the flames of communalism once again to set the Tamils against the security forces.

People who realized this Udayan tactic were now holding demonstrations protesting against the removal of army camps.