Occupying SL Navy wants surveying of Mu’l’livaaykkaal lands amidst public protests

The occupying SL Navy in Mullaiththeevu district is exerting pressure on the officials of the SL Survey Department to survey the lands near Vadduvaakal in Mullaiththeevu for permanent seizure for military use. The latest move comes in the wake of a two-hour protest staged by the landowners on Thursday blocked the survey department officials from proceeding with their work. 671 acres of residential, coastal and agricultural lands in Mu'l'livaaykkaal East, containing crucial evidences and traces of genocidal onslaught against Eezham Tamils, are now being ‘officially’ appropriated by Colombo citing ‘public purpose’ for the expansion of SL naval base SLNS Gotabaya. Most of the lands belong to private owners. Around 100 acres of lands are intended for the creation of a fisheries campus, civil officials in the district said.

Landowners blocking traffic at Vadduvaakal Bridge on 26 October 2016, oppose surveying of their lands for permanent seizure for Sinhala military use

Gazette notification announcing the seizure of Mu'l'livaaykkaal lands

‘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]

On Thursday, the Government Agent of Mullaiththeevu had to intervene in order to resume normalcy after urging the surveyors to return and requesting the protesters who were blocking the traffic along Paranthan – Mullaiththeevu Road at Vadduvaakal.

An extraordinary Gazette notice issued by SL Minister of ‘Lands and Parliamentary Reforms’ on August 04, 2017, only talks about ‘public purpose’ without mentioning the military purpose.

The ‘Gotabaya’ camp was initially launched as a Naval Deployment (ND) in January 2011.

Later, it was 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 at Chemmalai, Naayaa’ru and in Chilaavaththai. These areas are subjected to demographic and structural genocide in 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.

While the military of occupying Colombo in Sinhalicising the coastal stretch from Nalla-tha'n'nith-thoduvaay in Mullaiththeevu to Thu'rai-neelaava'nai in Batticaloa through militarisation, the so-called ‘development’ agenda backed by the West is deployed to Sinhalicise the fertile interior lands of Eezham Tamils through the so-called ‘Mahaweli Master Plan’.

SL President Maithiripala Sirisena, with his ‘Polonnaruwa Chinthana’ is also the minister responsible for ‘Mahaweli’ occupation plan.

‘System L’ of Mahaweli project targets the fertile areas in Mullaiththeevu while ‘System B’, the largest of the current projects under the Mahaweli scheme, aims to seize the resourceful interior lands of Batticaloa district. The deployment of Sinhala ‘home guards’ paramilitary, extremist Buddhist monks and the SL ‘Army and Archaeology’, Forest Department and Wild Life Department are all operated along the ‘master plan’ of Sinhalicisation.