KAMALIKA PIERIS

The April 1971 JVP insurrection took the country by surprise because it was against a popular, SLFP government which had just one year before, won 91 seats out of 151 in the 1970 general election. The JVP insurrection of 1971 was met with stunned disbelief, said Suriya Wickremasinghe. It was marked with confusion, bewilderment, rumor and speculation. How such a situation could have come about. Was there a foreign hand behind this extraordinary event? 

Of course there was.   It was obvious that this was no home grown insurgency.  Kamal Gunaratne commented on the planning that would have gone into a simultaneous attack on 92 police stations in 1971. JVP cadres had been  told that there were highly placed politicians, foreign countries, and military personal backing them, said Tassie Seneviratne.

JVP definitely had foreign contacts and foreign support. Viraj Fernando, an engineer who was sympathetic to the JVP, had at Wijeweera’s request gone overseas in November 1970 to make contact with foreign rebel groups to procure weapons, said Jayantha Somasunderam. Rohan Guneratne said that Ananda Idamegama had contact with foreign ministries in Colombo.

Chandraprema said that early in the 1971 JVP insurgency,   it was rumored that JVP was receiving covert aid from a foreign source.  JVP was able to hide its international links. “We were home-made revolutionaries, with no proper arms and ammunition and bombs made of tinkiri tins,” said Sunanda Deshapriya.

We in the CID were asked to probe whether and how the JVP was funded, said Gamini Gunawardene.  But no definite avenues of financial assistance to the J. V. P. were established, said Samaranayake.  

But a scapegoat was needed. The public   were told that North Korea was responsible for the insurgency.Implicating evidence was found and the North Korea Embassy was immediately closed down and the diplomats banished from Sri Lanka. Experts knew that North Korea had nothing to do with it, so did seasoned politicians. Godahewa (2012) stated firmly that JVP had received funds in 1971   and named Middle East, Thailand and Japan.

N.M Perera stated that the insurgency was a CIA operation. Several   politicians, including N.M. Perera   thought the JVP were CIA agents, said H.L.D. Mahindapala. The JVP also said so, accusing each other of being CIA. Dharmasekera, who was dismissed from the JVP, accused Rohana Wijeweera of being a CIA agent. Rohana Wijeweera said that Dharmasekera’s organisation ‘Mathroo bhumi Arakshaka Sangamaya’ was CIA. When, ‘Vikalpa kandayama’, another splinter group of ex JVPers, emerged, Wijeweera said its leader was a CIA agent.

Analysts observed that when the government, appealed to foreign governments for assistance  the assistance from the US government was very little. However Prime Minister Sirimavo had been told to ask for help from the US Seventh Fleet which was exercising in the Indian Ocean at the time.

Garvin Karunaratne, who was GA, Matara at the time said that in the days immediately after April 5, 1971, ‘when we were holding onto the coastal strip at Matara,’ a very large ship appeared on the coast and came very close to Dondra. Sri Lanka did not have a ship of that size.  Watching the drama through binoculars from the Army camp I saw a number of boats being lowered to the sea and things being put into them.

Dondra was under JVP control at that time except for the police station and the adjacent areas and there was no possibility of conducting checks in the area. We radioed Army Headquarters and one of our planes came, hovered around the ship and we heard machine gun fire for around fifteen minutes. The ship vanished just afterwards. This episode is known only to me and the Army on duty at that time, concluded Karunaratne.

Edward Gunawardene was at Kurunegala dealing with the 1971 insurgency there, when an Air force vehicle drew up at the police station with nine young men who had been arrested. They were JVPers who had been instructed by their superiors, to leave Warakapola and retreat to Ritigala.

At this time, as if from nowhere, appeared two young foreign journalists, a man and a woman. One was from the Washington Post and the other, the young woman from the Christian Science Monitor. They questioned the JVPers and took photographs, said Edward. (https://island.lk/a-senior-cop-remembers-april-1971/).

It was obvious that the JVP was receiving some form of external aid in the period 1977-1983, said Chandraprema. When JVP were arrested there were Habeas corpus applications. These were paid for by applicant’s relatives or by an aid organization.  BBC filmed an attack on JVP at University of Sri Jayewardenepura and showed it as ‘island of terror’.

In 1985 Amnesty International issued a report on Sri Lanka taking the side of the JVP. When an armed gang abducted eight bhikkhus of the Manawa Hithawadi Organization in 1988 Somawansa phoned Amnesty international in London. DJV had  trained a few of its members in India.

