Sinhalese settlement rights in Jaffna
Supported by the Sri Lankan government, Sinhala nationalist and Buddhist monks from Colombo and Jaffna, a group of over 50 former Sinhalese families who were in Jaffna prior of the LTTE Tamil terrorism have settled in Navakkuliya village, along the A9 road in district of Jaffna in a determined bid to reclaim their rights there in the teeth of opposition from the Tamil extremists and racist political parties.
It was in late 2009, following the end of Tamil terrorism in Sri Lanka, that the then government led by war winning President Mahinda Rajapaksa took the decision to resettlement of all Internally Displaced People, IDPs. While hundreds of thousands of Tamil IDPs are being resettled few such Sinhala IDPs were resettled in the North to nullify the Tamil terrorist ideology of fashioning a mono-ethnic Tamil Northern province as a prelude to the creation of a separatist’s Tamil eelam. But the politically motivated extremist and racist Tamils opposed Sinhalese settlements in the North on the grounds that they were planned, colonization programs meant to alter the ethnic ratio in the North.
Initially, 60 former Sinhalese families who were lived in Jaffna came in buses and occupied the disused railway station at Nawakkuliya, 9km from Jaffna town towards Kandy A9 roads. Gradually 135 former Sinhala families who were in Jaffna prior of LTTE Tamil terrorism joined with the original 50 families..
“It took three months for us to move out of the Nawakkuliya railway station and it was only a year later that we were given plots of land. But we readily bore the inconvenience of living in squalor in a crumbling railway station and makeshift accommodation because this was our land, our rightful heritage,” said Malkanthi Wickremesinghe, the prominent social worker of the group.
Houses under construction for the Sinhala IDPs in Nawakkuliya
Middle aged Malkanthi was the natural leader of the group. Big made, bold and bilingual,she also came from a family which had lived for eight generations in Jaffna.
Partly Completed House
Existing House
“Our family had roots in Maniyamthottam and Kankesanthurai and I knew Jaffna district like the back of my hand,” she told at her house in the only Sinhala village in Jaffna city which now boasts of an impressive Buddhist temple.
Nawakkuliya Buddhist Temple
Malkanthi’s family, along with several hundreds of other Sinhalese families, was driven out by the Tamil terrorists in 1984, in the first of two major acts of ethnic cleansing, the second being in 1990.
“At that time there was a fairly large Sinhalese community in Jaffna. The Jaffna Sinhala Vidhyalaya had 250 students. Life was pleasant with the Tamils and Sinhalese getting along like family,” she recalled.
But the thought of going back to Jaffna never left the Sinhalese.
“We were forever yearning to breathe the air of Jaffna and drink its water. We were people of this soil. We could never abandon it. I remember when I returned after the war, I burst out crying!” Malkanthi said.
Tamil Leaders Oppose
But soon, local Tamil politicians S.Sritharan, a wife of a Tamil terrorist who responsible for Child soldering and extremists pro-LTTE Tamil terrorists TNA Suresh Premachandran dubbed the return of the Sinhalese as government-sponsored Sinhala colonization aimed at making the Tamils a minority in the North. Demonstrations were organized against the settlers. Malkanthi took them on, but her plea that the settlers were not aliens but former residents of Jaffna, fell on deaf ears.
Malkanthi’s view, only the Tamil politicians had objected to their resettlement. The people did not.
“There are 500 Tamil families around us. They were happy that we were back. Some of them had been family friends earlier. When we were living in the railway station, even the Hindu Kovil Iyer priest used to send us food parcels,” she said.
Malkanthi is the interface between the Sinhalese returnees and the local Tamil community.
“I am an active participant in community activities. I share the local Tamils’ joys and sorrows. In turn, they look after me as if I am their own,” she said pointing to Mohanan, a young Tamil who drops in frequently from Jaffna town to inquire about her welfare. Mohanan’s mother and Malkanthi were neighbors and best friends 30 years ago.
Confronts Wigneswaran
Since Northern Province Chief Minister C.V.Wigneswaran kept harping on “planned Sinhalese colonization”, Malkanthi decided to confront him.
“I barged into his study and insisted that he hear me out. He relented and when I finished, he admitted that he had been misled and promised not to raise the issue again” she claimed.
The number of Sinhalese living in Nawakkuliya Sinhala village has dwindled. Out of the 57 original families which were allotted plots in Nawakkuliya, only 23 families actually live there permanently.
“There is a water shortage which discourages permanent settlement,” Malkanthi said
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