KAMALIKA PIERIS

Jayatissa Bandaragoda’s biography titled    Path of destiny: autobiography of a farmer’s son’ was published in 2011 by Godage international. One reason I wrote this autobiography was to refer to some events relating to the ethnic issue in Trincomalee and elsewhere,” said Bandaragoda. This was a key motivating factor behind my autobiography.  I thought I should place some of my personal experiences and related view points in the public domain.”

Bandaragoda’s brush with the Tamil Separatist Movement started with his appointment as Government Agent, Trincomalee.  Bandaragoda was Government agent, Trincomalee from 1978-1981.

This was not a happy period, he said.  A few days after assuming duties, he was invited, as Chief Guest to the prize giving of St Josephs College, Trincomalee. It was certainly not the usual school prize giving”, he said.  Large posters had been put up, threatening people not be part of a ceremony to receive a Sinhala chief guest and to boycott the function. There was a boycott, but the principal, Father Gnanaprakasam wanted to hold the   prize giving because   there were   a few children from the lower classes, a few parents and teachers present.  Bandaragoda made a speech gave away prizes and the ceremony concluded quickly ‘without any mishaps.’ But the incident shattered my confidence, Bandaragoda said.

During my first year of tenure as GA Trincomalee, there were a number of other unpleasant and anti national incidents as well. Independence Day celebrations were limited to Kachcheri only, due to poor attendance said Bandaragoda. Other occasions of national importance, were marred by ugly incidents such as the burning of the lion flag in a school in town. Some phosphorus had been tied to the flag and ignited as the flag went up. There was a spate of such anti national incidents in Trincomalee.  In 1980 on National Day in Trincomalee, many of the schools did not hoist the national flag.

Trincomalee was considered a hostile environment for a state administrator to work in, but Bandaragoda found that the public in Trincomalee were cooperative and appreciative.  However, ethnically charged aggressive and arrogant behavior was clearly    evident among some of the Tamil elites , he said. This domineering had the objective of relegating the Sinhalese to an inferior status, socially and economically.

The AGAs (Assistant Government Agents) at the time were Tamil. A Sinhala AGA was appointed to Kuchchaveli and the Tamil elites did not like it.  The Sansoni Commission appointed to inquire into the Tamil riots 1977 was sitting in Trincomalee when Bandaragoda arrived. He was told that Sampanthan, then MP for Trincomalee had given evidence before the Commission and had said that Tamils could not bear the sight of Sinhalese officials. 

The Urban Council of Trincomalee was dominated by the Tamil community. Documents such as building applications were only in Tamil language.  The district’s budget was allocated mostly to roads,    schools   and so on, which benefitted the Tamil community. The Urban Council was not supportive of  the Sinhalese in Trincomalee. The Sinhala public in Trincomalee complained to the Kachcheri, regarding this. Whenever some harassment occurred in Urban Council the Sinhalese rushed to the Kachcheri, recalled Bandaragoda. 

The Sinhalese in Trincomalee had    grievances. The vegetable and fish market in Trincomalee were run by Sinhalese business men who had come from south. Most of the prominent traders in the town were also Sinhalese. The authorities regularly tried to shift the markets from their current location, the Sinhalese   refused to allow it.

During his stay as GA in Trincomalee, Bandaragoda found anti-Buddhist activity going on, particularly the planned destruction of Bo trees. He observed that the newly set up places of Hindu worship, with lingam and statues, were destroyed in retaliation.

The destruction of the Kilveddi Bo tree in April 1978 took place when Bandaragoda was the GA in Trincomalee. It was believed that this Bo tree was one of the saplings planted in the country, with the Sri Maha Bodhi at Anuradhapura.  The destruction had led to a minor ethnic riot in Mutur area.

There was much agitation in the villages in Seru Nuwara AGA’s division at the time.  At Allai a Sinhala farmer was shot and killed in the area and the ‘already burning emotions erupted’.  8 persons died. The Allai irrigation scheme had been done in such a way that aSinhala settlement was adjacent to a Tamil settlement.

 A Buddhist monk, reportedly from Kurunegala was injured by gunshot in the same area.   The monk was brought to Trincomalee hospital and an attempt to smuggle his blood stained robes out of the hospital was foiled by the authorities who impounded the clothes and prevented a major communal riot in the country.

The tension was kept under control at local level in Mutur, Kilveddi, Dehiwatte, and Neelapol areas with help of navy and police, but there were still some skirmishes in the Kilveddi area.   The tension remained in Mutur and Seruwila areas, said Bandaragoda.

