SL Police, DS, Forest Department continue to block Champoor Tamils from regaining agricultural lands

The occupying Colombo has instructed the Divisional Secretary of Moothoor and the Officer in Charge of Police at Champoor to collaborate with the SL Department of Forest Conservation in blocking the uprooted Champoor Tamils from entering Kokkaddi, a coastal village with fertile upper lands suitable for agriculture and farming in Moothoor East, informed civil officials in Trincomalee said. The area of Kokkaddi, also known as Vaddavan, has been an agricultural area where Eezham Tamils were engaged for decades in fishing, agriculture and animal farming. The structural genocide against Eezham Tamils will not stop until Eezham Tamils regain their sovereign rights over their land and sea, Tamil civil officials in Trincomalee commented.

30 families were having their huts and lands at Kokkaddi until 1998. At least 15 of them are still in possession of documents to prove their rights.

Tamil landowners from Champoor were unable to engage in fishing or agriculture since 1998 when the occupying Sinhala military chased away the farmers.

When the LTTE liberated Champoor, the people were able continue to with agriculture although they stayed away from their huts due to SL Navy firing.

After the SL military seized the strategic Champoor area from the LTTE in 2007 and the entire Champoor was subjected to Sinhala militarisation, fast growing shrubs have covered the entire landscape. Although the traces of their huts have vanished, the temple structures are there. The villagers have managed to clear some of their worshipping sites confronting the Divisional Secretary, SL Forest Department operatives and the SL Police at Champoor.

In 2015, when the uprooted Eezham Tamils attempted to regain their lands, Moothoor divisional secretary Mr. V. Jusuf was blocking uprooted Tamils issuing notices to them stating that they were prohibited from entering the area. However, the landowners managed to confront the Divisional Secretary by submitting documents of their rights to Kokkaddi lands to the District Secretariat.

The Divisional Secretary, deployed by Colombo to facilitate structural genocide against Eezham Tamils, was having different plans of transferring their lands to others, the uprooted Eezham Tamils blame, citing his role in creating conflicts between Muslims and Tamils by attempting to transfer a section of houses constructed at the Tamil village of Va'l'likk-kea'ni in Kadatkaraich-cheanai to Muslims.

Even after the uprooted Tamils have proven their rights to the agricultural lands, the Divisional Secretary and the Officer-in-Charge of SL Police in Champoor together with the SL Forest Department operatives continue to limit the scope of their access to Kokkaddi, informed civil sources at Batticaloa District Secretariat said verifying the concerns of uprooted Tamils.