US wants to change demographic pattern in N & P Two Provinces
Patriotic civil society has alleged that the US government was making an attempt change the demographic patter in Northern and Eastern two provinces. This to justify allegations propagated by the Pro LTTE separatists that Sinhala families were being settled in the Northern Province in a bid to change the demographic pattern in the region.
US diplomat Michael A. Ervin accompanied by an interpreter had visited Navatkuli, a village close to the Jaffna town, where he interviewed some of those Sinhala families who had returned to the peninsula after the conclusion of the Tamil terrorism in Jaffna in May 2009. They were among those driven out of the Northern Province in the early 1980s by the LTTE Tamil terrorists supported by its political supporters of TNA. Sources said that the interviewed were among about 30 families now settled at Navatkuli. The US Political Officer had asked them about the circumstances under which they had been displaced, who supported them now and details pertaining to Sinhala population in the Jaffna peninsula at the time they fled the area.
Makeshift house of a Sinhala IDP in Nawakkuly village in Jaffna
With the Assistance of Patriots, works are under way to complete the houses of Sinhala IDPs in Jaffna
According to the 1981 census before the outbreak of LTTE Tamil terrorists war in July 1983, 19,334 Sinhalese lived in the Northern Province and the majority of them in the Jaffna peninsula.
The Defence Ministry said it was the LTTE that had changed the demographic pattern in the Northern Province by driving nearly 20,000 Sinhalese and over 100,000 Muslims from their villages. The Muslims had to leave the Northern Province within 24 hours in late Oct 1990.
The following day, the US diplomat visited Mullaitivu, where he received a briefing from TNA Northern Provincial Council members, on what the provincial administration called ongoing attempts to change the demographic pattern in the Northern and Eastern Provinces.
The US official’s visit coincided with British High Commissioner John Rankin and Foreign and Commonwealth Office official Ms. Julie Scott visiting the Jaffna peninsula. They, too, expressed concern over land issues among other matters.
And Indian parliamentary delegation in April last year raised the issue of the GoSL resettling Sinhala families in the Northern Province. The six-member delegation was speaking on behalf of the TNA. Responding to the Indian delegation, Defence Secretary Gotabhaya Rajapaksa emphasised that there hadn’t been a single such settlement since the conclusion of the conflict, while inquiring whether the Indian delegation was aware of any.
Indian government has undertaken a 50,000 housing project in North and East two provinces focusing mainly Tamils and Muslims. No attempts had been made to provide those houses to Sinhala IDPs and they have been marginalise in this 50,000 housing project. Sources further found that governments have also not paid any attention to settle those internally displaces Sinhalese. In this backdrop several patriotic organizations has come forward to rescue and support those helpless Sinhalese in North and East.
The patriotic civil society concerns that it is a gross interference in Sri Lanka’s internal affairs by the US and raised that what right do they have to question the re-settlement of people in any province in Sri Lanka?
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