[TamilNet, Saturday, 08 October 2016, 21:53 GMT]
ITAK Parliamentarian from Batticaloa S Yogeswaran has categorically
stated that the regime of Sirisena and Wickramasinghe, which was brought
to power with the votes of Tamils, is not going to deliver a reasonable
political solution satisfying the expectation of Tamils on its own
without international intervention. “I don't speak for others. My
conviction is that the Government will not deliver an acceptable
solution for Tamils on its own,” he said. “There are a lot of steps to
be taken,” and none of these have been achieved so far, he added. Austin
Fernando, installed as the governor of the East after Sirisena became
the SL president, has been preoccupied with tracing every avenue to
Sinhalicise the Batticaloa district. It has now been revealed that the
SL President Sirisena's Mahaweli ministry is also behind the Sinhala
colonisation, he said.
The leaders in South produce only words, not deeds. Their words too are
now going against the expectation of Tamils as all shades of the Sinhala
polity stand openly opposed to even mention “federalism,” in the SL
Constitution to come, Mr Seeniththamby Yogeswaran, who was elected twice
on TNA ticket representing the ITAK in Batticaloa district said in the
video interview to TamilNet.
Tamils
are regarded only as a minority by the Colombo regime. Tamils
constitute a distinct nation in the island and this should be accepted
by the Sinhala leaders if they are genuine about a political settlement,
Mr Yogeswaran said.
On the burning issues of persons subjected
to forcible disappearances and continued imprisonment of Tamil political
prisoners, the current regime has adopted the same line of the
Rajapaksa government, Mr Yogeswaran said.
The grandfather of the
current Tamil minister in the Sirisena regime, D.M. Swaminthan, who is
in charge of Prison Reforms and Resettlement was none other than the
grandson of Sir Pon Ramanathan, who was celebrated by the Sinhalese in
1915 when he took the burden of traveling to UK amidst the Second World
War to secure the release of Sinhalese leaders. The Sinhalese leader
were imprisoned by the British rulers in the island for their
involvement in anti-Muslim violence at that time. When Sir Pon
Ramanathan released them, they celebrated him. But, the irony in the
history of political prisoners in the island is that the grandparent of
Ramanathan is not able to release the Tamil political prisoners who are
languishing in the SL prisons for several years, the TNA parliamentarian
told TamilNet.
The JVPers who were imprisoned by the Colombo
regime in the past were released after a general amnesty. But the
current regime is not able to take a principled decision on giving
general amnesty and release the Tamil political prisoners, who have been
languishing for several years in the prison, he said.
Apart
from delivering some promises in the resettlement of uprooted Champoor
Tamils in Trincomalee, in Jaffna and in bringing relatively better
environment than as it was under the Rajapaksa regime, there is nothing
else to be mentioned as achievements on the ground so far, according to
Yogeswaran.
Under the Rajapaksa regime, it was the Forest
Department and Wild-Life Department, which were engaged in seizing the
lands from border areas in Batticaloa district situated towards
Polonnaruwa and Ampaa'rai districts. The SL military, SL Navy and
Buddhist monks were deployed in colonising the Tamil lands.
Rajapaksa
was attempting to divert UN’s funding mechanism, which was intended to
safeguard the aboriginal communities to colonize Vaakarai region with
Sinhala settlers. His plan was to twist the identity of 47 birth
certificates of Ceylon Tamils into Veddahs at Challith-theevu in
Vaakarai with the backing of Pillayan, who was installed as the Chief
Minister of the Eastern Province.
Since there was no distinction
between Tamil or Sinhala in the Veddah identity used in the false birth
certificates, Rajapaksa regime was aiming to bring in Sinhala settlers
from Mahiyangana in the South using the Veddah identity to change the
demographic pattern of Tamil Vaakarai. The plan was spoiled following
sharp opposition coming from the Tamils, Mr Yogeswaran said.
However,
as the plan didn’t work, Colombo aimed to convert 1,000 acres belonging
to cashew plantations at Kadjuwatte in Panichchang-kea’ni into a
Sinhala settlement through the SL Navy. “Let us say, if they had managed
to alienate 20 perches of lands to each Sinhala family, they would have
created a settlement of 8,000 families numbering around 24,000
Sinhalese achieving their agenda of electing at least one parliamentary
seat from Batticaloa district for Sinhalese,” he said. Mr Yogeswaran was
describing how the demographic genocide was committed in Trincomalee
and Ampaa'rai against Tamils.
Although the opposition coming
from Tamils managed to stop the colonisation schemes at Vaakarai and
Panichchang-kea'ni, the SL Navy is still occupying the coastal area
situated just south of Vaakarai, he added.
Under the Rajapaksa
regime, there were several plans to seize the lands of Tamils by
occupying their pasturelands, border villages and the military Governor
of Eastern Province was also trying to allocate lands to businessmen
from South at several places.
The SL Forest Department and Wild-Life Department were operating against the Tamils backing the settlers and home guards.
“But
all of a sudden, we are now being told that the pasturelands and
Sinhala settlements are coming under the Mahaweli Ministry, which is
under the SL president Maithiripala Sirisena,” Yogeswaran said adding
that Buddhist monks are continuing to settle Sinhalese with the backing
of Colombo’s military.
Immediately after coming to power, the
current Governor was only thinking to trace the possibilities and
manipulate these to colonize the Batticaloa district with Sinhalese,
Yogeswaran said.
Austin Fernando suddenly invited the Government
Agent and Divisional Secretary of Vaakarai division with the claim that
there were 178 Sinhala families living in Kaarai-munai until 1985.
The
GA, without knowing the historical background, promised to look into
the matter. “If there were 178 Sinahalese families as the Governor
claims, there would have been a Sinhala village by a name; there would
have been birth certificates issued to their children; the families
would have received PLR if they had engaged in agriculture; there would
have been an electoral registry with their entries. Without tracing all
these, you can’t proceed with settling them I told the GA. I was very
well aware that there was no such Sinhala settlement,” he said.
“For
some time there was no response. But, all of a sudden some Sinhalese to
come with documents of permit lands in their names. These documents
were in Sinhala language. I told GA that there was no such practice of
issuing permit lands in Sinahala language in the history of Batticaloa
district. All these documents were fake,” he said.
Recently,
the GA and EPC Minister for Agriculture went together to inspect the
Sinhala colonisation of Mayilaththa-madu. But, they issued statements
contradicting each other. While the EPC Minister was saying that there
was excessive colonisation, the GA was claiming there was no such
big-scale colonisation. The GA was further delaying clarifications on
the border-line of Batticaloa district causing ambiguity on the issue,
he said.
The TNA MP from Batticaloa was also claiming that there
was widespread corruption prevailing at the District Secretariat under
the GA and that some among the ITAK hierarchy were still defending her.
The ITAK cannot fail the people, he said adding that he is set to take
up the issues with the hierarchy of the ITAK.