An ancient Tamil village Tha’n’ni-mu’rippu, well known for its fertile landscape and resources in the Karaithu’raippattu division of the Mullaiththeevu district, has been brought under the newly created Sinhala division Weli-oya, and is targeted for fast Sinhalicisation of its land and water resources, while resettlement of the villagers is blocked. Sinhala and Muslim fishermen have started fishing in the Tha’n’ni-mu’rippuk-ku’lam tank and Sinhala businessmen have been given with acres of lands in the forest adjacent to the village for indiscriminate mining of gravel. While four fertile Tamil villages that have already gone into the Sinhala division have become Sinhalicised in practice, Tha’n’ni-mu’rippu faces a similar fate. Sri Lanka’s genocide of Tamils is geared to escalate while India particularly encourages it and the world Establishments delay justice.
The Tha’n’ni-mu’rippu village was particularly targeted by the ‘peace-keeping’ Indian military in the late 1980s. The atrocities committed by the Indian military on the people of this village are still fresh in the memories of many. The atrocities were committed on the pretext that the villagers helped the LTTE camping in the forests of Ma’nal-Aa’ru (now Sinhalicised as Weli-oya).
The fertile village, abounding with resources for agriculture throughout the year, freshwater fishing and cattle grazing, especially breeding of buffalos, has got its name from the breakwater bund and the tank of the village (Tha’n’ni: water; Mu’rippu: breakwater bund).
The prosperous villagers, who were always supplying food for others, held the prestige of never depending on others.
Out of the 820 families of the village only around 600 families have survived and registered for resettlement after the war. But on the pretext of demining their resettlement is blocked and many of them are staying with friends and relatives in other villages.
But people of the village say that there is not much for demining, as in 2008 itself the SL military has occupied this village and people escaped.
When the SL military occupied, escaping people took only a little of their personal belongings with them. But now every part of their houses has been systematically removed and taken by the occupying military, say the people of the village. Nothing is broken, but everything is carefully removed, people said.
At the commencement of ‘resettlement’ in Mullaiththeevu district, people have noticed long conveys of vehicles removing things from their villages in this locality. Such transportations usually took place late in the nights.
While Tha’n’ni-mu’rippu villagers are not resettled, currently, Sinhalese and Muslims fish in the tank and take the produce in refrigerated vehicles to Anuradhapura. Even the recently resettled people of the neighbouring Tamil village Kumuzha-munai are not permitted to fish in the tank for ‘security’ reasons.
Last week, local Tamil fishermen nabbed Sinhala and Muslim fishermen who encroached the Pu’liya-munai River of the neighbouring Kokku’laay lagoon. But the Tamil fishermen were brutally attacked and injured. Even though the encroachers were later arrested by fisheries officials and produced in the court, they were released as a gesture of ‘goodwill’. The following day, the encroachers were again seen fishing in the river.
Tha’n’ni-mu’rippu will see similar fate of Sinhalicisation, the Tamil villagers of the region say.
When a new Sinhala division was created and when Tamil villages were included into it the opinion of the people of the villages were never sought, because everything happened while keeping the original people of the villages not resettled.
Once an exclusive Tamil district, who ever now remains in the Tamil villages and what ever resettlement now takes place in these villages, they all have to play puppets to the Sinhala colonizers fast converting the demographical landscape, the villagers point out by showing the examples of the so-called resettled villages.
India, the so-called international community and the UN that were involved in every stage of the genocide and structural genocide, and were involved in the formulas of ‘resettlement’ are equally answerable like that of genocidal Sri Lanka, people of the villages accuse.
They are also nowadays vocal in expressing their anger at shades of Tamil polity playing stooges to the very powers that openly uphold genocidal Sri Lanka in the international arena.
TN