KAMALIKA PIERIS

There was a deep hatred of Buddhism within the Tamil Separatist Movement. Buddhists seem unaware of this, though it is clearly visible.  It is right under their noses.  This animosity is not new. I saw it as a schoolgirl in the 1950s in Kandy, both in my school and in the area where we lived.

The Tamil Separatists are Hindu, Roman Catholic or Protestant Christian.  Of this group, Hindus lack animosity towards Buddhism. They think the two religions are related. But there is a deep hatred and contempt for Buddhism among the Christians.  Christians see Buddhists as unbelievers, as heathens, to be treated with contempt. Buddhist lives do not matter.

LTTE is anti Buddhist as well as anti Sinhala. LTTE   destroyed temples and Buddhist monuments in the northern and Eastern Province. LTTE destroyed the   huge stupa at Kombanachchiya in Trincomalee district. LTTE had bulldozed the standing Buddha statue at Paravankandam (Batticaloa district) and destroyed its head. The rest of the statue was rescued and the pieces sent to Ampara museum. 

 Wedivetttukallu Chaitya, Ambakamun stupa  and the stupa at Kannyar kovil  were used as bunkers.  Stupas at Verugal,  Kalladi   and Toppur   were used as communication towers. It appears that heavy weapons were installed at Thoppigala. Kumbakaranamale Chaitya, Ampakaman, was used as a food store.    LTTE had built Hindu kovils at Oddusuddan  and Nilaveli.

When Ven. Ellawela Medhananda went to Pulunkunawa, in 1982   he found that LTTE had established an Eelam kingdom there. On all hilltops there was the Eelam symbol drawn in color.  There was a house built on top of the stupa. The owner glared at me, said Medhananda.  Bricks from the stupa were taken to build houses and there was manioc cultivation in the ruins. 

Medhananda had visited an archaeological site at Walakapitiya in Ampara  on August 19, 2003. A kovil was being constructed there with the backing of the LTTE. Nearly 25 armed LTTE cadres had chased him away and threatened him with death if he ever came back.  Inscriptions found by the monk had been destroyed after the monk left. 

Sihala Urumaya decided to accept the LTTE challenge and taka the monk back to the site. Media announced that monks and the members of the Sihala Urumaya accompanied by a group of journalists will go with Ven. Ellawela Medhananda to Walakapitiya to the exact spot where the Tamil Tigers had earlier turned him away. The plan is to let Ven. Medhananda complete copying the stone inscriptions while giving him protection by forming a human shield.

Sihala Urumaya, led by Tilak Karunaratne, accompanied Ven. Ellawela Medhananda to the site. The special Task Force and the Police were on duty to provide security and prevent any incidents.  The LTTE cadres were just onlookers despite the Tiger threat that the monk would not be allowed to set foot on that site, reported the media. 

Medhananda said he had visited Mundikulammale ruins for the first time in 1964. Then there was fear of wild animals. In 1999 the fear was of the LTTE. To visit we needed the support of the army and police. We had visited Girikumbara vihara, Ampara earlier,    said Medhananda, but when we went in 1986 to see what had happened, no one wanted to drive us there.    It is now dangerous for Sinhalese to go there” he said in 2003.  No Sinhalese can go to Rugam now either.

When the Eelam war ended in 2009, the Royal Asiatic Society of Sri Lanka (RASSL) led a team to the north, where the army pointed out the places where LTTE had renamed Buddhist sites. Separatists in the Provincial Council wanted the sites to be declared Hindu    by the Archaeological Department.

LTTE had a deep and venomous hatred of Buddhists and Buddhism. LTTE did not target churches, kovils or mosques, only Buddhist sites. Places of religious worship are protected sites. Attacks on them are considered criminal acts [1] But the LTTE did not care.

On 25 January 1998, the LTTE exploded a massive truck bomb inside the   Dalada Maligawa in Kandy. Three suicide LTTE Black Tigers drove an explosive laden truck along Raja Veediya, crashed through the entrance to the Maligawa and detonated the bomb. The truck contained 300–400 kilograms (660–880 lb) of high explosives. 

