The Sri Lankan navy held a large scale Sinhala Buddhist ceremony in Kankesanthurai this week, as it announced the opening of a berthing facility at its occupying military base.
Senior Sri Lankan navy officers were flanked by Kandyan drummers as they paid respects to Sinhala Buddhist monks at the ceremony, as the military inaugurated the new construction.
The facility, which cost Rs. 94 million, saw Sri Lankan soldiers dig through layers of limestone along the Jaffna coast over the last year. The jetty they built is 100m in length 70m in width and 12ft in depth.
Much of Kankesanthurai remains occupied by the Sri Lankan military and has been for decades, with local Tamils still having no access to property that the armed forces have seized.