Hullabaloo over North-East security arrangements

Janaka PERERA

Dubious peacemakers and sections of the Tamil National Alliance who vehemently objected to anti-LTTE military operations have now begun to express their concerns over alleged Sinhala-colonization of the predominantly Tamil areas in North and East with establishment of military bases and cantonments following the Tigers’ crushing defeat. They have also raised objections to the continuation of high security zones in the North.

Echoes of these allegations are heard across the Palk Straits and absurd demands are being made in Tamil Nadu for India to reclaim Kachchativu islet.

The Sri Lanka Government is duty-bound to establish military bases and maintain security zones in the re-captured strategic areas, to strengthen the island’s defences. If this has to be done by settling soldiers and their families in such areas like in Panagoda, so be it. In fact it was the late Venerable Madihe Pannaseeha Mahanayake Thera who first proposed the establishment of military towns in the North and East when the rumblings of separatist terrorism were first heard. But his call went unheeded.

We cannot recall the TNA’s political mentors - the Federal Party or the Tamil Congress - objecting to the continuation of British military bases (Katunayake and Trincomalee) in the island after 1948. We won’t be surprised if TNA types maintain a deafening silence even if India is permitted to establish such bases in the North. It is only when Sri Lankan Government decides to establish such bases that these questionable characters raise their objections.

India currently has 63 cantonments in 17 different states not including smaller ‘sub-cantonments’ in the same regional area. The vast majority of Indian cantonments are spread across Northern, Northwestern and Northeastern India.

So why should not Sri Lanka exercise the same right in her own territory?

In the case of the Eastern Province would the government be so foolish to resettle there only Tamil people and ignore the possibility of them being intimidated by separatist elements and cause fresh security problems especially in the Trincomalee Naval Base area?

Before the liberation of East the East commenced LTTE units constantly infiltrated this area at night and blasted electricity pylons disrupting the electricity supplies to Trincomalee. They made the high-tension electrical line unserviceable.

Some years ago a move was under way to settle not Sinhala but Tamil families along the Trincomalee-Kandy Road. Land was allocated and temporary huts were constructed. But military authorities strongly objected to this move and the decision was reserved. The land is now the property of the Ports Authority and trespassing is strictly prohibited. As for the Trincomalee-Anuradhapura Road it was the scene of many a landmine explosion including the one that killed Major General Lucky Wijeratne. The ‘peacemakers’ complained against the Government’s decision to construct 5,000 houses for ex-service personnel. If that was the case it was definitely the best method of making this road safe for traffic at all times.

Kinniya was another trouble spot where the ethnic balance has to be altered to provide greater security to the area. If the government is settling Sinhalese families from Sooriyapura, Jayanthipura, Pansalgoda and Wan Ela as the peaceniks allege, it may perhaps be the most logical move to stabilize the area. It will expedite ethnic integration, instead of allowing the build up of ethnic enclaves. We sincerely hope the Government will implement such a scheme since we cannot see the rationality of objecting to such a project.

Linganagar was a small Tamil settlement established in the East on encroached State land property. Since this posed a serious problem to a Security Forces shooting range the squatters had to be evicted.

Next is the gateway to Prabhakaran’s ‘ never-realized Tamil Eelam. It is the strategic point that links the Northern and Eastern Provinces. This was area where the so-called Gandhian movement attempted to settle on the sly Tamils of Indian origin to be repatriated to India under the Sirima-Shastri Pact.

The idea of settling these people was to show the world that only Tamils inhabited the North and East. The Norwegian organization Redd Barna funded this surreptitious move but the plot failed, because the then National Security Minister Lalith Athulathmudali discovered the ruse and cancelled the special leases given to Tamil entrepreneurs to establish agricultural farms in this area. It was on these lands that the ‘repatriated’ Tamils of Indian origin were being settled.

Afterwards the Minister handed over the farms to the Prisons Department for establishing open prison camps. His action of foiling LTTE plans to link the East with the North infuriated the Tigers so much that they attacked the open prison camps at Dollar and Kent Farms in 1984. They massacred over one hundred unarmed Sinhala prisoners. The LTTE then video filmed the mutilated bodies, used the film for their international separatist propaganda, which claimed that those massacred were innocent Tamil victims of the ‘Sinhala Army’!

This horrifying Tiger atrocity prompted the then government to establish military presence Weli Oya and prevent moves to make the Northern and the Eastern Provinces, exclusively Tamil areas. The Government’s strategy thus prevented any possible future division of the country dashing the hopes of Tamil separatists.

In this context the establishment of a separate district in the Weli Oya areas essential to protect and preserve the country’s unity and territorial integrity.

What is sauce for the goose is sauce for the gander. If the Sinhalas do not object to the ethnic ratio in Colombo changing in favour of the ethnic minorities, have the so-called champions of minority rights any valid reason to object to the Government changing the ethnic ratio in trouble spots (where racist elements have surreptitiously succeeded in building up ethnic enclaves) to encourage integration and thereby prevent separatism from raising its ugly head in the future?

Today over 50 percent of the Tamil people live in the seven provinces where the Sinhalas are in the majority. According to the 1981 census, Sri Lanka’s entire Tamil population was 220,360. By the year 2001, the Tamil population in the Western Province increased to 325,706, which means an increase of 10,346 from 1081 to 2001. Percentage wise it is a 47 percent increase.

This is evident even if we take the Colombo, Gampaha and Kalutara Districts separately. The increase has been 49 percent in Colombo, 47 percentage in Kalutara and 43 prevent in Gampaha.

In 1981, the Tamil population in the Southern Province was 11,564. By 2001, the Tamil population in the South had increased to 18,109, which means an increase by 6,545. Percentage wise it is a 57 percent increase.

This is evident even if the Galle, Matara and Hambantota Districts are taken separately. In Galle, the increase has been 82 percent, 32 percent in Matara and 20 percent in Hambantota. All this proves that the Sinhalas have not chased the Tamils away from the Sinhala areas. It also shows the Tamils preferred to live in the majority Sinhala areas rather than under LTTE domination.

In contrast Sinhalas who numbered about 90,000 in the North in the 1950s were never able to return to Jaffna and reside - never in LTTE-dominated areas.

As for the Eastern Province the entire Eastern coastal belt was part of the Kandyan Kingdom . When the Dutchman Admiral Van Spilbergen arrived in Batticaloa in 1602, he was greeted by a Dissawe of the King of Kandy (Wimaladharmasuriya I) whose kingdom extended to the East coast to include both Batticaloa and Trincomalee. A painting that was presented to the Dutch Burger Union by the Netherlands Armed Forces clearly proves this fact. It was the Kandyan King’s (Rajasinghe II) troops that captured Robert Knox and not an ‘army’ of some mythical Tamil King who ruled so-called traditional Tamil homeland. (Asiapost)

(My sincere thanks to Lt. Colonel (Rtd.) Anil Amarasekera for providing details of anti-national conspiracies to prevent ethnic integration in the Eastern Province)