Rally for solidarity with Eppawala people’s struggle
by Saman IndrajithThousands of members of more than one hundred organisations are expected to stage a mass demonstration opposite the Fort Railway Station on Thursday against the government’s plans to "sell out" the Eppawela phosphate deposit.
Trade unions and environmental, religious, women’s, peasant’s and non-governmental organisations will demonstrate their collective opposition to the proposed Eppawela phosphate project and will express their solidarity with the Eppawela people’s struggle to safeguard the country’s resources, an organiser of the demonstration said.
Despite the expressed opposition, the Government is going ahead with its agreement with a consortium of companies headed by IMC Agrico, a merger between IMC Global Inc. and Freefort McMoran Resource Partners, of USA and Tomen Corporation of Japan for manufacture of phosphate fertiliser for export by exploiting the Eppawela deposit, said Mahamankadawala Piyarathana Thero, the President of the Committee for the Preservation of the Eppawela Phosphate Deposit.
He said that if IMC Agrico and its partners have their way, the entire phosphate deposit at Eppawela would be excavated, exploited, and exhausted within a short period of thirty years. "The profits they will reap are estimated to be several billion US dollars, while Sri Lanka will receive a meagre handout," he said.
Hemantha Vithanage of Environmental Foundation Ltd. (ETL) said that the mining of rock phosphate would cause the displacement of 12,000 people of 2,500 families living in 26 villages. It would also cause the destruction of lands that those people and their ancestors had cultivated for centuries. Twenty three small tanks will be destroyed if this project is implemented, he said.
Secretary of the Ceylon Mercantile and General Workers’ Union (CMU), G. Jeganathan pledged that the CMU and nine other trade unions will support the mass upheaval against foreign companies plundering the country’s resources.
Nimal G. Perera, Assistant Secretary of the Ceylon Bank Employees’ Union (CBEU), said that its members had decided to stage a walk out campaign on Thursday afternoon to support the demonstration.
Rev. Yohan Devananda of the Sri Lanka Association of Theology said that the Eppawela issue should be considered as important as the North-East conflict. "The Government is sending thousands of troops to protect a province from terrorists and in the meantime warmly welcomes transnational invaders to the middle of the country," he said.