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Pirapaharan By: T. Sabaratnam 17.
Sinhala- Tamil Tension Mounts Hate
Campaign Tinnaveli
Bank robbery angered Jayewardene and annoyed the police and the army.
Jayewardene and his backers stepped up their campaign against TULF and
the Tamils and the police and the army increased their attacks on the
Tamils. The militants, especially the TELO, reacted with vengeance.
Tension mounted between the Sinhalese and the Tamils in the first half
of 1979 setting the stage for the reign of terror in the second half of
that year. Police
and army attacks commenced on 5 December 1978 night, ten hours after the
Tinnaveli bank burglary. Two policemen in civils went to a liquor shop
in Jaffna town and after drinks smashed up a shop nearby and robbed cash
and goods. On the same night, soldiers from Palaly Army Camp went to a
shop close by and tried to take away cigarettes. When the shop owner
resisted they went back to the camp, returned with more men and arms and
smashed up the shop. From
14 December, soldiers attacked the people returning home from late night
movie shows. On 18 December, night army personnel smashed up some shops
and houses in Valvettithurai. Amirthalingam
raised these incidents in parliament and asked for an inquiry. Mathew
defended the police and the army and charged the TULF of protecting the
militant groups. He said: “TULF was protecting murderers and
terrorists.” Amirthalingam objected. He demanded that Mathew withdraw the
charge. Mathew refused and the Speaker ruled that he need not as he had
expressed an opinion about a political party and not against any
individual member of that party. Amirthalingam persisted with that
protest and the TULF members staged a walk out. In
March 1979, another dispute broke out between the government and the
TULF. In that month, Amirthalingam and his wife Mangayarkarasi visited
India. The Dravida Munetta Kalazham (DMK) accorded them a civic
reception in Chennai. Amirthalingam told the meeting the police and the
army had destroyed property worth millions of rupees and had killed many
Tamils. “Living in safety had become the major problem for the Tamils.
The only option they had was a separate state,” he said. Mangayarkarasi
in an emotional outburst related some incidents of rape that occurred
during the 1977 riots and said Tamil women could not walk the streets
during nights in safety. Amirthalingam
addressed the Madras Reporter’s Club on 21 March. He denied the
existence of the LTTE and said 25 April 1978 letter claiming
responsibility for the murders was a police plant. He also said the only
option Sri Lankan Tamils had before them, if they want to live with
respect and dignity was the establishment of a separate state. He was
asked whether they would resort to armed revolution to attain their goal
of a separate state. He said they would achieve their demands through
peaceful means. He was also asked whether they had any time frame for
the achievement for their aim. He said they hoped to establish “a
separate, sovereign, independent state in ten years.” Amirthalingam
visited Delhi and met with Prime Minister Morarji Desai and Indira
Gandhi. Desai took up the position that the Tamil problem was Sri
Lanka’s internal problem. Amirthalingam told this to Indira Gandhi.
Her comment was: Desai and Jayewardene are two old foxes. Beware of
them.” Jayewardene
had earned for him the name that he was a man of injustice,
vindictiveness, political manipulation and violence. In his latest
volume of the series, “War and Peace in Sri Lanka” published
in April 2003 T. D. S. A. Dissanayake gives two instances to support
this view. Both happened when Jayewardene introduced his motion to make
Sinhala the official language in May 1944. During the debate G.G.
Ponnambalam said, “It
was such a pleasure to appear before your famous father, Justice E.W.
Jayewardene. He was the embodiment of justice. You are the embodiment of
injustice." This
resulted in a shouting match between Sinhala and Tamil members which
forced Speaker Sir Waitilingam Doraiswamy to adjourn the House.
Dissanayake says Jayewardene himself told that incident to him when he
wrote his second book of the War and Peace in Sri Lanka series in 1977,
"J. R. Jayewardene of Sri Lanka". The
second incident was also related to the debate on Jayewardene’s
Sinhala only motion and was told to Dissanayake by Dudley Senanayake
when he was writing his first book "Dudley Senanayake of Sri
Lanka" in 1972. When Jayewardene moved the resolution D.S.
