RANJITH SOYSA 

Recently , resettled Sinhala people in Navakkuliya, Jaffna held a procession to celebrate the opening of a pagoda constructed for them to attend to their religious activities which is a basic human right for any given community. We should not forget the fact that the people of Navakkuliya are not strangers to Jaffna, They were living in Jaffna for  long time and many of them had business ventures such as bakeries, furniture shops etc in Jaffna town and was a thriving community. BUT, during the  LTTE Tiger regime they were chased out of the North through violent means and were living in villages in NCP as refugees. When they were planning  to come back they found that their properties in Jaffna had been taken over by Tamil persons and the Tamil peopple were refusing to move out   Then the government after the defeat of the LTTE allocated land in Navakkuliya which accommodated the Sinhala refugees to begin a new life.

When the rettled Sinhales  were celebrating the important landmark in their life – the opening of the pagoda- a crowd of people led by a prominent Tamil political party whose leaders live in the South of Lanka attempted to disrupt the procession shouting slogans saying ‘Sinhala people get out of Jaffna” , ” We do not want you in Jaffna’ etc Why was this virulent reaction to the Sinhala people in Jaffna when in the South of the country Tamil people live comfortably  conducting their activities peacefully. 

We have also noted when the Buddhist places of archaeological importance are being preserved in the North as a part of protecting Sri Lankan cultural  heritagewhich is important to the Nation as a whole , and the Tamil politicians interfering and acting as hooligans.  

One should be vigilant to question such acts as it can be a well organized effort by an anti- national movement to spread hatred towards the Buddhists planning a round of fresh violence to weaken the country and the nation,

RANJITH SOYSA