Eezham Tamils in Mullaiththeevu protest against expansion of ‘SLNS Gotabhaya’

The people of Mullaiththeevu on Wednesday confronted SL Survey Department officials who were trying to seize 617 acres of lands at Vadduvaakal, where the final onslaught took place in May 2009. The area has been seized by the SL Navy for the so-called ‘Regional Security Centre’, monitoring the coastal belt of Mullaiththeevu towards the Bay of Bengal. The lands that belong to private owners have been illegally occupied since 2009 and there are crucial evidences still intact in the area, the people say. The SL Department officials had informed the owners in advance that their lands were to be surveyed for three days starting from Wednesday. The protesting land-owners were accompanied by TNA and TNPF politicians. The protest comes also after SL Deputy Defence Secretary recently visited the area in an attempt to convince the land-owners to accept alternative lands elsewhere.

‘Eastern Naval Area’ as defined by the occupying SL Navy [Image courtesy: navy.lk]

There are 13 so-called ‘Commissioned Navy Bases’ in the Eastern Naval Area of the SL Navy [Image courtesy: navy.lk]

However, Eezham Tamil land-owners have been firm in freeing the SL Navy occupied land where the final genocidal onslaught took place in May 2009, NPC Councillor from Mullaiththeevu Mr T. Ravikaran told TamilNet.

There was an undeclared detention camp at the locality to keep Tamil Prisoners of War, who were imprisoned at the end of genocidal onslaught in Vanni.

TNA Parliamentarian Selvam Adaikalanthan, TNA National List MP Shanthi Sriskandarajah, NPC Councillor Antony Jeganathan, TNPF Leader Gajendrakumar Ponnambalam, General Secretary Kajendren Selvarajah were also present at the site of the protest extending their political support to the protesting people.

The SL Navy has recently put up barbed-wire fences annexing the seized lands with SLNS Gotabhaya.

The ‘Gotabaya’ camp was initially launched as a Naval Deployment (ND) in January 2011 and was later upgraded as a Commissioned Naval Base (CNB) with the title ‘Sri Lanka Naval Ship Gotabhaya’ in 2012.

Several naval detachments connected to ‘Gotabhaya’ are functioning in areas subjected to demographic and structural genocide in Naayaa'ru and Kokku'laay areas of Karai-thu'raip-pattu division.

The ‘SLNS Gotabaya’ comes under the so-called Eastern Naval Area of the SL Navy Command, which has its central command at Trincomalee.

The ENA covers the longest eastern belt of the occupied country of Eezham Tamils, and consists of 13 Commissioned Naval Bases (CNBs). The ENA is the largest establishment within the SL Navy in the entire island.