Senanayake, the Leader of the State Council, was livid. He sent his son
Dudley Senanayake to warn Jayewardene that he would like to break his
neck if he persisted with the motion. Home
Minister K. W. Devanayagam told me (this writer) that this image of
Jayewardene was discussed by the UNP Central Committee before the 1977
election. Many senior members felt that image might mar the chances of
the UNP victory. Esmond Wickremesinghe came out with a bright idea,
Devanayagam told me. He suggested the inclusion of a section about the
establishment of a dharmista (righteous)
society, a society where justice and fair play would prevail, in the UNP
election manifesto. “That’s how Jayewardene became a dharmista man,” Devanayagam told me laughing. Jayewardene’s
vindictive character surfaced once the 1977 July election was over. His
thugs unleashed terror on Sirimavo Bandaranaike’s supports. It
revealed again the next month, August, when militants shot at police
constable Bandara. Then in the middle of 1979, it surfaced again when
TELO continued its attacks on government supporters and the police. His
Members of parliament launched an unprecedented onslaught on
Amirthalingam while his legal officials prepared a draconian, heinous
law and military officials geared up for a military solution. Preparing
the Ground The
ground for the enactment of the harsh law and the horrendous military
action was systematically prepared through Amirthalingam onslaught. His
Chennai speech was made use of for that purpose. Mathew charged in
parliament that by denying the existence of militant groups
Amirthalingam was trying to protect the terrorist group. The cabinet
also discussed Amirthalingam’s speeches. Jayewardene
thus pushed Amirthlingam into the defensive. Amirthalingam issued a
statement explaining his speeches. He said TULF was elected on the
specific mandate of Tamil Eelam. He had only maintained that position in
his speeches. Then, in the concluding sentence of the statement, he
climbed down. It said: But, if the government puts forward an
alternative solution, we would be prepared to consider such a solution. I
asked Athulathmudali, the government spokesman, whether the government
would come out with an alternative solution. His reply was: The only alternative is a unitary state,
which we have.
G.
M. Premachandra, a powerful Sinhala orator, was another Member of
Parliament, Jayewardene made use of to agitate the government causes.
Premachandra issued a statement calling upon the government to ban all
separatist organizations. That was a signal to all Sinhala communalist
organizations to raise their heads. The Tri Nikaya Sangha Saba, the
organization of the priests belonging to the three main Buddhist
Chapters, issued a strongly worded statement calling upon the government
to take action against those who made inflammatory speeches abroad,
bringing disrepute to the government and the Sinhala people. Buddhist
organizations took the cue and passed resolutions condemning the TULF
and Amirthalingam. The Sinhala Mahajana Peramuna organized its branches
countrywide to pass resolutions condemning Amirthalingam. Some of those
resolutions called him a traitor. The Eksath Bauddah Mandalaya passed
resolutions against the separate state demand. Mahanayake of the
Asgiriya Chapter, Ven. Palipana Sri Chandananda and the Anunayake of the
Malwatte Chapter, Ven. Rambukwella Sri Sobitha Thera supported the
resolutions that condemned the separate state demand. The
Sinhala and the English language press whipped up the Sinhala feeling
against the TULF and the Tamils. Sinhala
editorialists, ever willing to preach to the Tamils how they should
behave to safeguard the interest of the Sinhalese, told them to abandon
the separate state demand. This is the gem from the state-controlled Daily
News, under the title ‘The TULF must chuck it up,’ The
separatist Tamil United Liberation Front (TULF) must cry halt to its
demand for a separate state of Tamil Eelam. It must also abjure
violence- which
includes terrorist activities, killing of law enforcement officers, bank robberies and acts of intimidation. Amir
loses hold Sinhala
journalists, like their political leaders, were insensitive to Tamil
sensitivities. They never
considered the impact their effort to bend Amirthalingam to suit the
Sinhala interest would have on the Tamils, especially Tamil youth.
By making Amirthalingam flexible, the Sinhalese made him appear
too soft for the Tamils. Speakers who addressed the Tamil Ilaygnar
Peravai (TYF) public meeting held in Jaffna in late 1978, accused
Amirthalingam of being too soft. Santhathiyar, who presided, said,
“TULF leaders make use of the Tamil Eelam demand to win elections.
