SL authorities in Ampaa’rai harassing Tamil farmers from Batticaloa exposed at courts

Why did the guards from the SL Wildlife Conservation Department in Ampaa'rai district intrude into the district of Batticaloa and arrest the Tamil dairy farmers from the pasture lands there in January 2015, questioned Lahshman Bandara Mullegama, the lawyer representing the Tamil farmers at a court case, which was taken up for investigation at Dehiattakandiya Court in Ampaa'rai for the 11th time on Thursday. Operatives belonging to the SL Wildlife Conservation Department and the occupying Sinhala soldiers were chasing the Tamil cattle herders away from Maathava'nai and Mayilaththamadu pasturelands where Sinhala colonists were allowed to engage in slash-and-burn cultivation. 

The Sinhala lawyer, defending the Tamil farmers also questioned the Wildlife Department officials why they avoided to hand over the detained farmers to the police in Batticaloa. 

The farmers said their belongings were also destroyed by the single-minded guards who were taking side with the Sinhala settlers in the border villages of Ampaa’rai district. 15 Tamil cattle herders lost all their properties to the assault squad that carried T-56 rifles and shotguns. Three of the farmers were also beaten up at gunpoint. Later, they were taken to a Wildlife Conservation office at Mahaoya and ‘interrogated’ before they were handed over to the Sri Lankan police, who took the Tamil farmers to the courts located at Dehiattakandiya in the bordering Ampaa'rai district. 

Attorney-at-Law Mullegama was appointed by the Center for Human Rights and Development (CHRD) to represent the Tamil famers. 

A video report filed by TamilNet in June 2015 on the issue is reproduced below: