'Sinister' demographic changes made in North-East to stop need for political solution - TNA
The Tamil National Alliance (TNA) accused the government of ‘sinister’ militarisation and land appropriation in the North-East with a ‘definite purpose’ of changing the demographic composition of the North-East with the aim of making a political solution for the Tamils ‘irrelevant and unnecessary.'
Highlighting that thousands of Tamil families lost their land to the Sri Lankan military in High Security Zone in the North-East, the TNA leader R Sampanthan, during a statement made in parliament on Thursday, asked if there was a ‘sinister’ motive to the appropriation of Tamil land.
Sampanthan said that the land appropriation in the eastern provinces was to break the linguistic continuity of the North-East, whilst highlighting that the Northern and Eastern provinces were historically Tamil areas, and insisting they must become one unit of devolution, with one provincial council. His statement further warned that there was a strategy to break up the ‘linguistic continuity’ of the North-East as part of the government plan to remove the need for a meaningful political solution for the Tamils.
He added that, though promises had been made by the Supreme Court to release these lands back to the Tamil people, the commitments had not been met and civilians were not able to resettle in their original lands.
Extracts reproduced below.
“There are tens of thousands of Tamil families in this position. Why is there no serious effort to address this issue? Despite all the protests and demonstrations that are taking place in the North and the East, despite the matter having been raised in Parliament on several occasions, why is this issue not being addressed seriously? Is this attitude of the Government not indicative of the Government having a sinister objective? I want to pose this question."
“All this is being done because you want to change the demographic composition of the North and the East and you want to change the cultural and linguistic identity of the districts in the North and the East. These things are being done with a definite purpose, the purpose being to change the demographic composition of the Northern and Eastern Provinces and the cultural and linguistic identity of the Northern and Eastern Provinces so as to make a political resolution, a political solution irrelevant and unnecessary. That is the objective with which you are pursuing this agenda,” he later said in an answer to his question.
Highlighting that thousands of Tamil families lost their land to the Sri Lankan military in High Security Zone in the North-East, the TNA leader R Sampanthan, during a statement made in parliament on Thursday, asked if there was a ‘sinister’ motive to the appropriation of Tamil land.
Sampanthan said that the land appropriation in the eastern provinces was to break the linguistic continuity of the North-East, whilst highlighting that the Northern and Eastern provinces were historically Tamil areas, and insisting they must become one unit of devolution, with one provincial council. His statement further warned that there was a strategy to break up the ‘linguistic continuity’ of the North-East as part of the government plan to remove the need for a meaningful political solution for the Tamils.
He added that, though promises had been made by the Supreme Court to release these lands back to the Tamil people, the commitments had not been met and civilians were not able to resettle in their original lands.
Extracts reproduced below.
“There are tens of thousands of Tamil families in this position. Why is there no serious effort to address this issue? Despite all the protests and demonstrations that are taking place in the North and the East, despite the matter having been raised in Parliament on several occasions, why is this issue not being addressed seriously? Is this attitude of the Government not indicative of the Government having a sinister objective? I want to pose this question."
“All this is being done because you want to change the demographic composition of the North and the East and you want to change the cultural and linguistic identity of the districts in the North and the East. These things are being done with a definite purpose, the purpose being to change the demographic composition of the Northern and Eastern Provinces and the cultural and linguistic identity of the Northern and Eastern Provinces so as to make a political resolution, a political solution irrelevant and unnecessary. That is the objective with which you are pursuing this agenda,” he later said in an answer to his question.