16 people, including the 3 attackers and a 2-year-old infant were killed in the incident.^[Over 25 people, including 4 women, a monk and a police officer were injured. The powerful attack left most of the buildings within a radius of 5 kilometers damaged, and glass panes broken.

Later crowds gathered around the temple, and set fire to 3 vehicles and burned down a Hindu cultural center in Kandy. They attacked the Sri Selva Vinayagar Hindu temple at Katukelle .In October 2003, three LTTE cadres involved in the attack were convicted by the Kandy high court and sentenced to death. Two others were sentenced to 680 years of rigorous imprisonment and third to 490 years.

LTTE  attacked  Girihandu seya in Tiriyaya in 1985 and  destroyed almost all the buildings there. The living quarters of the monks were completely demolished and the monks  chased away.  All 15 Buddhist monks had to leave the temple.  Tiriyaya authorities have placed this attack on record at the entrance to the complex, with photos and video, for  visitors to see.

LTTE targeted Buddhist monks. Monks are ‘protected persons’ as well, whom soldiers are forbidden to kill (Geneva Convention IV). LTTE murdered the monks at the ruined panchavasa monastery at Kombanachchi villu in Trincomalee district.   In 1987 armed LTTE cadres ambushed a bus taking samaneras, ordered the bus to Arantalawa jungle, and killed the chief priest and all 30 samanera monks in a brutal manner, using swords, guns and machine guns. 29 of the 31 Buddhist monks killed were child monks. Most of the victims had been attacked with swords, machetes and knives prior to their deaths.It was described as a heinous crime.

LTTE killed Matara Kithalagama Sri Seelalankara better known as Dimbulagala Hamuduruwo in June 1995. The priest and his driver were gunned down on May 26 while visiting paddy farmers in Dimbulagala. Seelalankara opposed the LTTE and was seen as a hero by Buddhists.

His death was marked by riots in the town of Dimbulagala reported Agence Press. Police declared an indefinite curfew after rioters left shops and businesses owned by Tamils ablaze. Police had clamped an indefinite curfew in Galle after mobs of Sinhalese people attacked Tamil-owned shops, looting and burning them.

Agence Press reported again on the day of the funeral. The high priest was cremated Saturday at a ceremony attended by half a million mourners.  Yellow ribbons and flags could be seen all over Sri Lanka in memory of Kitalagama Seelalankara, the 71-year-old monk, who opposed to demands by the Tamil rebels for an independent homeland in the north and east of the island.  Security was tight at the site of the funeral, in Dimbulagala village 170 kilometers (105 miles) east of the capital Colombo, where the body was kept for eight days.

Saffron robed Buddhist monks wept openly as nearly half a million mourners from across the country attended the elaborate ceremony. People travelled in hundreds of buses, trucks and tractors to the monk’s temple. Flanked by more than 800 monks and traditional drummers, the bier was taken through the village streets. The coffin progressed slowly to the site where it was finally burned. The killing of the priest is expected to harden the resolve of the majority Sinhalese in their dealings with the Tamils, concluded Agence Press.

LTTE also targeted worshippers in Buddhist temples. The most significant of these attacks was the one made at the Sri Maha Bodhi in Anuradhapura. LTTE hijacked a bus on May 14, 1985, and entered Anuradhapura.  They opened fire with automatic weapons, at the main bus station,  killing and wounding civilians who were waiting for buses. The LTTE cadres then drove to the Sri Maha Bodhi and gunned down worshippers, killing 146 persons including children.

Somawathi vihara was attacked twice by LTTE . The second shooting was done to discourage pilgrims coming to the temple on Esala Poya. A bomb killed 23 and injured 70 at a Buddhist temple in Batticaloa during Vesak in 2000. The bomb that exploded in an Anuradhapura-Kandy private bus at Dambulla (2008) was to be exploded at Ruwanveliseya when a ‘pichchamal pujawa’ was in progress with thousands of devotees taking part in the ceremony. The informant who had carried the bomb had been accompanied by her mother and sister, all posing as Buddhist devotees going on pilgrimage.  (Continued)

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[1] ICRC Rule 38, , Hague Convention 1999)