Colombo Beefs Up Naval Installations along Eastern Coast

by TamilNet, June 3, 2016

Emboldened with the blessings coming from the diplomatic US Establishment and its increased ‘military-to-military’ rapport with the Sinhala navy in the island, the military Establishment of genocidal Sri Lanka has stepped up its programme of militarisation and Sinhaliciation of the strategic belt in the three coastal directions of the country of Eezham Tamils in the recent months. The SL Navy, which has been fortifying its coastal cantonments, mini-camps and detachments along the western coast facing towards the Gulf of Mannaar and the Palk Bay during the past 6 months, has in recent weeks stepped up its expansion programme along the eastern coast of Northern and Eastern provinces facing the Bay of Bengal.

The SL Navy at the largest navy camp in Vanni, named ‘SLNS Gotabhaya’, has already seized more than 300 acres of private lands and 200 acres of public lands for the expansion into a full-fledged cantonment.

Now, new tall buildings have become visible from a distance from Ve’l’laa-mu’l’livaaykkaal where the base is situated, eyewitnesses who have seen the expansion said.

‘SLNS Gotabhaya’ at Mu’l’livaaykkaal

The establishment is similar to the ones established during the Rajapaksa regime at Mu’l’lik-ku’lam in Musali division and at Champoor (SLNS Vidura and SLNS Parakumba) in Trincomalee district.

SL Navy personnel, including young recruits from South, are continuously deployed in putting up fences around the seized area, Eezham Tamils from Mullaiththeevu said.

In the meantime, Tamil rights activists have alleged that the place has also been used as an undeclared detention camp to keep Tamil Prisoners of War, who were imprisoned at the end of genocidal onslaught in Vanni. The area also contains crucial evidences from the last days of war, the activists further said.

SL Navy personnel deployed in putting up fence around 500 acres of lands seized for the largest SL Navy base in Mullaiththeevu

The ‘Gotabaya’ camp was initially launched as a Naval Deployment (ND) in January 2011 and was later upgraded as a Commissioned Naval Base (CNB) with the title ‘Sri Lanka Naval Ship Gotabhaya’ in 2012.

It has been transforming into a ‘Regional Security Center’ of the SL Navy, monitoring the coastal belt of Mullaiththeevu.

Several naval detachments connected to ‘Gotabhaya’ are functioning in areas subjected to demographic and structural genocide in Naayaa’ru and Kokku’laay areas of Karai-thu’raip-pattu division.

The ‘SLNS Gotabaya’ comes under the so-called Eastern Naval Area of the SL Navy Command, which has its central command at Trincomalee.

‘Eastern Naval Area’ as defined by the occupying SL Navy [Image courtesy: navy.lk]

There are 13 so-called ‘Commissioned Navy Bases’ in the Eastern Naval Area of the SL Navy [Image courtesy: navy.lk]

The SL Navy has divided the entire island into 7 ‘Naval Areas’.

The ENA covers the longest eastern belt of the occupied country of Eezham Tamils, and consists of 13 Commissioned Naval Bases (CNBs). The ENA is the largest establishment within the SL Navy in the entire island.

Of these 13 CNBs, ‘SLNS Gotabaya’ is the only one at Mullaiththeevu distirct.

‘SLNS Kashyapa’ is the other single CNB, situated in Vaakarai of Batticaloa district in the Eastern Province.

The remaining 11 commissioned bases are all situated in the strategic Trincomalee district.

For comparison, Western Naval Area covering Colombo from Chilaavaththu’rai in North to Bentota, 60 km south of Colombo has only 8 CNBs while Northern Naval Area covering the Palk Bay and the Bay of Bengal maintains 7 CNBs.

‘Mahaweli Master plan’ currently targeting Mullaiththeevu, Batticaloa and Ampaa’rai through System L and System B [Image courtesy:mahaweli.gov.lk]

North Central Naval Command having 5 CNBs and North Western Naval Command constituting of 4 CNBs are situated between Jaffna and Colombo areas covering the Palk Bay and Gulf of Mannaar.

Southern Naval Area is having only 3 CNBs and the recently established South East Naval Area, which was part of Eastern Naval Command, is having one CNB at Paa’nama in Ampaa’rai district, which is also subjected to intense Sinhala Buddhist militarisation.

Several commanding cantonments have been put up along the Eastern Coast, especially after the end of war and each of these CNBs are coupled to particular projects of structural genocide with the intention of causing demographic changes.

While the provincial administration of previously merged North-East is separated into Northern and Eastern Provinces, the SL Naval Command for East extends to North and South of Trincomalee.

The CNBs are permanently wedging the territorial integrity of the Tamil homeland at its strategic locations.

The detachments linked to each of the CNB level base have been classified as Naval Deployment (ND), Naval Sub Units (NSU) etc., and vary in strength.

‘SLNS Ranweli’ at Pulmoaddai, ‘SLNS Walagamba’ at Thiriyaay, ‘SLNS Vijayaba’ at Nilaave’li, ‘SLNS Mahaweli’, ‘SLNS Tissa’, Naval Military Academy and ‘SLNS Dockyard’ surrounding the harbour of Trincomalee, ‘SLNS Gokanna’ at Ki’n’niyaa, ‘SLNS Vidura’ and ‘SLNS Parakumba’ at Champoor, ‘SLNS Lankapatuna’ at Thoappoor, are the commissioned SL Navy cantonments dotting the coast of the Trincomalee district.

Several of these SLNS cantonments also have a so-called ‘Fisheries Coordinating Offices’ embedded into them to operate behind the scene in bringing Sinhala fishermen from South to the rich seabeds in the territorial waters of Eezham Tamils amidst protests from the native fishermen.

While Colombo has conceived its plan for Sinhalicisation and Militarisation of the coastal stretch from Nalla-tha’n’nith-thoduvaay in Mullaiththeevu to Thu’rai-neelaava’nai in Batticaloa district, actively deploying its naval Establishment, the so-called ‘development’ agenda, being backed by the West, is targeting to seize the fertile interior lands of Eezham Tamils operating through the so-called ‘Mahaweli Master Plan’.

SL President Maithiripala Sirisena, with his ‘Polonnaruwa Chinthana’ is also the minister responsible for ‘Mahaweli’ occupation plan.

‘System L’ of Mahaweli project targets the fertile areas in Mullaiththeevu while ‘System B’, the largest of the current projects under the Mahaweli scheme, aims to seize the resourceful interior lands of Batticaloa district. The deployment of Sinhala ‘home guards’ paramilitary, extremist Buddhist monks and the SL ‘Army and Archaeology’, Forest Department and Wild Life Department are all operated along the ‘master plan’ of Sinhalicisation.

In the meantime, another ‘urban’ development programme, conceived already by ‘Mahinda Chintana’ targeting Trincomalee has been transformed to ‘Singapore’ based scheme with the advice coming from USA, informed civil sources in Trincomalee said. SL Prime Minister Ranil Wickramsinghe is spearheading this urban development project, which targets the city of Trincomalee and its suburbs.

The colonial Governor of Eastern Province, Kalupage Austin Fernando, who is close to US Establishment facilitates the ‘smooth’ implementation of the structural genocide in the East.

The recent confrontations that have taken place between the Muslim Chief Minister of Eastern Province and the ‘interest’ of the US military Establishment preparing SL Navy as a South Asian component in its fight for global domination, should also be seen in this light, the political observers in the East said.

Colombo Beefs Up Naval Installations along Eastern Coast

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