{"id":61873,"date":"2016-12-29T23:59:43","date_gmt":"2016-12-30T05:59:43","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/?p=61873"},"modified":"2016-12-28T13:30:56","modified_gmt":"2016-12-28T20:30:56","slug":"tragedy-for-sinhalese-in-the-trincomalee-district-acts-of-gross-unfairness-to-them","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/2016\/12\/29\/tragedy-for-sinhalese-in-the-trincomalee-district-acts-of-gross-unfairness-to-them\/","title":{"rendered":"Tragedy for Sinhalese in the Trincomalee District \u2013 acts of gross unfairness to them"},"content":{"rendered":"

Chanaka Bandarage<\/strong><\/em><\/span><\/h2>\n

\u00a0<\/strong>Some difficulties\u00a0 faced by them: <\/u><\/strong><\/p>\n

    \n
  1. Dehiwatte<\/strong> Village\u2013<\/strong> this is a remote village about 45 km south from the Trincomalee town. It is about 40 km south west\u00a0 of Kantale town.<\/li>\n<\/ol>\n

    Like many areas in the East, Dehiwatte is a traditional Sinhalese Buddhist village. There are\u00a0 Buddhist artifacts found in Dehiwatte area, nearly 2000 years old.\u00a0 The monuments have been built \u00a0during the Kingdoms of Kavanthissa and Dutugamunu.<\/p>\n

    Lots of villagers have come to live in Dehiwatte from the south of the country in the early 1950s, under Hon DS Senanayake\u2019s colonisation scheme, introduced in the mid 1940s.<\/p>\n

    Currently there are about 500 families living in Dehiwatte. The inhabitants are predominantly rice farmers. They are of very poor socio economic level.<\/p>\n

    During the war period the villagers lived under very torrid conditions.\u00a0 The village was subjected to Tamil Tiger attacks. One attack happened in 1985 where about 15\u00a0 villagers were butchered to death.<\/p>\n

    Major unfairnesses faced by the villagers <\/strong><\/p>\n

    (1) Loss of fertile paddy land \u2013 about 500 acres<\/strong><\/p>\n

    After the end of the war in 2009, about 110 farmers began cultivating a large stretch of abandoned \u00a0paddy land \u00a0that was previously cultivated by them prior to the beginning of the LTTE conflict. The ownership of the land has always vested with the state (ie, the Crown). The extent of the abandoned paddy land is about 1500 acres, but the villagers cultivated only about 500 acres. They had plans to cultivate the balance 1000 acres. The villagers spent their own money and built a dam to divert water to the paddy lands. The\u00a0 increased harvest enhanced their income. People started building proper houses and buy amenities for their homes. But, in \u00a0March 2016, the cultivation was halted. It was \u00a0during the time of the former Divisional Secretary. \u00a0According to the villagers, during his time not only they were \u00a0evicted from the land, their land was also given to Tamil farmers of the adjoining village – Kanguveli. Some Sinhalese who refused to move out were attacked with poles and machetes by Tamil thugs. \u00a0Since the last 9 months the newly introduced Tamil farmers are using the land, and they are now somewhat established.\u00a0 According to villagers, they are using the entire 1500 acres only for themselves, including the 500 acres that they were cultivating. The Sinhalese, including the Chief incumbent of the Mandalagiri Raja Maha Vihara, Ven Dehiwatte Premasiri, \u00a0who is now blind,\u00a0 have made protests but to no avail.\u00a0 When questioned the current Divisional Secretary\u00a0 has stated to the affected villagers that \u00a0the eviction was done due to an \u2018order\u2019 by a very senior Eastern Province MP. He has stated he has no other alternative but to carry out this MP\u2019s \u00a0\u2018orders\u2019. \u00a0This MP is a highly \u2018respected\u2019 figure in the country. The villagers vouch that this is the true reason for their eviction. The absolute veracity of their statement is difficult to ascertain, but, the writer having spoken to some of them, believes that the villagers are not saying an untruth. According to the villagers, the government officials (ie, the Divisional Secretary, Muttur Police et al) know that the very senior MP \u00a0is very powerful and that they must follow his \u2018orders\u2019.\u00a0\u00a0 According to villagers the very senior MP\u2019s Personal Assistant frequents the area in a double cab. They say he gives \u2018orders\u2019 to government servants. The desolate\u00a0 Sinhalese state that this act is a clear demonstration that they are being treated as second class citizens. They demand the restoration of the status quo \u2013 that the lands that they have been cultivating for the last 7 years (500 acres), be returned to them.\u00a0 They say it is alright for the Tamil villagers cultivating the balance 1000 acres. Another issue is that though this village belongs to Seru Nuwara\/Seruwawila (\u0dc3\u0dda\u0dbb\u0dd4\u0dc0\u0dd2\u0dbd\/\u0dc3\u0dda\u0dbb\u0dd4\u0dc0\u0dcf\u0dc0\u0dd2\u0dbd) Police area, since recently Muttur Police has taken control of the same, without reason. The villagers say they prefer to come under Seru Nuwara\/Seruwawila Police area.<\/p>\n