.JVP tried to show that all funds were obtained locally,  through membership fees,  donations,  robberies.  JVP robbed cash from banks and petrol sheds. Dalandagama Maho   cooperative petrol shed, Polgahawela and Galagamuwa petrol sheds were robbed in 1986. In 1988, Digana Peoples Bank  was robbed of Rs 8 million, Wellawatte Peoples Bank robbed of  Rs 20  million in  cash. JVP robbed cash and jewellery from Marandagahamula Peoples Bank in 1987, and Wallewatte Peoples Bank in 1989. A pay roll of Rs 4 lakhs was robbed in Balangoda.  Another pay roll from Kalebokka was taken in 1989.

But JVP could not have funded its two  insurgencies  in this ad hoc manner. JVP had heavy expenses. Some Rs 1,000,000 to Rs 1,200,000 was needed  as  payment to full timers . Two activists in Kandy were given Rs 120,000 and 150,000.    Money was also needed to lease houses,  purchase and maintain vehicles.  

In the late 1980s  JVP  bought three houses. Araliyawatte in Lilambe area Wariyapola, a  house at Gonapola junction, Batuwita and the mansion Katugaha Walawwa in Neluwa near

Attampitiya road. When Shanta Bandara  was captured    Rs. one million  had been offered for his release.

JVP   had a quantity of quick firing automatic rifles better than what the IPKF had in 1987 said Chandrprema. Peradeniya undergrads were  armed with lethal weapons, observed Wiswa. Where did they get these guns Peradeniya academics asked.

The frequent use of landmines by the JVP indicated that JVP was receiving regular supplies of explosives from overseas, said  Sri Lanka Intelligence.  but the mystery surrounding the sources of arms supply to the JVP has not been resolved, said analysts.

After the 1989 defeat, the JVP was rescued by its foreign contacts. The foreign links of the JVP came to light only then, said Godahewa. This fact has not received the publicity it deserves. India’s RAW had arranged to provide accommodation and other assistance in India to fleeing JVP cadres.  Nearly 400 were given sanctuary. In April 1989 Somawansa’s wife and son had been sent to Japan, then    UK.  They had returned home in September 1989.

The sole Politbureau member to escape, after the 1987 insurgency, was Somawansa Amarasinghe  alias Siri Aiya . Somawansa Amarasinghe  had coordinated the international network during the 1987  insurgency. Somawansa Amerasinghe fled to India on a boat on March 17, 1990.   He was assisted by RAW  to safely flee Sri Lanka, and was given refuge in India..  Indian authorities looked after him.

He arrived in Thailand with his family from India on October 19, 1990, and sought political asylum at the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees on March 6, 1991. Later on July 7, 1991, he went to Italy and stayed at Walpolage Dharmasena’s house. Then, at 8 pm on August 26, 1991, Somawansa was brought to the French border in Turin, Italy, by Dharmasena’s car. Shortly afterwards, Somawansa traveled to Britain via France, (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Somawansa_Amarasinghe note 11)

 In UK Somawansa had run a special international JVP cell. This was used, very successfully to conduct special meetings in different countries in Asia, on behalf of the JVP. According to Dharman Wickremaratne, Somawansa had traveled to Italy via France and thereafter to Switzerland. Somawansa lived in Paris and London for 12 years and returned to Sri Lanka to lead the JVP in 1994.

JVP continued to be active thereafter and the charge of foreign influence continued to follow it. Many consider JVP to be a tool used by foreign handlers. In 2011 it was reported that JVP had 13 international branches in UK, US, Italy, France, Cyprus, Sweden, South Korea, Australia,  Japan, Saudi Arabia, UAR, Qatar and Oman.

JVP is an agent of the west and is attempting to create trouble in the country, said Nalin de Silva. Nalin de Silva had observed in 2004 and 2010 that JVP was a western tool. JVP was being used by the western forces, he said.  JVP was getting huge sums from US and Norway to support Fonseka in Presidential election of 2010, he concluded. Wimal Weerawansa also said in 2010, that JVP  was run with the help of funds given by some foreign embassies.

JVP are outrageous hypocrites, said ‘Old Soldier’ in 2019. They may mystify some with their verbosity, but who and what do they represent? Could they be working as a proxy for a shadow organization, he asked.