KAMALIKA PIERIS

After the Arantalawa massacre, the government offered one-time compensation to the victims’ families: Rs. 25,000 for the slain adults and Rs. 15,000 for the slain children. Even by 1987 standards, this was a paltry sum, observed analysts.

Some families, such as Ven. Indasara‘s family, rejected the offer. But, most of the families of the slain monks were poor to refuse it. The victims’ families have received no further assistance from the government or any form of reparations. The survivors, received nothing at all, said analysts.

D. M Siriyawathi, mother  of Wavinne Aththadassi  who died in the massacre said that the entire payment of Rs. 15,000 that her family received got used up  to obtain her son’s death certificate.

Of the 47 who boarded the bus that morning 34 were killed in the massacre. 31 of the dead were Buddhist monks, of whom 29 were samanera. Of the four lay people who had taken part as volunteers, three were killed .Pulse channel features interviews with parents and others who had some link with the massacre. Contains first person accounts of the massacre. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rpDl5Kw2SAUby  

At Arantalawa eleven  Bhikkhus  had  escaped  death  with  critical  injuries  and  three  bhikkhus are  living  with  medical  aid and another bhikkhu is permanently  disabled.

19-year-old Ven. Hanguranketa Pūnnyasara underwent life-saving procedures and was transferred to Kandy for specialized surgeries and again to Colombo. More than three decades later, he still undergoes surgeries and treatment for his injuries.

Pūnnyasara has not received any compensation or reparations. All his medical expenses have been borne by Ven. Kirindiwela Somarathana who has traveled all over the island with him in search of specialist doctors, procedures and treatments that may alleviate his pain. He has lifelong medical expenses: for treatments and surgical procedures as well as for medication.

Rathnayaka Mudalali was shot in the legs and knee during the massacre. While in hospital, he learned that his 12-year-old son, Ven. Dewalahinda Dhammarakkitha had died in the attack. For the remainder of his life, Rathnayaka Mudalali dedicated his life to helping the monks build the Pirivena back up and attending to the welfare of the child monks there.

Records show that over the years he traveled to multiple parts of the country at his own expense and gave multiple sworn affidavits and testimonies, including to the Ampara police and the Commissioner of Oaths in Polonnaruwa.

 He kept meticulous records of his injuries and treatments as evidence. As a survivor as well as the father of one of the victims, it was his quiet hope to somehow initiate a criminal investigation into what he firmly believed was a crime against humanity that was committed against him and the 46 others.

He died in 2018 at home in Ampara, never fulfilling this hope. In his final hours, he requested the presence of the Sri Vidyananda Maha Pirivena student monks to chant pirith for him one last time. The temple sent five samanera; all around the same age as the son he lost, to perform this service.

15-year-old Ven. Andaulpotha Buddhasara was stabilized and airlifted to Colombo where he remained in a coma. For six years Buddhasara lived in various hospitals undergoing multiple surgeries on his spine and doing physical therapy to regain the use of his arms. After four years, the hospital discharged him, he said, but then kept him on as an in-patient for two more years because he had nowhere to go. He was 15 years old and unconscious when he entered hospital and 21 years old and paralyzed when he was discharged.  He is paralyzed from the waist down

Buddhasara said that he struggled to find a temple that could accommodate him with his special needs and all the expenses that came with his paralysis. He needed two attendants throughout the day and night to help him with his basic needs, a wheelchair accessible temple to house him; and financial support to cover surgeries, physical therapy and medications for the rest of his life. 

In the hospitals, the doctors, nurses and orderlies treated him with care and kindness, he said. In the outside world, he found himself unwanted and completely alone. His old Pirivena could not accommodate him with his special needs, he said. And, no government institution, non-government organization or temple volunteered to take him in. He sank into a depression, he said, and wondered if his life was over at 21.

For a while, he was homeless. Eventually, some senior Buddhist monks petitioned the government to find him an accommodation. Due to their persistence, officials moved him to a small building in Badulla close to his hometown of Kirindiwela, neither a temple nor a residence. He has since lived there in a state of limbo, surviving from one month to the next.

