TAMIL NET reports that Sri Lanka Army (SLA) soldiers along with Sinhalese thugs are engaged in obliterating Koappay Thamizh Eezham Heroes War Cemetery (Thamizh Eezha Maaveerar Thuyilum Illam), the only one that remained in Jaffna peninsula, for the last three days, residents of the neighbouring villages said.
The remnants of the graves, memorial plaques and monuments are taken away in the night to an unknown destination, the residents added.
Chaaddi Heroes Cemetery was the first to be completely razed to the ground in Jaffna peninsula to be followed by Uduppiddi Ellangku’lam Cemetery and lastly Kodikaamam Cemetery.
Koappay Heroes Cemetery, located on Arasadi Veethi, though severely damaged by the SLA, had escaped total destruction and the main road to this Cemetery had been closed to public for more than an year preventing public from visiting it.
The Sri Lanka Army which has been systematically razing to the ground without any traces the Thamizh Eezham Heroes War Cemeteries in several places in the North and East of the island, has in recent weeks obliterated the Thuyilum Illam at Kodikaamam in Thenmaraadchi, Jaffna, and is erecting a big SLA base in its place.
Ellangku’lam Heroes Cemetery in Udupiddi in Vadamaraadchi had been already destroyed without any trace and the premises converted into an SLA base.
The obliterated Thuyilum Illam is now enclosed by barbed wire fence and hidden by coconut cadjans where a large number of SLA soldiers are hurriedly constructing a base.
Tamil circles view the systematic destruction of Tamil war heroes cemeteries and the symbols of the Tamil struggle in the North and East as part of a large-scale genocide programme on Tamils by the Sri Lankan state.
All the Heroes Cemeteries maintained by the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE) in Vanni have been completely razed to the ground and all the graves, memorial plaques and the dais where the Common Flame is lit on Heroes Day have been totally destroyed.
A photo taken by a visitor to Vanni, who passed through Visuvamadu Heroes Cemetery, shows the current state of the largest cemetery that has been bulldozed by the SLA.
The SLA is very particular in erecting its bases on the grounds where Tamil Heroes cemeteries had stood so that nothing remains to remind the people of the fighters who had sacrificed their lives for the cause.
LTTE war heroes memorials in Jaffna peninsula at Koappaay were bulldozed by the Sri Lanka Army in 1995.
The other cemeteries destroyed in Jaffna were: Chaaddi in Veala’nai (1995), Kodikaamam in Thenmaraadchi (1996) and Ellangku’lam in Vadamaraadchi (1996).
These war cemeteries were rebuilt following the February 2002 Ceasefire Agreement.
The war heroes cemeteries located at Kagnchikudichcha’ru in Ampaa’rai district, Thaa’ndiyadi, Tharavai, Ka’ndaladi and Maavadi Munmaari in Batticaloa district and Aalangku’lam, Iththikku’lam, Verukal, Uppaa’ru and Paalampoaddaa’ru Trincomalee district were destroyed after the SLA occupied LTTE-held areas in the East in 2006 and 2007.
In Vanni, there were at least ten War Heroes Cemeteries.
The cemeteries were located in Aa’ndaangku’lam, Aadkaaddive’li and Pa’ndivirichchaan in Mannaar, Kanakapuram and Muzhangkaavil in Ki’linochchi district, Uduththu’rai in Vadamaraadchi East of Jaffna district, Eachchangku’lam in Vavuniyaa and four at Vanni-vizhaangku’lam, Visuvamadu, A’lampil, and Mu’l’liyava’lai of Mullaiththeevu district.
During the last battles of Eezham War IV, when genocidal attacks were launched from all fronts by the Sri Lankan military, the Tiger fighters killed in the war were buried at Ira’naippaalai and at Iraddaivaaykkaal in Mullaiththeevu.
The Sri Lanka Army bulldozed the Heroes Cemetery at Visuvamadu between March and April 2009.
The SLA captured Tamil civilians of Vanni, who were made to pass through Visuvamadu on April 21 2009, before reaching internment camps in Vavuniyaa, had witnessed the complete destruction of the largest, Maaveerar Thuyilum Illam in Visuvamadu, where more than 4,000 war dead Tamil fighters had been buried by the Tigers.
l The British clothing retailer, Next, has stopped sourcing its garments from Sri Lanka because of the uncertainty of the continuance of the GSP+ duty concession from the European Union, The Sunday Leader reported this week.
The company has moved production to Bangladesh, an industry source told the paper.
Meanwhile, exports to the EU fell 13 per cent in the first quarter of 2010, a decline the Sri Lankan garment industry attributes to falling demand due to the economic conditions there. Garments are Sri Lanka’s largest foreign exchange earner.
The GSP+ facility helps Sri Lanka to export garments and several other products to the EU on a duty free basis. The advantage to exporters is 9 per cent.
The EU last month again threatened to stop this concession by August 15 if Sri Lanka doesn’t give a written guarantee by July 1st to some 15 conditions governing human rights, the deadline of which is now past.
Sri Lanka rejected the conditions out of hand and dismissed the GSP+ concession as not worth surrendering the country’s sovereignty.
Nonetheless, the EU Ambassador in Sri Lanka, Bernard Savage, told the Sunday Leader on Thursday that the EU exercises a degree of flexibility in their time frame given to Sri Lanka and would wait for a couple of days for a reply.
However, in the meantime, the Sri Lankan Central Bank has issued a statement warning the garments industry to prepare to make do without the GSP+ concession.
According to the Central Bank, garments exports to EU countries constituted about 50 per cent of Sri Lanka’s total apparel exports in 2009. Of these, about 60 per cent benefited from the GSP+ scheme, while the balance was exported to the EU without the GSP+ concession.
Next plc is a British retailer, with its headquarters in Enderby, Leicestershire, England. It is one of the United Kingdom’s largest clothing retailers, number three behind Marks & Spencer and Philip Green’s retail empire of Bhs and Arcadia Group. The company, which has employed some of the biggest names in the fashion world including Alessandra Ambrosio, Noémie Lenoir, Yasmin Le Bon, Gabriel Aubry and Paul Sculfor, has over 400 stores throughout the UK and the Republic of Ireland, and 50 franchise branches in Europe, Asia and the Middle East.
