Arugam Bay Information

June 29th, 2007

15 Comments Add your own

• 1. Susith Ruwanpura | June 29th, 2007 at 9:21 am

  Muslims live all over Sri Lanka. Sinha Flag is the national flag. If they want to live under one of their flgs, they need consider migrating to a Muslim country and and live there happily. Sri Lanka is the country of Sinhalese, and Sinhalese welcome all ethnic and religios people to live peacefully sharing the country. These curious muslims want another problem created. The government has the right to create colonies, and no one has a right to object, because no body owns any provice of the country

• 2. Jeronimo Azavedo | June 29th, 2007 at 9:54 am

  Absolute claptrap. The muslims are in the East because of state aided colonisation. The Portuguese persecution of arab traders resulted in the Muslims appealing to Senerat, Emporer of Ceylon and King of Kandy and he allocated land for the Muslims in the east to save them from Portuguese persecution.

  So if state aided colonisation is an issue, the very existence of muslims in the East should be questioned.

  The greatest beneficiaries of state aided colonisation are the Tamils, with millions settled by colonial powers to work the cinnamon, rubber, tea, coffee and tobacco plantations in Jaffna.

  Those who benefitted from state aided colonisation are today opposing it to serve their prejudices.

• 3. A peace loving citzen in Ampare | June 29th, 2007 at 1:47 pm

  As had been explained by the Eastern Provincial Council Sri Lanka, the flag of the Eastern Province had been designed by the Cultural Department of the Eastern Provincial Council and it contains three symbols which were embodied in the district flags used since independence where Trincomalee had an Eagle, Batticaloa a Fish and Ampare and animal similar to a lion found in ancient Sri Lankan flags. These symbols have existed with out any protest for over 60 years and why is the sudden alarm. Muslim encroachment was quite visible in the Pothuvil area since of late, creating fears among Tamils and Sinhalese.

• 4. Mathy | June 29th, 2007 at 3:20 pm

  The Governments planned colonisation was started a long time ago with a motive of changing the demographic pattern of the society. When I look at the comments made by two un-civilised people (Susith and Jeromino), I think the country has no alternative other than dividing in to two.
  If muslims face discrimination in the second state, then their struggle for freedom will start. It all depends on how we get civilised and learn to live in harmony,

• 5. Thamilan | June 29th, 2007 at 3:25 pm

  Susith Ruwanpura,

  Sri Lanka is not the country of the Sinhalese, the rightful claimer to the Islands are Veddhas (also Tamil), second claimers are Chola, Pandiya, Chera and Pallava Tamils (who originally inhabits and inhabited North and East long before Vijaya’s arrival due to the rich pearl fishery controlled by the Tamil Empires) and then third are the Sinhalese (mixture of Bengal and Tamil Blood).

  If you want a place to call Sinhala homeland then I suggest you go back to where Vijaya and his 700 followers were born because Tamils of Tamil Nadu and Tamils on this Island will never accept your pathetic claim. Just because you hold the majority does not give you sole ownership of the Island.

  You are forgetting that if the Tamils at that time weren’t welcoming to foreigners like Vijaya, you wouldn’t be here talking trash. For the last 60 years the Sinhalese have done what the white men did to the Natives of the Americas. If the LTTE fails to remind the estimated 16 million who have the right to claim the Island then for sure the 70 million Tamils will remind you (if you still choose not to listen then annihilation of the Sinhalese are inevitable).

  Jeronimo Azavedo,

  Get your fact straight. The British brought poor Tamils from the mainland to work in the Tea plantation in the Hill areas, not in Jaffna. Tamils in the East, North and North West were on the Island long before the arrival of Vijaya. The Sinhalese never had a state and never aided any of the minorties.

  By the way, because of the Sinhalese and the rivalry between the two Sinhalese kingdoms the Portugese got a foothold in Sri Lanka. They invited the white men whom at the ended suppresed Tamils (after defeating the Jaffna Kingdom), Muslim and they specially suppressed their inviters (the Sinhalese) in a brutal manner unimaginable.

  This whole island is in ruin because of the hospitable culture of the Tamils, if we were more like the Japanese then we wouldn’t have had this problem in the first place.

• 6. wassa | June 29th, 2007 at 3:34 pm

  The singahlese king gave the muslims land when they were persecuted by Indians and others under one condition.They came to the Singhala king and asked about staying in Sri Lanka and the king granted permission and said “as long as you take Singhalese names and speak singahalese that is ok”.But they did not want to integrate into the Singhalese society.This is very difefrent from Irish,Scottish and Welsh who live in Engaland.They all integrated in England like Chinese in Thailand.There are 16%Chinese in Thailand but speak Thai and take all Thai names and at school study in Thai only and there are no Chinese holidaysvalid in Thailand.Muslims never integrated in England too and all these separate talks destroy countries whoever the Ethnic group is.In Sri Lnakan flag green color represents Muslims.
  There are many Mosques in Anuradhapura as well as in Rome, Italy.Can we make a temple or church in Saudi Arabia?I dont think so.

• 7. Suresh M | June 29th, 2007 at 3:37 pm

  What were you thinking when you wrote this page? Do you know the climatic condition of Jaffna? Coffee, Tea, Rubber, Cinnamon. Pity you.