In 1979, Bandaragoda had been called before Victor Tennekoon Commission on District Development Councils. He had been called because of complaints made against him by the MP for Trincomalee.  While responding, Bandaragoda had spoken about the Kilveddi incident and about the mushrooming of small places of Hindu worship.   Neelan Thiruchelvam who was a member of the Commission had not liked his exposing these facts. He wanted Bandaragoda’s evidence be expunged, as ‘communally biased’.  Tennakoon had refused to do so. The Commission instead had thanked Bandaragoda for his detailed and balanced description of the situation in Trincomalee

Bandaragoda stated that the first objection to his appointment as GA Trincomalee came from the Sinhala Buddhists. After the Kilveddi incident, the second priest of Seruwila and a delegation from the area had rushed to see the President. They complained against Bandaragoda, blaming him for the Mutur incidents, saying that he had allowed AGA Sivanathan to bring in the navy to act against the interests of the Sinhalese in the area. Bandaragoda was not in Trincomalee at the time. AGA Sivanathan had acted on his own. This was explained to the delegation.

 The bhikkhu led delegation had obviously been fed the information that Bandaragoda was responsible, in order to get Bandaragoda removed from Trincomalee, using the Buddhists of Trincomalee. The gullible Buddhists had  readily fallen for this.

Some months later, in September 1978, Bandaragoda was invited to lay the foundation stone for a new stupa which Ven. Rambukkana Saddharmalankara, chief priest of Sri Bodhirajaramaya temple in China Bay was constructing.  Bandaragoda observed that this bhikkhu was later shot and killed by either the LTTE or the IPKF

Bandaragoda   had come across clandestine Tamil settlements in jungle areas in China Bay, Kucchaveli, Morawewa and Tampalagamam areas. In most of these, the people reported that a Catholic priest, an MP and his brother were helping. The one in China Bay was in the form of a religious peace haven or retreat and people settled there were all Tamils from tea estates.  This was a campaign to colonize vacant land with Tamils. This was a   well planned anti government effort, he said. 

A number of housing schemes were started in Trincomalee town at this time.MP for Trincomalee had selected state land at Love Lane,   to put up one housing scheme. Love Lane was situated in front of another existing housing scheme, Sirimapura given to Sinhala fishing families. 

Bandaragoda and others thought that it was not good to have a housing scheme for Tamils so close to Sirimapura which had been a regular place of ethnic tension. We offered alternative state land within the town limits. But they were adamant that it should be Love Lane and in a specific location.

Two senior officers of National Housing Scheme, Dunstan Jayawardene and Susil Sirivardana visited Bandaragoda and pursued the request.  They were shown the location and Bandaragoda   had explained that it could lead to great trouble later.  Ignoring my view that it was a time bomb, they pressed me to release the land and said that it had been asked for by the MP and it was a request from the Prime Minister himself and if I wished to I could refer the matter back to the Prime Minister. The Prime Minister however, he was told, ‘had been very angry’ and the land was released. Later, as anticipated, the Sirimapura housing scheme was attacked.

The Mahaweli scheme had a settlement   project in Mahadiulwewa in Seruwila electorate. The Mahadiulwewa project was historic because it was decided that settlement should reflect the ethnic ratio in the district.  This was the first time such a policy had been enunciated. A land Kachcheri was held, the selection made and the selected allottees informed. Most were landless chena cultivators, who had been living in the project area for a long time.

Then an objection was raised by MP for Trincomalee that   persons from Trincomalee electorate should also have been selected. However, the selection already made could not be altered for legal reasons.  Ponraja   of the Irrigation Department suggested that the blocking out plan could be redrawn to increase the number of allotments by reducing the area allocated to an allotment. 

Gamini Dissanayake, Minster for Mahaweli, accompanied by   NGP Panditeratne and Gamini Iriyagolle, came to investigate. Amirthalingam and Sampanthan were also present. I also participated at this unprecedented meeting, said Bandaragoda. It was agreed that applicants from Trincomalee electorate should also be interviewed and selected and the final list should reflect the district’s ethnic ratio. The plan would be redrawn to include more allotments by reducing the extent of land per allotment

Bandaragoda found that Fort Frederick was once a Buddhist monastery on which a Hindu shine had been built.  There was enough evidence in the literature to suggest that Gokanna Vihara was the dominant feature of this region. [Gokanna temple had long since disappeared] and more recently, the Bo tree that had stood on top of the hill had been cut down. The dispute had been settled by an earlier GA, MB Senanayake. I saw the concrete slab   over the spot where the Bo tree had probably been, said Bandaragoda.

Buddhist wanted to set up at their own expense, a stupa and standing Buddha statue within the    army premises of Fort Frederick.  Bandaragoda had no objection and with the support of philanthropists led by a gem merchant from Ratnapura the two shrines were completed in less than three months.

Sometime later there was a hue and cry over the loss of a Siva lingam that had been placed on a small rock within the Fort Frederick area. The spot was a bare land, a few yards away from the compound of Koneswaram temple. The leading politicians blamed the theft on Bandaragoda and President Premadasa came to check escorted by Sampanthan. At the investigation Bandaragoda had strongly denied any involvement in the matter.  Many had wondered why a Siva lingam had been placed there. They thought that this had been done to block the government using this land for some other purpose.

