KAMALIKA PIERIS

LTTE was able to sustain the war for thirty years because the Tamil population supplied the manpower and other support. If the Tamil civilians had refused to support the LTTE and decided to support the Sri Lanka army instead, the Eelam wars would have collapsed.

The Tamil civilians had two choices, to be loyal to the central government which was looking after their needs, such as salaries and food or to link with the LTTE which was engaging in a separatist war. They chose the second alternative.

The Tamil civilians in the north did nothing to help the Sri Lanka army bring the war to an end. They could have resisted the LTTE, helped the Sri Lanka army and brought the war to an end. But they did not do so. They stayed with the LTTE.

This could be contrasted with the JVP insurgency of 1987. When the JVP militants took up arms in 1987, the Sinhala public helped to bring JVP under control. Private armed groups, such as Black Panthers and Yellow Scorpions, emerged to counter JVP terrorism. These private vigilante groups killed JVP members. When JVP issued threats,   these vigilante groups issued counter threats. They replied JVP death threats with a poster which said ape ekata thope dolahak.”   

The ‘Deshapremi Sinhala tharuna Peramuna’ circulated a letter to JVP. This letter said Dear father/ mother/ sister, your son, / brother/ husband has taken the lives of mothers like you, also sisters and innocent children.  They have killed the family members of heroic Sinhala soldiers who fought the Tamil tigers to protect the motherland.  Is it not justified to put you also to death? Be ready to die. May you attain Nirvana. .

A  female JVPer returned to her village, but found that it was difficult to live there since the villagers suspected her   and decided to return to the JVP camp.  J. H. Premasiri,  who had  belonged to the JVP, said, when interviewed in 2021 that the 1971 insurgency failed, not because of   a mistake in the timing of the attacks on April 5^th, but because ofthe lack of support from the masses.

In the north, however, the situation was different. An anti-Sinhala stance was evident among the Tamils in the north and east from in the 1970s. Tensions between the government and Tamil militant groups had  also been brewing since the 1970s. 

When Jayatissa Bandaragoda went as GA Trincomalee in 1978, his first public function was to attend the prize giving of St Joseph’s College. When he went there, he found posters urging parents not to be a part of a ceremony to receive a Sinhala chief guest. The boycott was effective, auditorium was almost empty, a few prizes were given away and the ceremony concluded. Bandaragoda also observed that on National day, 1980, many of the schools in Trincomalee did not hoist the national flag. Instead in one school they set the flag on fire.

LTTE would, therefore  not have found it difficult in the 1980s to brainwash  the Tamil civilians, to convince the Tamil civilians that the  Sinhalese were very brutal and anti Tamil. Amnesty International reported in 2001 that LTTE visited families and questioned them. Those who said they have no problems with the Sri Lanka army were scolded severely.

LTTE  controlled the civilians in various ways. The LTTE had a separate Tamil Civilian Armed Force (Makkal padai brigade) who were trained to kill. LTTE used ‘civilian spotters’ as informants.

LTTE had created a Family Card as a tool for  enumeration and surveillance. The Card contained  the names of all  members of the family, starting with the  male head of the household.  After the Ceasefire agreement was signed,  in 2002 two  LTTE operatives were  made  Grama sevaka in each area. They knew the ‘family details of every family’.

LTTE wanted to alienate the Tamil people from the Sri Lanka government.   They banned the movement of people to government controlled areas, after the Ceasefire Agreement.  They could only go if somebody stood surety for them and they had to return within the stipulated time.

LTTE incited hatred against army. In this they specially focused on children, indicating that the LTTE was thinking very far. LTTE had street plays. One play was about the Struggle. It had a father, mother, two children. One child gets shot and killed by the Sri Lanka army. Remaining child decides to join the LTTE. Father encourages.

The main attitude of the Tamil civilians towards the Sri Lanka army was one of hostility, but there were a few instances where the Tamil civilians helped the soldiers.

 After the Mankulam attack of 1990, some soldiers  lost their way and  got to the Eastern front of Weli oya. Some had stumbled upon Tamil villages  where they were chased off with knives and machetes. But  in some Tamil villages, the  villagers  had helped them secretly, feeding them and sending them off in the direction of Vavuniya. Had the LTTE found that they had given them even a drop of water they would have been killed, observed Kamal Gunaratne.

Kamal also  recorded  the experience of a lone soldier who made it back,  after the Mankulam attack    Three escaping soldiers had been attacked by the LTTE. Two were killed, the  third, though injured, escaped  and reached a hut  where    an old Tamil man had given him shelter, and medicine. This man had hidden the soldier in his house till midnight, then took him 15 kilometers on his bicycle  and  showed him the Sinhala village of Mamaduwa. He had  then spoken to him in Sinhala, when you are back in the field and fighting the terrorists, remember that every Tamil is not your enemy”.Such incidents were few. The general attitude, it appears  was one of  opposition and hostility.

Other authorities in the north also  took the  position that the Sri Lanka army was bombing Tamils in their homes, for no reason. They  seem unaware that all four Eelam Wars were started by the LTTE .

In 1994, during Eelam War II,   the Methodist Church, Jaffna arranged  for a good will  visit from a  group of Methodists from Colombo. Anne Abayasekara who led the mission wrote about it in her newspaper column. It was like going to another country, she said. We had to show ID and obtain visas at LTTE checkpoint to enter. No radios, TV, fridges, electrical conveniences, no water on tap, no telephones, no regular mail service, all cooking done on wood  fires, No drugs including even Panadol. Triposha is not allowed into Jaffna so they were trying to prepare a local substitute. There were  memorials all over to LTTE heroes.

A priest told Anne the children in Jaffna do not know any Sinhala people. The only Sinhalese they know is the soldier at Palaly releasing a shell that kills people. One person said to me,  reported Anne, our children have never met any Sinhalese people but when the shelling starts from Mullaitivu or the bombs drop  from the skies they know it is Sinhalese people who are doing this to us.

Children of Jaffna know what it is to be subject to shelling and bombardment, noted Anne. The message given by the shelling and aerial bombing is that the Sinhala government is our worst enemy.

Young persons joined the LTTE because the Sri Lanka army had started killing Tamils for no reason. 49 bodies of dead Tigers were brought to Pooneryn, immediately 112 boys and girls joined the movement,  they  told Anne.

Anne observed that there was deep distrust of the government and outrage towards the army. A doctor told Anne  ‘you have seen the destruction, tell this to the Sinhala people. How intolerable are the conditions we have to live under. Are people in the south aware of the  conditions here. We live in fear. We want to lead a normal life. If they would at least stop the bombing and shelling. They were shelling even on Christmas day and Thai Pongal.

We are not against the Sinhala people, we are against the government. If Sinhalese can bring pressure on the government to establish peace and harmony we would be very happy. Tell the Sinhala people we would like to live peacefully with them. Old grievances have not been settled, and now our children are fighting for their rights, the  Methodist Church told Anne.  ( Continued)