The occupying unitary State of genocidal Sri Lanka, which has been adamantly refusing to hand over the affairs of looking after the cultural heritage of North and East into the hands of provincial councils, on Friday launched a new project with foreign funding with the aim of bringing the affairs of cultural heritage, heritage management and cultural tourism into the hands of Colombo run ministries. Combining the funding through ‘Colonial heritage’ masters in Europe, Maithiri – Ranil regime is advancing the ‘Army and Archaeology’ paradigm of Rajapaksa regime into new genocidal heights, commented political observers in Jaffna after witnessing the way of the launching of ‘Historical Monuments of the Jaffna Fort’ with a politicized ‘antiquities replica shop’ and the Nalloor office for ‘Jaffna Project’ of ‘Central Cultural Fund’.
SL Minister visiting the books and replica shop at Jaffna Fort
The secretariat inaugurated at Pa'ndaarak-ku'lam, Nalloor
Inauguration inscription at Jaffna Fort
There was no information in Tamil except the inauguration board. The books exhibited were all in Sinhala. Almost all the replicas exhibited there were either Buddha statues or artefacts associated with Buddhism.
The project has been designed on the ‘advice’ by SL Prime Minister Ranil Wickrasinghe, executed according to the ‘guidance’ of the SL Department of Archaeology and managed under the ‘patronage’ of the Central Cultural Fund, which is placed under the SL Education Ministry.
Professor P. Pushparatnam of the Jaffna University’s History Department has been appointed the Head of the ‘Jaffna Project’. However, the project is entirely managed by the Southern ‘Directors’ and their colonial masters funding the project from outside the island, the observers in Jaffna said.
SL Minister of Education Akila Viraj Kariyawasam was in Jaffna to launch the project on Friday and an event was held at Kalisapathy Hall at the University of Jaffna. Buddha statues were exhibited at various locations within the university premises for the ‘pleasure’ of SL Minister Kariyawasam, news sources in Jaffna said.
The restoration of the Dutch Fort has been extensively funded by The Netherlands.