 Bandaragoda found that he was considered ‘anti-Tamil   by journalists and the University Teachers for Human Rights. He was blamed for many matters. In 1981 Bandaragoda was selected to be Additional Secretary to Ministry of Lands. But Amirthalingam, of TULF and Sampanthan, MP for Trincomalee objected as  the Ministry  dealt with national land policy and  Bandaragoda  was considered anti –Tamil. So he was sent as Additional Secretary, Mahaweli Ministry.

Bandaragoda‘s appointment as Additional Secretary, Mahaweli Ministry, started in 1982. Bandaragoda recalled that in 1985, I was in the field inspecting the work on the future settlement, at Mutugala area north of Welikanda. The area was to be settled by those living in Mutugala and adjoining villages, mostly Tamil and Muslim families.  A greatly agitated field officer arrived to tell me what he had just heard on radio.  He had heard on Eelam Radio that the LTTE was opposed to these settlements and that the person entrusted with this was Jayatissa Bandaragoda. Bandaragoda together with the rest, would be killed. Bandaragoda listened to the radio broadcast himself and   reported the matter to the Ministry.

 In 1985 Bandaragoda was on a field visit to Mahaweli System H when he heard the news of the LTTE attack on Anuradhapura. He had made inquires and was able to trace the carnage starting from the bus stand.  Nobody knew where the LTTE had come from but the exit route was clear, it was along the Anuradhapura- Puttalam road up to the turn off to Wilpattu National Park. LTTE  had shot and killed people at random on the way, including a beggar who was sleeping on a mat at the verandah of a small shop at Wilpattu junction.  At the Wilpattu Park bungalow we heard how all the employees were lined up with their hands tied at the back and shot one by one.

Some settler families of system H at  Nochchiyagama has been killed at the bus stand in  Anuradhapura. Three persons had entered the bus and fired shots.     We went to the funeral house of one woman who had been killed on the bus. It was one of the most pathetic scenes I had ever seen with the father and other children crying over the mother’s body and the child who escaped death still looking dazed and confused.  

In 1984 Bandaragoda was appointed Deputy Commandant for civil affairs in the Joint Services Operations in which the Commandant was the Commander of the navy.  Bandaragoda’s team of four SLAS officers travelled to all the villages in districts of Mannar, Vavuniya, and Kilinochchi to find out development  needs that could be attended to in the short term. They did not visit the fourth district Trincomalee, as they all knew the district well.

In the process of this survey we found that a large number of families of estate Tamils had been settled on state land in these districts We had prepared a map of the districts giving the ethnic composition of each grama sevaka division.

They found that in the period 1971 to 1981 about 80,000 people had been added to the population of these three districts in addition to the normal growth.  They were persons repatriated in Sirima Shastri pact. They  were presumably stopped on their way to India and taken to these areas for settlement, apparently with the knowledge of the government servants of the area. A number of NGOs were involved in providing financial and organization assistance to these settlers.

Ceylon Workers Congress had given leadership to this and had retained the full loyalty of the Tamils. Each house we visited in the new settlements had Thondaman’s photo and each house donated a rupee per month to the CWC fund. The new land cleared by the settlers was cultivated with green gram. The government did not eject them and later they were given citizenship.

Bandaragoda was also given another special assignment during this period, as Chairman of a newly formed National Settlement Advisory Board. This Board ratified the recommendation  made by the  Bandaragoda  group that had visited the four districts of Vavuniya, Mannar, Kilinochchi and Trincomalee as part of the  Joint service Operation mention  earlier.

The Board decided that it was necessary to halt the settlements [of the Tamils] in  the area. .One strategy would-be to have a buffer zone of [Sinhala settlements] along Yan Oya.  Some abandoned land which had been given to entrepreneurs on a Marginal Land Alienation Scheme, were divided into smaller units for settlement of ex-prisoners. These were the ill-fated Kent and Dollar farms that were later attacked by the LTTE. Bandaragoda‘s team had suggested that if a buffer zone was formed, adequate protection should be given. Also that those already settled in the area should not be ejected.

When the Dollar and Kent farms were attacked in 1984,  President Jayewardene   sent Bandaragoda to attend to the funeral rites of those killed. Bandaragoda wondered why those who did this project without providing security were not asked to go instead.  Anyway Bandaragoda went, and found that arrangements had been made by the Chief priest of the Padaviya temple  to bring the bodies to Padaviya School. there were        62 bodies of men women and children . Their hands had been tied at the back and each had been shot at close range on the head. Bandaragoda and others had made arrangements for coffins.  Bandaragoda  noted that there were no visitors from Colombo and no media persons to observe the event.

Lastly,  I wish to emphasize that Bandaragoda repeatedly stated  in his book  that he was not anti-Tamil. He described in detail the protection and assistance he and his wife had given to Tamils known to them, during the 1983 riots in Colombo (see p 165 and  173-177).