Military can take back whatever it releases, SL commander tells uprooted people in Jaffna

Lt. Gen. Mahesh Senanayake, the commander of the occupying Army of the unitary State of genocidal Sri Lanka, was ‘reminding’ the families of uprooted people that the SL military was in a position to take back whatever being released to the public. Mahesh Senanayake told the recipients of 25 houses, which were built by the SL military at the so-called ‘Village of Reconciliation’ (Nalli'nakka-puram) on Friday that it was the duty of the recipients of the housing scheme to bring up their children without recourse to a bitter war as in the past. Otherwise, the military was in a position to take back what it was giving, he said. When the Tamil interpreter was reluctant to translate the intimidating statement, he repeated the message to the translator, making sure his warning gets translated from Sinhala to Tamil to the target audience. 



The entire speech of Mahesh Senanayake centred on counter-insurgency. He was comparing the uprooted Tamils with the Sinhala soldiers and said only 10% of the soldiers had own houses in the South. 

He was talking about the upbringing of the children and the next generation. The majority of those who waged war [against SL military] have gone to other places in the island or abroad. Only the innocent people were still languishing here, he said. 

Tamil children were instructed to touch the feet of the SL military commanders. 

Commenting on the conduct of the ceremony and the psyops speech of the SL commander, an official who accompanied SL Government Agent of Jaffna District N. Vethanayahan said many of the recipients of the houses in the first phase had abandoned the settlement. The militarised nature and the lack of livelihood infrastructure at the so-called Nallikka'na-puram had made them leave the houses provided to them at the barren quarry lands of the KKS cement factory. However, the deception continues, the official said. 

At the event, Mr Vethanayaham urged the SL military commander to consider releasing 500 acres of lands in military occupied Valikaamam North on the occasion of traditional New Year in April, which is celebrated by the Tamils and the Sinhalese. 

Mr Vethanayahan is under extreme pressure from Colombo authorities to hand over all construction work of housing schemes in the future to the occupying military, informed sources at the District Secretariat told TamilNet. 

The written English speech by the Government Agent and the way he was addressing the military commanders and the ‘services’ offered by them, also revealed the current level of the pressure.

Mr Vethanayahan said there were 1,109 uprooted families living in various ‘welfare camps’ according to the statistics from 2015. [In fact, several thousands people uprooted from Valikaamam North are living outside the 34 ‘welfare camps’ where around 6,000 people are residing]. 

The SL Ministry of Resettlement provided the funds [from the international community] for the raw materials of the 133 houses, which the SL military constructed at no cost by deploying its workforce at KKS in 2016, he said. In 2017, the SL military built another set of 20 homes, he added. 

The SL Commander, referring to the request coming from the GA on releasing 500 acres of lands on the occasion of traditional New Year, was only talking about the military escorted SLTB bus service to the public along the military occupied Tho'ndaimaanaa'ru - Point Pedro coastal road. 

Due to ‘national security’ reasons, only the SL-State owned transport board busses were now allowed to operate. But, by next year, it may be possible for the military to let the vehicles of civilians to use the road as well, the SLA Commander said. 

A Tamil agent who had returned from UK to collaborate with the occupying SL military during the times of Gotabhaya Rajapaksa was also seen among the military officers and soldiers at the event.