{"id":44703,"date":"2015-06-14T14:11:44","date_gmt":"2015-06-14T20:11:44","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/?p=44703"},"modified":"2015-06-14T07:01:37","modified_gmt":"2015-06-14T14:01:37","slug":"the-okland-report-an-attempt-to-remove-the-defence-forces-from-the-north","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/2015\/06\/14\/the-okland-report-an-attempt-to-remove-the-defence-forces-from-the-north\/","title":{"rendered":"THE OKLAND REPORT, AN ATTEMPT TO REMOVE THE DEFENCE FORCES FROM THE NORTH"},"content":{"rendered":"

By KEERTHI WARNAKULASURIYA-\u00a0Defence correspondent- Sunday Diviana\u00a0(translated by Ranjith Soysa)<\/em><\/span><\/h2>\n

Even though six years have elapsed after the defeat of the LTTE , still the interested overseas based parties continue to package and sell the issues in the North and the East. The latest is the 37 page report issued by Okland Institute stating that the Sri Lankan government is continuing to violate human rights of the Tamils. This NGO was established by a woman called Anuruddika Mittal in 2004. She had travelled to the North some years ago and had conducted discussions with NGOs.<\/p>\n

Under the theme of Fight for justice and the long shadow of war\u201d, it is a collection of distortions and disinformation. She says she sent five research teams to Colombo, Batticola,<\/p>\n

Trincomalee, \u00a0Jaffana and Mullativ. But, she does not reveal the names of the persons who researched. Yet, it is obvious that her report is based on reports emanating from the well known NGOs operating from Sri Lanka.<\/p>\n

In her erroneous report Anurudikka states as follows:<\/p>\n

1 In the North there are nearly 1,60,000- defence forces personnel<\/p>\n

    \n
  1. There is a one defence forces person for every six civilian in the North.<\/li>\n<\/ol>\n
      \n
    1. Whole of the North and the East has undergone Sinhalisation.<\/li>\n<\/ol>\n

      4.Okaland Institute has taken action to submit affidavits obtained from the civilians to UN organizations.<\/p>\n

        \n
      1. 75% of the Sri Lankan defence forces personnel are stationed in the North.<\/li>\n<\/ol>\n
          \n
        1. The true situation in the North had been explained to Oakland Institute by the Chief Minister Wigneswaran.<\/li>\n<\/ol>\n
            \n
          1. A number of mistakes are there regarding the village names such as Arripu village is called Point Pedro, Kallar as Somapura,.Nilapali is Nilapola, Punkarai is Mahindapura, Thiramangali is Siri Mangala Rama.<\/li>\n<\/ol>\n

            She expresses her hatred regarding memorials constructed in Mulativ and Elephant Pass etc and questions whether is it not the result of the Sinhalisation. She further says that these are clear signs of the Sinhalese capturing the Tamil lands.<\/p>\n

            There was a function to launch the report with the participation of the international press. At the discussion the Chief Minister Wigenswaran said that he had asked the soldiers to stay within their barracks .He also said that the President Sirisena told him to take over the 5 star hotel run by the defence forces in the North and use it as a conference centre.<\/p>\n

            In her report Anuruddika states that the civilians in the North continue to be internally displaced and registers her opposition to the appointment of Maj Gen Jagath Dias as the chief of staff of Sri Lanka Army. It is obvious that the Chief Minister Wigenwaran had worked closely with the author on this report.<\/p>\n

            Another important question is to ascertain who funded this report and who allowed Anuruddika to travel to Sri Lanka. The report has been prepared between \u00a0\u00a0December\u00a0 2014\u00a0and\u00a0 January 2015.<\/p>\n

            Within 48 hours of the issue of the report the Minister Swaminathan has visited the Navy Head quarters of North West based in Mullikulam in Mannar. On this day, TNA member. Adalikandan , Rev Victor Susai the chief of the Catholic mission in Mannar had met some \u2018refugees\u2019 in Malaynakadum in Pollikulam. They have insisted their lands were taken by force by the Navy should be returned to them. Mullikulam is located in a strategically important area in Mannar. Many are questioning whether Mallikulam , an important base in the West coast is also facing the same destiny of closure as the Vidura camp in the Eastern coast!<\/strong><\/p>\n

            \u00a0<\/strong>In the meantime, at a meeting held with the teachers and local residents, TNA ,MP Suresh Premachandran said that the Army camp in Arsappukulam will be removed after the TNA \u2018s win at the next elections.<\/strong><\/p>\n

            Another objective of the Oakland Institute is to get the Government to free 300 odd terrorists who are responsible for grave crimes and are in custody at present. Oakland institute report says that it has become a common demand among the Tamils to the Government of Sri Lanka to free the political prisoners. Soon after the issue of the report, TNA MP, Sumanthiran said that he had initiated discussions with the Government to free these prisoners. But, these prisoners were responsible in attacking army camps, destroying helicopters and planes, laying land mines,etc.<\/p>\n

            The report also says that the whole of the North and the East is Tamil Land. It mentions\u00a0 sighting of Sinhala name boards, erecting war memorials, building of Buddhist temples as steps to undermine the identity of the area. It also says that the \u00a0stationing the defence forces in the North and the East have caused many hardships to the Tamil civilians.<\/p>\n

            Aren\u2019t we witnessing a dress rehearsal of the coming gloomy events?<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

            By KEERTHI WARNAKULASURIYA-\u00a0Defence correspondent- Sunday Diviana\u00a0(translated by Ranjith Soysa) Even though six years have elapsed after the defeat of the LTTE , still the interested overseas based parties continue to package and sell the issues in the North and the East. The latest is the 37 page report issued by Okland Institute stating that the […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[12],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-44703","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-forum"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/44703","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=44703"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/44703\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=44703"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=44703"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=44703"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}