Chathura Alwis’s interview with the so-called ‘AAWA’ Group’s Arun, became an instant hit with the Sinhalese. Since then, Arun met with Ranil Wickremesinghe and participated with Nagananda Kodituwakku at a press conference. Those who participated at the media briefing stated that they are not against any person, but only their stance. Yet, the media coverage was only of their criticism against former Defence Secretary Gotabaya Rajapaksa. Arun, unlike the others, at the briefing, was blunt when he said, if it’s white vans, then it’s a ‘No’”.

This must have been a dampener to the enthusiasm with which the Derana interview was received by those in the ‘Gota Camp’. Hopefully, this would make them listen to ‘AAWA’ Arun’s interview with an open mind instead of hearing only what they want to hear.

Derana’s Chathura is a very experienced, and an extremely good reporter, however, he was clearly not a match for AAWA’s Arun. Chathura asked all the right questions. Despite this being his first public interview, Arun deftly avoided the questions he did not want to answer. He even foxed Chathura by bouncing off some of the questions. The direction of the interview was very much controlled by Arun and Chathura sat as fascinated as the viewers. Perhaps Arun’s many run-ins with the Police had given him a better training than Chathura from his field.

This interview was such a success among the Sinhalese because we are so hungry for Tamils to come out and tell the world that we are not racists. This is exactly what Arun does. He clearly spells out that what we have in Sri Lanka is not a racist or ethnic issue. The root causes faced by those in the North is the same faced by the rest of the country. Therefore, he declares that if he is to find a solution, it is not only for the North but also for the whole country.

While Chathura faults the system, Arun puts the blame squarely on the Tamil politicians in the TNA – present and past. He does not glorify the LTTE either. Prabhakaran, though a cut above the ordinary and ‘genuine’ was made a fool by the TNA, and those around him, Arun claimed. He does not hide his bitterness as he describes how the Tamil politicians and the LTTE leadership used the Tamil youth for their own agendas.

The so-called ‘white flag incident’ is a case in point. The Tamil youth who were conscripted were given a cyanide capsule to bite into to escape capture. They were told never to fall into the hands of the Army or the Police for they will be tortured. The blade within the capsule cuts the tongue, he explained, allowing the poison into the body and killing within seconds.

Surrender vs. Suicide  

Having given a cyanide capsule to the youth, Arun highlights, the LTTE hierarchy chose to surrender to the very same Army they claimed would torture them. Now without any shame, their families are openly admitting to their attempts to surrender to the Army with a simple white flag.
We have skilful lawyers to prove Maithripala Sirisena is not only insane but to get courts to recover expenses from the accused. Yet, we do not have a single lawyer to underscore Arun’s point at the upcoming Geneva sessions that is hell-bent on dragging Sri Lanka on war crime chargers brought on by LTTE sympathisers.

He rejects the notion of a separate State and claims the whole of Sri Lanka as his home. He refuses to leave Sri Lanka to end up washing dishes elsewhere. Instead, he wants to clean” up home so all can have a better life. If the West stops interfering with our internal matters, then there will be no reason for Tamils to leave Sri Lanka. Then the West will no longer be troubled with all the Tamils ending up at their doorstep, he observes.
This one statement is all we need to use in the upcoming Geneva sessions. This is the one home truth Britain, Germany and France with their upturned sanctimonious noses need to hear. Most unfortunately, our incumbent Government is neither smart nor patriotic enough to do so.

Arun also explains the problem between the Sinhalese and the Tamils is a language barrier. While the Sinhalese are making an effort to learn Tamil, he points out that they are not given any means to learn Sinhala. This is a deliberate attempt he notes. C.V. Wigneswaran’s children could marry Vasudeva Nanayakkara’s children because they could speak in Sinhala. If Tamils in the North and East too could speak in Sinhala, then there would be interactions. Then Tamils would not be isolated. This would derail the Tamil politicians’ agenda.

All these that Arun said were music to our ears. It was indeed courageous of him to come out into the open and speak out the unvarnished truth. However, there are many questions that he opted not to answer. He is clearly a man addicted to danger, for the very reason he agreed to the interview, as he was cautioned against it. He admitted that the minute he was told it would be dangerous” to talk, he wanted to talk.
Mawbima on 14 October 2018 carried a detailed report on the AAWA Group. It was started by a youth domiciled in Switzerland. He, however, is no longer involved. Now it is being  run by one known as ‘Solaks’.

Yet, according to Arun, AAWA is a bogeyman created by TNA Spokesman M.A. Sumanthiran. Sumanthiran had created a story that when the Police asked Arun’s mother to provide them with his photograph, she had given one in which he was dressed as a rabbit for a school concert. Police had hence dubbed him as hawa”, which eventually became AAWA”. As Arun questions, would the Police be so foolish as to accept a photograph of a pre-schooler, for only one so young would be dressed up in such a costume.

Organised group

Arun denies the existence of an organised group. Rather, these are just groups of youth who are aggressive and reactive. As they are treated as criminals, they are also beginning to believe themselves as criminals. This might be true, for according to news reports there is not one, but a number of groups functioning under the ‘AAWA’ umbrella. According to one news report, one group is led by a girl.

Chathura accepted that all mainstream media gets its reports from a single source from the North. All news channels feed from this source. Therefore, it is easy to create the image of a bogeyman, said Arun. The Police too have faulted the media for giving undue publicity to ‘AAWA’ activities. When posters suddenly appeared in Vavuniya announcing the presence of ‘AAWA’, Police was quick to dismiss it as been done by the ‘AAWA’, group.

However, if ‘AAWA’ is a bogeyman created to scare the Sinhalese into believing that another terrorist movement is afoot, why did Arun come forward as a representative? Then, who is responsible for the extortion? When the victim does not pay, sword wielding gangs swoop down on motorcycles, cut and injure, forcibly relieving gold and money.

According to the Mawbima Report, these youth are trying to collect enough funds to join the RAW-run training camps that are once again operational in India.

Arun’s revelations are interesting and welcome, but not news. It’s the answers for the aforementioned questions that are urgently needed. Equally confounding is the company Arun was seen with after his successful interview. He rejects Prabhakaran as the sole representative of Tamils. Yet, he poses next to Ranil Wickremesinghe, who accepted Prabhakaran as such. By doing so, Wickremesinghe exacerbated the issue, by giving the recognition needed by the LTTE to strengthen. An UNESCO report revealed that the LTTE had forcibly conscripted as many as 5,000 children.

The man who effectively ended this terrible era was Gotabaya Rajapaksa. Today, Tamil children no longer wear a cyanide capsule, and live a relatively normalised life. However, Arun clearly rejects GR. For a man who came across as far thinking and knowledgeable, his choice of company is very intriguing.

anasingheshivanthi@gmail.com