Thereafter, they serve the interests of the Sinhalese.” At the
conclusion of his speech, he announced that the TYF would henceforth
function independently. Amirthalingam
countered that move through TYF president Mavai Senathirajah, his
supporter. He wrested back the control of the TYF in which process he
lost an active and influential section of the members, who later grew to
be militant leaders. Santhathiyar, Ira Vasudeva, Iraikumaran, Yoganathan
were some of those who broke away. They functioned as Tamil Ilaygnar
Peravai Viduthalai Ani (TYF Freedom Group) for some time and joined
People’s Liberation Organization of Tamil Eelam (PLOTE) when Uma
Maheswaran established it in 1981. The
Sinhala campaign to force Amirthalingam to condemn violence and distance
himself from the militant groups eroded his grip on them. During the
first half of 1979, TELO was active on the ground. On 13 December 1978
it murdered police informant Aiyasamy
Sivarajah at Thondamanaru, on 1 February 1979 constable Gnasambanthan at
Kokuvil, on 21 March 1979 it killed police constable Sivanesan at
Valvettithurai, and on 30 June the
same year police informants Swarnarajah and his wife at Thondamanaru. TELO’s
activities annoyed Jayewardene and inflamed Sinhala feelings. So were
two incidents of the campaign expatriate Tamils living in European
countries staged in America. The first of those historic propaganda
blitz was by Krishna Vaikunthavasan, former general secretary of the
General Clerical Service Union (GCSU)
Later he qualified as an advocate and practiced in Sri Lankan and
British courts and served for a short period as a District Judge in
Zambia. In August 1978, he attended the American Bar Association
Centennial Convention held in New York as a British guest. A member of the Tamil ethnic minority in Sri Lanka seized the
General Assembly rostrum today and tried to denounce the nation's
government, just as its foreign minister was about to address the
150-nation body. But the microphone was cut off after he had uttered
only a few sentences and he was led away by the security guards. The
interloper identified himself to the startled delegates only as
'Krishna' and said he came from the 'Two-and-a-half-million strong Tamil
Eelam Nation, lying between India and Sri Lanka'. 'The Sri Lanka Sinhala
government is continuing a policy of genocide,' he declared. His
microphone went dead at this point." "Sri
Lanka Foreign Minister Shahul Hameed, taking the incident lightly, began
his speech by saying, 'I wish to thank the previous speaker who tried to
steal my opportunity and thereby create a little sensation'." "After
the interloper was questioned, a UN spokesman identified him as K
Vaikunthavasan and said that he was a Sri Lankan-born former judge who
was now practicing law in London. His London address was not available. “He
was said to have eluded any check on his identity before entering the
assembly hall by mingling with a group of delegates. Once inside, he
took a seat at the side of the chamber used by diplomats and their
guests and hurried to the podium when the Sri Lanka foreign minister was
called to deliver his speech. “The
UN spokesman said he would be 'escorted out of the building and told not
to come back'. Earlier this week, Mr. Vaikunthavasan told a reporter
that he had come to the US to attend the annual convention of the
American Bar Association in NY in August and had stayed on to publicize
the Tamil cause." Colombo
was angry. The government
gave vent to its anger on Amirthalingam because he welcomed
Vaikunthathasan’s action. Amirthalingam in his statement said: "Mr.
