Colombo targets Nalloor for Sinhalization of Tamil North

LETTER TO EDITOR

by M P Sivalingam

(May 30, Jaffna, Sri Lanka Guardian) The Sinhalese government targets Nalloor, the former capital of the Kingdom of Jaffna, for focusing its agenda of Sinhalisation of the Tamils areas in the island, news sources in Jaffna said. The occupying Army passed curfew-like orders last weekend prohibiting the movement of people in the locality of the Nalloor Kanthasaami Temple, while engaging in bringing in Sinhala traders and investors to occupy the surroundings of the temple. Nalloor is located in the suburbs of the Jaffna city today. It has an image as the cultural capital of the people of Jaffna. Not only the Colombo government, but also the international agencies and the Indian establishment have a focus on Nalloor. The recently opened Indian diplomatic mission in Jaffna and the UN offices are also located close to the temple of Nalloor.

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What the Army is doing in Nalloor is exactly what the British did to the Dalada Maligawa (Temple of the Tooth Relic) premises after conquering the Kingdom of Kandy, building the ‘Queens Hotel’ in front of it. If the Sinhalese are justified in their struggle against the British, the Tamils are also justified in their struggle against the Sinhala occupiers and their international abettors, commented an academic of the University of Jaffna.

The SL Army on Sunday announced that no one should be seen around the Nalloor temple after 7:00 p.m. SL troops deployed in the area in hundreds chased away people from the locality. From children to elderly, no one was exception. This initiative of the SL Army, undertaken without the participation of the SL police, has evoked much suspicion among the residents.

The excuse of the Army was that activities of ‘cultural deterioration’ are taking place in the locality.

People of Jaffna accuse that SL Army and its paramilitary are running ‘institutions’ to create cultural deterioration in the area.

The surroundings of the Nalloor temple are fast Sinhalicised in recent times.

The premises and the nearby lands belonging to the Jaffna Municipality are permanently given to Sinhala trades who are building business establishments.

Even earlier such an attempt was made in favour of hundreds of Sinhala traders, but it was stopped due to public protest. In the last three months it has started again.

The permanent structures of Sinhala businessmen that appear now in Nalloor have the blessings of the SL Army and the Municipality run by remote hands of Colombo, say news sources in Jaffna.

Sinhala traders and thugs, who had come from the south, physically carried out the demolition of the Thileepan (who died fasting unto death in front of the Nalloor Temple) Memorial, say local people.

As a large number of Sinhalese appears in the surroundings of the Nalloor temple in recent times, the Army’s order prohibiting the local people from the area, evokes serious suspicions, the local people further said.

A large number of locals used to gather in the temple surroundings in the evening times seeking peace of mind, and the priests wonder at the intentions behind the occupying Army taking initiative in chasing away people after 7:00 p.m.

Robberies have escalated in the Saiva temples of Jaffna in recent times. Idols and valuables are stolen for sales in the south.

Idols assessed to be worthy of 50,00,000 Rs. in the antiquarian market of Colombo were recently stolen from temples of Kozhumpuththu’rai in the suburbs of Jaffna. Similar robberies took place at Aanaippanthi in the Jaffna city where the occupying Army is found to be always present. Many temples were robbed of idols in the densely populated Valikaamam region of Jaffna too in recent times.

The occupying SL Army is carrying out the second phase of SL government’s agenda, cultural genocide, in order to implement their long term plan of converting Sri Lanka into a Sinhala-Buddhist country.