• 8. wassa | June 29th, 2007 at 3:40 pm

  Muslims are living happily among Singahalese but where there are only Muslims they want there own flags.This is utter rubbish and a road to separatism.15% Tamils want one third of the Sri Lanka.This is the only place for singhales people and everybody is welcome to stay here without making problems.During the liberation struggle against Portugese,Dutch,English and Cholas Singahlese were the ones who fought to secure Sri Dalada and the Sinhalaese kingdom.These separatists have to think about it,In East there are many lands that were belong to temples during the Singhalese kings were occupied by Muslims and Tamils at the moment.

• 9. Baptist, UAE | June 29th, 2007 at 4:02 pm

  Sucessive sinhala governments have been sinhalaising the traditional tamil and muslim dominated east through re-drawing of borders, annexing sinhala villages from other districts, colonisation force and forceful eviction of people. In the 1930s Sinhalese constituitted only 8% of the popluation of the east; now they are near 30% if not more. Such a change has not brought about by natural demographic changes. The creation of ‘digamadulla’ of what should have been the muslim dominated Amparai district into a sinhala dominated area is a major point in case. Recent eviction of Tamils from Muthur and Sampoor is another. The disunity amongst Tamils and Muslims is assiting such atrocities. If we Tamils are fighting for our rights and liberation of our land, we cannot deny the Muslim brothers who share the same language and homeland, their rights. We must support them in their fight for justice., not suppress them. I think it is about time the tamil leadership openly recognise the muslims as a distinct ethnic group, their traditional lands, and equal status. If a separate Tamil nation is to be established, it should guarantee devolution of powers and fair representation to the muslims, and guarantees to the traditional sinhala villages falling withinh north & east of equality and protection. Otherwise we can not claim to be fighting for a just cause, rather we will be a mirror image of the oppressive sinhala governments we are fighting against.

• 10. dias | June 29th, 2007 at 5:55 pm

  It is ironic that the self procalimed peace group, “Coalition of Muslims and Tamils for Peace and Coexistence”, in its prologue says, “Specifically, we are committed to the peaceful coexistence of Muslims and Tamils in the country, particularly in the north and east, and to a just and equitable solution to the ethnic conflict.”

  Aren’t you interested in peaceful co-existence with the Singhalese? May be the Singhalese would have felt comfort had it been worded ” …. Muslims and Ramils and Singhalese …”.

• 11. naguleshan | June 29th, 2007 at 8:23 pm

  Tamils speaking SrI Lankans, including Muslims, enjoy the privilege to live every corner of the country, making their homeland everywhere.

  But a Sinhala man / woman cannot do the same. They become a minority in the NE, whereas in the South and the West no one cares for percentages of ethnicity.

  Why?

• 12. ernest macintyre | June 29th, 2007 at 10:48 pm

  Your photograph here of young boys in Sainthamaruthu, like so many other photos of young children within terribly stricken communities, is the only encouraging light within ” the encircling gloom”. They “know not,” in the Darwinian sense of the survival of the species, what we older people have done.

• 13. Jeronimo Azavedo | June 30th, 2007 at 3:02 am

  The plantations and state aided colonisation, follow european conquest of Sri Lanka. The first kingdom to fall to the portuguese was the Kingdom of Jaffnapattnum and it was here where the first plantations were established, Tobacco. I refer you to the accounts of the kingdom of Jaffna pattnum of Captain Major Mascarenas which show tobacco as the largest revenue of Jaffna for the Portuguese at the time.

  This period also shows large scale Tamil plantation workers brought into Jaffna from South India and the introduction of some 5000 deep wells in Jaffna- which are in effect South Indian wells.

  Before this the wells of Jaffna were like the wells in the rest of the country, where you walk down to the water and the water is at your foot level.

  The population composition of Jaffna also changed during this period, with the Sinhalese of Jaffna also completely becoming extinct.

  But there are still todate, over 1000 Sinhala place names in Jaffna which remain in a Tamilised form. Sanga thana has become Sanga Thanai, Aliya Wala has become Aliya walai, Maracci rata has become Wadamarachchi and Thenamarachchi, Weligama has become Welikamam.

  This pattern was repeated for Cinnamon, rubber, coffee and tea plantations of Sri lanka with over one million state aided colonisation of Sri Lanka, displacing significant numbers of the Sri Lankan population and rendering them landless.

  The Muslims were settled in the East by Emporer Senerat, because the Portuguese were battling the arabs for the sea trade and they were persecuting the muslims in the West. They approached Senerat and seeked refuge and was granted refuge in the East, which was a part of the Kandyan Kingdom of Senerat, the father of Maha Astana, later Raja Singha II of Kandy.

• 14. Anand. G. | June 30th, 2007 at 3:09 am

  Why create more complicated issues out of a symbol in a flag when you have your plate of problems already overflowing. If you are looking for peace (in any form) the first thing to avoid is nit picking.

• 15. Thamilan | June 30th, 2007 at 11:11 am

  Jeronimo Azavedo,

  Jaffna Kingdown was the first to fall but who invited the Europeans? It was the Sinhalese. Jaffna was the land of pure Tamils, maybe they had some Sinhalese traders, but it was never dominated or never will be dominated by the Sinhalese. Over 1000 Sinhalese place name? Yeah they also borrowed all the Tamil words to make the Sinhalese language, in that case of course you can claim that there are more then 1000 names in Jaffna that are Sinhalese. The courts of the Sinhalese Kingdoms used Tamil as the official language not Sinhalese (because the language was not developed enough). People like you are the ones who believe that Buddha flew on a cloud and that he offered Lanka to the Sinhalese. Wake up to the reality.

• source:
  http://federalidea.com/focus/archives/36