"Kuranthan Malai, a quiet peaceful spot in
Tamil-populated Mullaitivu with ruins of both Hindu and
Buddhist places of worship, will soon house an
exclusive Buddhist vihare and temple and a Sinhala
settlement, according to plans drawn up by officials
working under the Ministry of Industries and Scientific
Affairs. Army personnel, an ex-Director of a Public
Corporation under the Ministry who was also a leading
member of the UNP Trade Union - the Jathika Sevaka
Sangamaya- -several Ceramics Corporation vehicles, and
employees of the government Tile factory of Oddichuddan
20 miles away- have all been enlisted in the
implementation of this project.
Hindu statues found in the site have been taken
away in Army vehicles, according to the local
villagers, as far back as November last year.
Kuruntlian Malai situated in the Nagancholai Forest
Reserve has long been held in veneration by the Vanni
Tamils as the dwelling place of the guardian deity,
Kurandoor Aiyanar. The building of a Buddhist vihare at
the site began several months ago, and some employees
of the Tile factory have been engaged in this, with
orders apparently to do it unobtrusively without
attracting public attention to the building
activity.
Following this, some local inhabitants had put up a
hut and installed a "Choolam" (trident) on the spot,
but Army personnel from the Mullaitivu camp had
demolished the hut, thrown away the "Choolam", chased
away some of the Tamil families in the area and had
taken away some of the youths in the area for
questioning. Since then, a new road has been built
through the Nagancholai Forest Reserve, to facilitate
accessibility to this site from Oddichuddan. Three
major consequences flow from this move, quite
apparently initiated by the Ministry of Industries:
(1) Archaeological sites are being damaged
irrevocably, preventing any genuine archaeological
research on them in the future; (2) Tamils who have
lived in the area for generations are being displaced
by new Sinhala colonists.; (3) Hindu religious sites
are being furtively desecrated thus preventing
identification of such sites in the future.
But what seems to be the most vicious attempt- an
attempt which might well succeed in the present
political circumstances - is a grand strategy to
destroy the contiguity of Tamil populations of the
Mullaitivu, Vavuiiiya and the Trincomalee
districts.
The Padaviya Sinhala colonies are expanding
east-wards in an attempt to connect up with the
Kokkilai Lagoon area. It is believed that with the
pressures from the Mullaitivu Army camp on the
northeast, the Tile factory of the Ministry of
Industries at Oddichuddan on the North - west-two
powerful repositories of State power - a spill over
from the Padaviya settlements is bound to occur, as it
has been in other instances in the past.
When that happens, the Tamils in three districts
will be effectively cut off from each. other, thereby
not only losing a slice of their traditional homeland
but weakened to a position where they cannot withstand
further incursions in times to come...."(Saturday
Review, March 20, 1982)
