Courtesy The Sunday Observer

The JVP continued to deny the gruesome atrocities it committed in the past until recently one of its stalwarts, K.D. Lalkantha said that the JVP accepts the commission of such crimes.

“It was true that the enemies of a patriotic war were bumped off; identity cars collected and transformers destroyed, Lalkantha told a meeting. So far the survivors of thousands of families killed have not responded. The JVP never admitted its killing hub brazenly attributed them to the Deshapremi Sanvidanaya led by Keerthi Wijebahu alias Saman Fernando. It was no secret that this so-called Deshapremi Sanvidanaya and the JVP were synonymous – a single entity.

By denying responsibility for such atrocities the JVP betrayed those who sacrificed their previous lives for the sake of the Deshapremi Sanvidanaya. Both the JVP and the UNP were engaged in the 1988/89 killing spree. The UNP was notorious for its vigilante groups such as Yellow Cats, Tigers, Cats and so on.

It was a grim situation that the entire country was engulfed in terror. Under the pretext of socialism and equality, the number of people massacred was enormous. Though some such incidents came to light others went completely unnoticed. The newspapers of this terror period carried spine-chilling headlines such as, “Shot killed head severed”, and two tied to light posts and killed’. The JVP ran its terror by simply delivering a “note” asking shop-owners to close their establishments.

The JVP’s barbaric acts of killing innocent people branded as “traitors” and the shabby treatment meted out their dead bodies are glaring instances of its mindless savagery.

The UNP too killed its enemies to ensure their political survival at that time, while the JVP did so to capture power. These so-called JVP patriots even shot dead the poor farmer who defied their “curfew” by merely going to his paddy field in the morning.

The JVP’s killing list sees no end. According to Lalkantha the innocent civilians were bumped off as they simply failed to support their so-called “patriotic struggle”.The JVP terror made no difference whether one was a politician, an artiste or an intellectual. They all faced the same fate. While waxing eloquent on patriotism and its values, the JVP forced the members of the Armed Forces to vacate their posts and later liquidated their families.

As to why those guiltless people such as artiste Premakeerthi de Alwis, super star Vijaya Kumaratunga and SLBC veteran Thevis Guruge were killed, nobody knows.

The Vijaya Kumaratunga murder suspect Tusan had been instructed by the JVP leader who masqueraded as ‘Asoka’ at the St. Mitchell Hotel premises, to shoot Vijaya Kumaratunga in such a way as to mutilate his face, the CD instigation had revealed. So Tarzan succeeded in killing Vijaya with his first shot and mutilating his face by repeatedly shooting at the dead body. Wijeweera compared himself to Vijaya Kumaratunga and became jealous of the latter’s beaming visage, it was rumoured.

Today the JVP is called upon to answer as to why they killed eminent personalities such as Colombo University Vice-Chancellor Prof. Stanley Wijesundera, State Pharmaceutical Corporation Chairman Dr. Gladys Jayawardena and others such as Ven. Kotikawatte Saddhatissa Thera, Ven. Welletota Pannadarsi Thera, Ven. Pohoddaramulle Premaloka Thera, Sagarika Gomes and Devabandara Senaratne. The JVP keeps mum on these mindless atrocities.

The UNP and SLFP leaders too fell victim to the JVP bullet. Kalutara SLFP leader Indrapala Abeyweera, Educational Services Minister Lionel Jayatilleke and UNP General Secretary Harsha Abeywardena, were only a few of those silenced by the JVP gun.

The JVP launched its political killing spree by targeting former Tangalle MP, Jinadasa Weerasinghe. Baddegama MP, Keerthi Abeywickrema succumbed to his injuries when the JVP exploded a bomb in Parliament.According to the laws of the modern civilised society, all murderers should be strictly dealt with according to the law. No murderer is immuned to law if he openly confesses that he killed people.

This is what Justice Alles who wrote a book on the 1971 JVP insurrection too held.What is important today is to investigate all murders committed.”Yes – we killed, Lalkantha tells the entire world. The law remains silent. The Tiger terrorists too would say, “Yes, we killed, each person who opposed the Tamil liberation struggle was killed.

Whither the law?

Could one repose faith in law any longer?