Vaikunthavasan has very succinctly brought out the case for
self-determination for the Eelam Tamil nation and the need for Tamil
National liberation from the Sinhala neo-colonialists. The pressing need
of the hour is publicity among the nations of the world for the Tamil
cause. Mr Vaikunthavasan placed Tamil Eelam on the map of the world when
he took the podium of the UN General Assembly before the Foreign
Minister of Sri Lanka." The
resolution, now known as Massachusetts Resolution, adopted on 10 May
1979, by the legislative assembly of Massachuetts, one of the States in
the United States of America, memorializing the American President and
the US Congress to protest and to utilize the powers of their offices to
rectify the gross injustices which had been inhumanely inflicted on the
Tamils of Sri Lanka, also enraged Jayewardene and the Sinhalese. The
resolution, moved by Marie E Howe, the Representative from Somerville, stated in its introductory portion that the Tamils of Eelam,
who number 3 million and occupy 8,000 square miles, live as an oppressed
minority in Sri Lanka. They formed, from the ancient times, two nations,
the Sinhalese and the Tamils, possessed distinct languages, religions,
cultures and clearly demarcated geographic territories until the British
imposed one rule for the purpose of colonial administrative unification. The
resolution pointed out the acts of discrimination in the areas of
citizenship, language, employment, education etc. and said Tamils were
not party to the enactment of the 1972 and 1978 constitutions.
Resolved,
that the Massachusetts House of Representatives hereby urges the
President and the Congress of the Untied States to protect and to
utilize the considerable influence and power of their offices to rectify
the gross injustices which have been inhumanely inflicted on the Tamils
of Sri Lanka. The
campaign of the expatiate Tamils hurt the feelings of the Sinhala people
considerably. The campaign for the ban of the TULF was revived.
Premachandra and Sunil Ranjan Jayakoddy raised the matter in the
parliamentary group meeting of 3 July. Jayewardene announced that a
special legislation to combat and wipe out terrorism was being prepared
and would be introduced in parliament soon. While
waiting for the act Jayewardene took steps to annex the Sinhala majority
areas of the Vavuniya district to Anuradhapura district. TULF protested.
It boycotted parliament. Radical Tamil youths wanted the TULF to extend
its boycott to parliamentary committees. The
government reacted by getting Premachandra and Jayakoddy to give notice
to two motions, Premachandra calling for the proscription of the
organization indulging in violence and the banning of the political
parties demanding the separate state of Tamil Eelam; Jayakoddy calling
for a special legislation to declare those propagating
Tamil Eelam to be declared traitors. TELO
reacted to the escalating tension by assassinating Inspector Gurusamy on
1 July 1979. Gurusamy was one of the two Tamil police inspectors called
by the Sansoni Commission to give evidence about the 1977 incidents in
Jaffna. The other, Inspector Thamotharampillai, told the commission that
men from Jaffna police were involved in setting fire to shops and the
Jaffna market. He said they were not in uniform and did not wear their
number plates. Inspector
Gurusamy tried to shield the police on the two core issues concerning
the conduct of the police on 16 and 17 August. The first concerned the
burning of the Jaffna Old market. He said police officers were not
involved. The second was about the sending a police message which said
Sinhalese living in Jaffna were being attacked and the Buddhist temple
Naga Vihara was being burnt. He tried to hide the fact that Inspector
Nanayakkara, the Officer-in-charge, Jaffna Police dictated that message.
He was a friend of Ronnie Gunasinghe, Assistant Superintendent of
Police, Jaffna. When his evidence appeared in the newspapers Tamil
people were angry. He was called all kinds of names including traitor.
He was provided with an automatic revolver to protect himself.
Thangathurai group decided to kill him.
The
task of killing Gurusamy was given to Kuttimani, Jegan and Oberoi
Thevan. Thevan came to be known as Oberoi Thevan because he worked at
Hotel Oberoi in Colombo for some time before he joined the TELO. The
task of shooting Gurusamy was assigned to Thevan. Gurusamy’s house was
at Oodumadam in Jaffna. When the firing squad went to Gurusamay’s
house, a wedding ceremony was on at the next house. The loudspeaker was
on and firecrackers were lit. Kuttimani knocked at Gurusamy’s door.
The plan was for Thevan to fire at Gurusany as he walked towards the
door. Thevan who had positioned himself near the window was nervous when
he saw Gurusamy. He started shivering. That was Thevan’s first murder. “Sudada,”
(Fire) Kuttimani ordered Thevan. Thevan
was still shivering. “Dai!
Sudada,” shouted Kuttimani. Thevan
fired. Firecrackers
were bursting and the assassins rode away in the bicycles they came. NEXT: Chapter
18. Tamils lose faith in commissions
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