Unfortunately, Learned Academics Like Dayan Are Pushing The Country Down The Precipice In The Name Of Sinhala-Buddhist Nationalism!

By Veluppillai Thangavelu –MAY 16, 2018

Veluppillai Thangavelu

Dayan Jayatilleka (DJ) suffers from chronic anti-Tamil and federal phobia for no valid reasons. As the flag bearer of Sinhala-Buddhist racism and majoritarian, there is no surprise he is opposed to any form of power sharing. The allegation that the LTTE killed the greatest number of educated Tamil political personalities is old stuff. He is parroting such allegations for decades. He is simply shedding crocodile tears for the dead and not the living. The fact of the matter is war crimes committed by both the armed forces and LTTE should be investigated. That is exactly what Resolution 30/1 is demanding. However, in the eyes of the Tamil people, Prabhakaran is a war hero and continues to be venerated and celebrated cutting across party affiliation.

The irony is Dayan Jayatilleka has no tears or compassion for the thousands who perished when SLAF planes dropped cluster bombs indiscriminately. Even hospitals were not spared and Gotabhaya yelled that hospitals are legitimate military targets! He got the UN officials and NGOs out of the way to avoid eyewitnesses to the war. The Army for its part shelled the area knowing well there are hundreds and thousands of civilians in shelters!

Has DJ conveniently forgotten the fact that Rajiv Gandhi escaped death narrowly when sailor Vijitha Rohana Wijemuni attacked him with a rifle butt in 1987? This individual who has donned the robes of an Astrologer was in the news recently when he predicted the death of President Sirisena before January 26, 2018.

Prabhakaran was no Hitler since he never advocated the racial superiority of Tamils over Sinhalese. He stood for equality between the Sinhalese and Tamils. It is Mahinda Rajapaksa who eminently fits the personality of Hitler when he claimed:” I am a Sinhalese and this land belongs to the Sinhalese and Tamils should listen to what I say as a Sinhalese” in Kilinochchi in 2014.

As much as Prabhakaran by no means a Hitler so are Tamils are not Germans. When the victorious allied armies rolled into Berlin they were greeted with bouquets and flowers by the German people. But sadly there were no flowers or garlands for the Sinhalese armed forces, the so-called liberators according to DJ. Wherever the Sinhala army advanced the Tamil people fled to LTTE controlled area for safety. There is not a single occasion in which the Tamil people went over to the Army controlled area.

Nine years after the war the Tamils of Northeast hate the Sinhalese army who are still occupying large chunks of private land that belongs to the people. As I write the frustrated villagers sailed back to the island after tired of waiting. They attached white flags to the front of the dozens of fishing boats that were lined up and made their way towards the island. Wary of a heavy-handed military response, the white flags signalled the peacefulness of their demonstration.

The Iranativu island is located 6 Nautical Miles west of Nachchikuda and is made up of two islets, Iranativu North and Iranativu South covering an area of just 5.93 Sq.Kms. It comes under Poonakary Divisional Secretariat in Kilinochchi district. People from Iranativu were displaced in 1992 and settled down in Nachchikuda due to the military offensive. They have been living in Mulankavil for the past 26 years without any livelihood support and without any hope for the future. After the end of the war and following the resettlement from IDP camps in 2010, the residents made several attempts to move back to their own lands. On May 1, 2017, the residents of Iranativu began a peaceful protest calling for their lands to be released. Whilst permitting the villagers to stay, the Sri Lankan navy remains on the island, fuelling uncertainty about the residents right to live in their own lands. Thankfully, the Secretary to the Ministry of Resettlement who visited the island has agreed to release the lands and then help resettlement.

According to Presidential Secretariat, sources the armed forces continue to occupy 13,013.06 acres of land belonging to Tamil civilians. The highest occupation is in the Jaffna district where a total of 4,599 acres is under occupation by the Army. In Valikamam North out of a total of 6381.5 acres, only 2,475.6 (46.21%) acres have been released. The figures for Kilinochchi district is 1,515 acres, Mullaitivu district 1,150 acres, Vavuniya district 1,872 acres and Mannar district 2,391 acres. These figures are hotly contested by civil societies involved in resettlement.

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