    (2) Destruction of the virgin forest and Buddhist artifacts<\/strong><\/p>\n

    The area adjoining these paddy lands is jungle where wild elephants and other animals roam.\u00a0 This area is called Bakmiwewa (\u0db6\u0d9a\u0dca\u0db8\u0dd3\u0dc0\u0dd0\u0dc0). In the last 6 months hundreds of acres have been cleared indiscriminately (possibly thousands) and the area has been demarcated into small plots,\u00a0 with the intention of settling Tamils from outside areas.\u00a0 No Tamil settlers have been brought to live there yet. High tension electric lines have been erected by the Electricity Board in this thick jungle, with the view of creating a new Tamil village. Tents for the intended settlers have been erected. With this type of work, the human-elephant conflict exacerbates.<\/em> \u00a0<\/strong>The area that has been cleared is full of Buddhist artifacts.\u00a0 There is evidence that Buddhist temples have stood there 2000 years ago. But, most unfortunately most of the artifacts are no more. Eye witnesses say that 3 Sandakanda Pahanas (\u0dc3\u0db3\u0d9a\u0da9 \u0db4\u0dc4\u0db1\u0dca) carved out of solid rock stone were chopped into pieces recently and buried under soil. About 30 rock stone pillars (\u0d9c\u0dbd\u0dca \u0d9a\u0dd4\u0dc5\u0dd4\u0dab\u0dd4) and 4 rock stone inscriptions \u00a0(\u0dc1\u0dd2\u0dbd\u0dcf \u0dbd\u0dd2\u0db4\u0dd2) have been used to build \u00a0a newly built Hindu Kovil. Rather than preserving the artifacts, the Archeological Department and other government servants seem \u00a0in deep sleep, thus, the vandalism continues.<\/p>\n

      \n
    1. Pulikandikulama Village (<\/strong>\u0db4\u0dd4\u0dbd\u0dd2\u0d9a\u0db1\u0dca\u0da9\u0dd2\u0d9a\u0dd4\u0dbd\u0db8 \u0db4\u0dd4\u0dbb\u0dcf\u0dab \u0d9c\u0db8\u0dca\u0db8\u0dcf\u0db1\u0dba)<\/strong><\/li>\n<\/ol>\n

      This is an ancient Sinhala Village now dying out slowly. The village is situated about 35 km west of Trincomalee, towards the direction of Gomarankadawala (\u0d9c\u0ddd\u0db8\u0dbb\u0db1\u0dca\u0d9a\u0da9\u0dc0\u0dbd), which is about 12 km away from the village. Only about 130 families live in the village currently.\u00a0 It used to have about 200 \u00a0families prior to the Tamil Tiger attacks in the mid 1980s. Two main problems of the village are as follows:<\/p>\n

      (i) Lack of teachers for the village school \u2013 Pulikandikulama Vidyalaya, Bakmigama <\/strong>(\u0db4\u0dd4\u0dbd\u0dd2\u0d9a\u0db1\u0dca\u0da9\u0dd2\u0d9a\u0dd4\u0dbd\u0db8 \u0dc0\u0dd2\u0daf\u0dca\u200d\u0dba\u0dcf\u0dbd\u0dba, \u0db6\u0d9a\u0dca\u0db8\u0dd3\u0d9c\u0db8)<\/strong>. Now, only two volunteer teachers teach there, and their services are going to end soon as funding for their salaries have stopped. A humanitarian organisation which the writer \u00a0is a member of has stepped into payment of part of the salaries. \u00a0It is the responsibility of the government to provide proper teachers\u00a0 to this school. The closure of the school\u00a0 means the gradual dying out of the village, as villagers will move out in search of schools for their children elsewhere.<\/p>\n

      (ii)Human \u2013Elephant conflict.<\/strong> As this and the nearby villages are surrounded by thick jungle (which is fast disappearing), the human-elephant conflict is intense here. There is an \u2018Elephant Fence\u2019 but it is broken intermittently. Restoration of the Elephant\u00a0 Fence is a must for the survival of the village. Otherwise both humans and elephants will continue to \u2018fight\u2019 as animosity between the two has now reached boiling point. A strong Elephant Fence is required somewhat akin to the fences erected in Udawalawe area.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

      Chanaka Bandarage \u00a0Some difficulties\u00a0 faced by them: Dehiwatte Village\u2013 this is a remote village about 45 km south from the Trincomalee town. It is about 40 km south west\u00a0 of Kantale town. Like many areas in the East, Dehiwatte is a traditional Sinhalese Buddhist village. There are\u00a0 Buddhist artifacts found in Dehiwatte area, nearly 2000 […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[88],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-61873","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-chanaka-bandarage"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/61873","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=61873"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/61873\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=61873"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=61873"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=61873"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}