Rajapaksa visits Vellamullivaikkal

It has taken Sri Lankan President  Mahinda Rajapaksa three years and four months since the end of Eelam War IV, to visit Vellamullivaikkal, a hamlet on the banks of the Nanthikadal lagoon in North East Lanka, where the Tamil Tiger supremo, Velupillai Prabhakaran, had died fighting, signaling the end of the dreaded LTTE.

On Tuesday, Rajapaksa, accompanied by his brother  and Defense Secretary Gotabhaya Rajapaksa, and son Namal Rajapaksa, saw 361 Tamil refugee families  settling down at Theppavil and Manduvil in the Vellamullivaikkal area of Mullaitivu district. The refugees had arrived just a day earlier from the closed Manik Farm camp in Vavuniya.

In December 2009, Rajapaksa had come to Puthumattalan, a place north of Vellamulliwaikkal to unveil a grand memorial for the Lankan forces which fought the last battle between Puthukudiyiruppu and Vellamullivaikkal. As the hostilities had ended only six months earlier, Vellamullivaikkal and the eastern bank of the Nanthikadal lagoon were at that time, still a scene of carnage, bristling with undetected mines and other unexploded ordnance.

Addressing the returning refugees at Vellamullivaikkal, Rajapaksa warned them against believing in the false propaganda being done by certain forces which were against the government’s rehabilitation efforts.

“Our government is fully committed to providing all assistance to fisherfolk, farmers and all other segments of society. Employment to the jobless and education to your children are also on our priority list. You must be able to tell those segments, which are distorting the picture, that they should, instead, give you assistance, without pushing you further into difficulty. Without falling prey to them, you must give priority to your senses and wisdom, before decisions are taken,” Rajapaksa said.