While the Tamil Youth Organisation in UK was engaged in an awareness campaign for boycotting genocidal Sri Lanka in international sports, a cricket-related euphoria of the Sinhala students in the Eastern University of Sri Lanka in Batticaloa resulted in attack on Tamil students and indefinite closure of the university. Inebriated by euphoria of Sri Lanka’s victory in the cricket semi finals that took place in Colombo, the Sinhala students of the Batticaloa University entered into the hostel of the Tamil students and attacked them on Tuesday midnight. Following the incident, the SL police at the university check post that entered into the campus without permission from the Vice Chancellor also started attacking the Tamil students. As Tamil students started boycotting classes on Wednesday the university is closed down indefinitely.
On Wednesday the affected Tamil students demanded the university administration to remove the police post. As the Eastern Commander of the occupying SL army refused to consent, the students of all the faculties started boycotting the classes.
Following ‘instructions’ received from the ‘higher authorities’ the acting Vice Chancellor Dr. K. Prem Kumar ordered the closure of the university indefinitely. In addition to the Vice Chancellor, colonial Sri Lanka has recently appointed a Sinhala ‘competent authority’ to the university.
A few years ago, the SL government took a controversial and challenging decision to admit Sinhala students to the university. The SL police post in the university campus was established after the killing of a Sinhala student in 2008.
Not only the students but even the university administration and faculty members too started facing many ‘inconveniences’ having the SL police post in the university. The Defence Ministry of colonial Sri Lanka continues rejecting the request of the university circles to remove the police post.
In 2009 a hostel sub-warden and two students coming from the Mullaiththeevu district were murdered in the hostel, allegedly with the complicity of those who were ‘responsible for security’ and their regional collaborators. But occupying Sri Lanka announced the murders as suicides and allowed the free movement of the murderers, allege local people of Batticaloa
TN