SLA occupation of Madu, triggers fears of renewed Sinhalicisation
[TamilNet, Sunday, 27 April 2008, 17:42 GMT]
The Madu Road junction located on Mannaar-Madawachchi Road, which
branches off the main route to Madu shrine, situated in the middle of
traditional Tamil area, became the center of a Sinhala settlement in
the 1970s. The Sri Lanka Government had the agenda of transforming the
area into a full-fledged Sinhala colony, by using the lands of a
cashew farm between the Madu Shrine and the junction. However, the
settlement was later abandoned, fearing repercussions following large-
scale massacre and arson committed by the Sri Lanka Army in December
1984 after a landmine blast. The spectre of a Sinhalicised Madu area
has now become a dangerous new reality with SLA's occupation of Madu
shrine.
Irrigation settlements aiming demographic ****ft from densely populated
wet zone, largely from the Western province, towards dry-zone areas
were initiated under the British rule before the island of Sri Lanka
(then Ceylon) gained independence in 1948. Although the Irrigation
Ordinance was introduced in 1857, paving way for irrigation
settlements after the abolition of Rajakariya system (the feudal
system of land tenure based on service for King), major irrigation
settlement schemes were launched after the 1931 Donoughmore
Constitution that gave a measure of self-government to Ceylonese. The
Land Development Ordinance of 1935 provided the framework for these
schemes.
Irrigation settlements were initiated first in Polonnaruwa,
Trincomalee and Ampaa'rai. As Minister of Agriculture and Lands, D.S
Senanayake, established "colonization schemes" with the intention of
settling Sinhalese in the traditional homeland of Tamil speaking
people and intruding into the geographical contiguity of the Tamil
homeland of North and East, which then had a coastal stretch reaching
up to Colombo on the western coast also.
Madu Road, the location of Sinhala settlement in Madu region
In 1957, irrigation settlements were established in the dry zone
Mannaar district. Periyamadu, Periya Pa'ndivirichchaan, Chinnap
Pa'ndivirichchaan and Thampanai (Vauniyaa district in Mannaar border)
were the first irrigation settlements in the Madu region.
Viyaayadikku'lam (1960), Veali Maruthamadukku'lam (1960), Kooraay
(1968), Mu'l'likku'lam (1968), Akaththimu'rippu (1976) and
Adampanku'lam (1976) followed later.
Chinnap Pa'ndivirichchan is located 2.5 km south of Madu. Periya
Pa'ndivirichchaan is situated 3 km east of Madu Shrine. Thampanai, in
Vavuniya district, is located 3 km east of Pa'ndivirichchaan. Most of
the settlers were from the islets of Jaffna, Vangkaalai, and
Parappaangka'ndal. Following the 1958 anti-Tamil pogroms, a group of
Tamil refugee families from Mihintale in Anuradhapura district were
settled in Chinnap Pa'ndivirichchaan. Most of them who settled in
Thampanai, were from Neduntheevu islet in Jaffna.
Each family unit was provided 5 acres of land: 3 acres of paddy
cultivation land (low land) that came under the irrigation schemes,
and 2 acres (high land) provided for housing and home cultivation.
146 family units were settled in Periya Pa'ndivirichchaan, 55 in
Chinnap Pa'ndivirichchaan and 250 in Thampanai, according to the
statistics provided by former Colonisation Officers (CO) in Mannaar
and Vavuniyaa.
Except four Sinhala families in Periya Pa'ndivirichchaan, the settlers
were Tamils. However, few Sinhala families engaged in small businesses
such as running tea shops, bakeries, garages and some railway
employees began to settle near the Madu Road Junction and near the
Murunkan bazaar in early 1960s. A Sinhala primary school was
established in Madu Road Junction. Later, the school was upgraded as
Maha Vidyalaya. A Buddhist temple was also built close to the school.
The Madu Road Junction, with a railway station, would become a busy
area during the festival period of the Madu Shrine with a tem****ary
police station, health services, water supplies and many petty shops.
In 1970s, a cashew plantation comprising 40 acres between Chinna
Pa'ndivirichchaan and Madu Road Junction along the main road leading
to Madu Shrine from Madu Junction, was established under the Sri
Lankan state-owned Cashew Plantation Coor****ation. More Sinhala
families were brought to the farm to do plantation work.
The hidden motive behind the Madu Road Junction establishment was
Sinhalicisation. Madu Road Junction slowly evolved into a Sinhala-
Budhist symbol. Today, under Sri Lanka Army occupation, the Buddhist
temple has been renovated into a large Vihara.
It is noteworthy to mention here that it was not far from the cashew
plantation located at the 6th Mile Post, from Madu Road to Madu, the
Tigers also had a hide-out for operations in the 1970s, further deep
into the jungle at a place called Ka'n'naaddi. It was here that
Inspector Bastiampillai, the notorious Sri Lankan Criminal
Investigations Department (CID) officer, was counter-ambushed by the
Tamil Tigers in 1978.
Following the anti-Tamil pogrom in 1983, Tamil militancy surfaced in
all the districts of NorthEast. Mannaar faced the first brunts of
large-scale massacres and arsons by the Sri Lanka Army as responses to
militancy. Mannaar city was burnt by them on August 11, 1984,
following a landmine attack on SLA soldiers at Iluppaikkadavai.
On 04 December 1984, a Sri Lanka Army truck, which was on its way to
Tha'l'laadi camp, was targeted by a landmine. The vehicle narrowly
escaped from the attack and the SLA launched mortar attack from
Tha'l'laadi camp towards the civilian settlements, and the SLA
soldiers went on a rampage, opened fire at several locations from
Mannaar to Isaimaalaith-thaazhvu, massacring more than 200 Tamil
civilians. SLA troopers stopped a bus from Vavuniyaa between Madu Road
Junction and Isaimaalaith-thaazhvu, ordered the passengers to get off
the bus, and opened fire on them.
Employees at Murungkan post office were ordered to queue outside and
shot to death by the SLA. Following the episode, Sinhalese settlers,
except those from Ko'ndaachchi cashew farm in Musali division, fearing
repercussions moved out of entire Mannaar district. The Sinhala school
and the Buddhist Vihara were destroyed by the local people. The Madu
cashew farm was abandoned. Since then, there were no attempts to bring
Sinhala settlers into Mannaar district.
The geographical contiguity of Tamil Catholics along the western coast
of Sri Lanka from Mannaar to Colombo has been already Sinhalacised in
the Chilaapam (Chilaw) - Colombo sector through carefully planned
social engineering. The contiguity of Tamil speaking Muslims also
fragmented in the same way along the western coast. This was very
similar to de-linking the contiguity of the Northern and Eastern
provinces along the eastern coast.
By the occupation of Madu Shrine, the symbol of Tamil Catholicism in
Sri Lanka, what is feared now is possible Sinhalicisation and ethnic
cleansing in the Madu region. The fears are based on several
precedences in the North and East as such of the case of the
Ma'nalaa'ru region.
Madu is already a declared forest sanctuary. There could be no
technical problem in declaring it a peace zone. But, the government of
Sri Lanka is not prepared to do it as it has other intentions. The
arrogance of the government and the army commander in responding to
the peace zone calls has to be understood in the context of the
antecedents of several decades.
Madu Road, the location of Sinhala settlement in Madu region
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