Why can’t we meet President – Tamil Protesters ask

In Batticaloa in the Eastern Province of Sri Lanka, Livestock farmers and families of the disappeared staged a protest Yesterday and later attempted to march towards the venue where the President was attending an event. But the huge crowd of Police blocked protesters and attacked them.

The Police blocked protesters from getting close to an event attended by President Ranil Wickremesinghe in Batticaloa yesterday, 08 October.

Against the land grabbing of Tamil Livestock farmers and families of the disappeared staged a peaceful protest in Batticaloa yesterday and later attempted to march towards the venue where the President was attending an event to talk about ground level problems which they are facing.

The families of the victims who are continuously fighting for justice for the missing people and the people and Livestock farmers  affected by the racist colonization by the government, wildlife and forest conservation, archeology department and the army by forcefully occupying the lands belonging to the Tamil people including the ancient Hindu temples and shrines for security reasons, together engaged in a massive protest yesterday, 08th of October.

Tamil MP Shanakiyan Rajaputhiran Rasamanickam led the peaceful protest march towards the venue where the President was attending but was met with brutal force by Sri Lankan police opposite Chenkalady Central College, Batticaloa.

Shashi Punniyamoorthy a journalist based in Batticaloa told Mojo News that the Police later pushed back the protesters and even dragged some women who had breached the Police line.

Shahi Punniyamoorthy also told that some Tamil farmers as well as mothers of disappeared families said “Why can’t we go and meet the President of this country in person as he has come to our region itself? Why can’t we explain our pain, and problems to his face as he is the current President? “

Also, they had asked why the police attacked our peaceful protest and attacked us. what is the right that male Police officers are having to kick us from their legs?

“Police objected to the peaceful protest and asked the protestors to leave the site which led to a tense situation between the police and public,” MP Rasamanickam said.

He said that the Police used an unnecessary amount of force against women and the protestors.

Last week Rasamanickam told Parliament that the dairy farmers have been on protest for several days against the encroachment of pasture land. He said that with the paddy season set to commence a conflict will arise if the farmers are unable to return to their land.

The MP urged the Government to stop the illegal encroachment of pasture land.

The demonstration on Sunday was in solidarity with the cattle farmers and their family members who had, for 24 consecutive days, been rallying against the government’s failures to resolve the land grabs by Sinhala settlers in Madhavanai and Mayilathamadu in Batticaloa district. The protesters were joined by TNA and TNPF members, including TNA MP, Shanakiyan Rasamanickam, and TNPF spokesperson, Kanagaratnam Sugash, who expressed their support for the farmers of Mayilathamadu and Madhavanai whose lands are being grabbed and castles are being killed by illegal Sinhalese settlers.

The protesters demanded that the illegal encroachers should be removed from the pastureland in Madhavanai and Mayilathamadu, Batticaloa and protested against the Sri Lankan President’s persistent failure to resolve the matter. They were shouting slogans, such as “Mayilathamadu is Tamils’ property”, and holding placards that read “Do not occupy Tamil people’s lands” and “Do not destroy the economy of Tamils”.

The police forcefully objected to the peaceful protest as the president was attending an event close to the protest site. Protesters, including women, were severely beaten by police officers. According to Shanakiyan, the police claimed that they obtained a court order permitting them to stop the protest.

The TNA MP further criticized the police force’s use of “double standards” in cracking down on the Tamil people’s peaceful protest, whilst failing to resist Sinhalese monk, Ampitiye Sumanarathana, who along with Sinhalese settlers in Batticaloa, led a protest on Saturday, opposing Shanakiyan and other Tamil MP’s protest against the illegal encroachment of Tamil farmers’ land in Parliament on Friday.