A news clip was aired on MTV on the 11th of April 2014, how the Urban Development Authority under the Secretary of Defense, Gotabhaya Rajapaksha orders their militia to go to ‘Bakeryvaththa’ & ’88 vaththa’ in Narahenpita, where low income householders are, and force them to quickly vacate their rightful place of living, to a different location.
This Army man taking the hi handed powers of Gota, goes on in Singhala, “even if you go to any human rights,,,even if you go to anything…there is no action that you can get from Human Rights…Human Rights is a Mediation Board. OK? What you call Human Rights is only a Mediation Board case. There is no solution that they can offer.”
“As a government establishment only we have the power here”. “You must be knowing that we have a thing called the Land Acquisition Act. Why? Because you do not have ownership of this land. Therefore you cannot do anything under this act.”
“The voters list is not a right to the ownership of this land. Understand this very clearly. Making you aware is what is been done. Decision is in your hands. You all can take any decision. We do not have any question about that, ok? But at the end, we are trying our best by coming here again. The people who were with you all, are the people who have gone and are in the ‘54 vaththa’.
“So there are a few more houses, The houses reserved for you all are still there as it is. If you all are not accepting these houses, it will be given to others. There are enough people to take them. There is not much of a connection between Human Rights and the land problem here. We have to release this land somehow, ‘cos this land is developed under Metro Colombo.”
This Army officer emphasizes that Human Rights is not an issue for them. He proves that the Army which under the Defence secretary, Gotabhaya Rajapaksha, the brother of the President of Sri Lanka Mahinda Rajapaksha, do not consider Human Rights to be of any use at all.
He finally warns the house owners very sternly, that in any case this land will be cleared, as it is under the Metro Colombo development plan.
In the history of this country, never before did any Military officer get involved with civilians in a civil matter, especially regarding a housing problem.
Eviction of residents is now simple using the Army. A legal eviction order is time consuming & not needed anymore, as the politicized Military has more powers than the courts.
This uniformed political crony insists that this land would be cleared of all residents to make way for Gota’s interests. This incident was videoed by a householder.
SiSuSa earlier warned about the Militarization of Sri Lanka under the Mahinda Rajapaksha regime. Police powers have been vested with the Army under the Gazette Notification no 1817/31 dated 03/07/2013.
We experienced Rathupasvela in the past, where the Army was called in to suppress citizens demanding drinking water and several people were killed in the mêlée ….Next is…? Think now !
Gotabhaya Rajapaksha’s Hitlerism has to be stopped, for the betterment of Singhalaya !