 Without any financial resources of his own, he has to raise the funds from donors to pay for his care, he said. Having to raise Rs. 50,000 every month to pay for his care has been draining for him. He said that does not have the funds to make a small viharage (monastery) on the premises to be able to run his own temple. He has not been able to complete his education.

 He finds it frustrating that the survivors, who have struggled immensely since this massacre have been forgotten by both Sri Lankans and an international community, with the latter eager to discuss reparations only for alleged Tamil victims of the government, but not the hundreds of thousands of documented war victims of the LTTE like him. 

Having undergone multiple surgeries on his spine and also his hands, Buddhasara has now resigned himself to the possibility that he may not recover. He fears that his medical expenses will continue for the rest of his life. He says, to the Sri Lankan public, We are still alive. Come and see us. Help us. We are struggling to make ends meet.”

People talk about the Aranthalawa Bhikkhu Massacre, they worship the Memorial, but they don’t make inquiries and help the survivors who are struggling to stay alive or the parents of those who died there. If those children were alive today, they would not let their parents be in these desperate circumstances.” He said, noting that many of the victims’ parents are now elderly, helpless and have steadily fallen into poverty. Look after the victims’ parents, they are destitute today. We the survivors are struggling today.”

Wasantha, former Wawinne Sirinanda comments, Our people have no memory, we forget after a few weeks. I am not sure if our children even know the hardship we faced during the war with the LTTE. Back then, if we got on a bus to travel from the Eastern Province to Colombo, we had to stop at about 50 military checkpoints along the way, climb down, get searched, climb back on and less than a kilometer later we had to stop and go through it again at another check point – we really suffered day after day. The UNHRC and the international community should consider what the LTTE did to us. Those who suffered the most from the war are the Sinhalese, so their resolutions at UN needs to be equitable.

Consider the parents who lost their sons that day, continued Wasantha .Some of them are in desperate circumstances now and suffering immensely. They even struggle to find their next meal. If their sons were alive, they would have been adults by now, and would not have allowed that to happen. They would have supported them somehow, whether they were Buddhist monks or not. But many of these parents have nothing and no one. The humane thing to do is to find out about them, learn about their struggles, and find out how to support them for the remaining years of their lives. Investigating this event and achieving a fair settlement (for the survivors and families of the victims) would be my hope for the future.”

On June 30, 2020, 33 years after the Aranthalawa Massacre, A Fundamental Rights (FR) petition was filed at the Supreme Court by Ven. Andaulpotha Buddhasara who sustained critical injuries in the Aranthalawa Massacre. Seeking an order be made on the Acting Inspector General of Police and the Attorney General to take immediate legal action against any surviving terrorists responsible for the attack which took place on the 02nd of June 1987.”   

The Thero requested the Court to initiate legal action and prosecute living LTTE members who were involved in the incident. He further requested the Supreme Court to issue an order to provide a compensation of Rs. 20 million for the injuries he sustained in the attack.

The petitioner stated when the case came up in August 2021 that no legal proceeding has ever taken place about the Aranthalawa LTTE attack, and it is a violation and continuous infringement of Fundamental Rights guaranteed to the petitioner and others. This petition was on behalf of venerable Sri Indasara Thera and other brother novice Buddhist monks who were brutally killed in the massacre. 

 The petitioner states that both Vinayagamoorthy Muralitharan alias Colonel Karuna Amman and Sivanesathurai Chandrakanthan commonly known as Pillayan are LTTE terrorists who were active in Eastern Province.

The Attorney General informed Supreme Court that the CID has commenced an investigation. Since then, no public announcement on the investigation has been made said Wikipedia.  

This heinous killing at Arantalawa, pre mediated and cruel, carried out in cold blood, using swords,  on small defenseless children,   has not received the exposure that it deserves. It was to a great extent hushed up and removed from public memory. It is time to bring it back   to the notice of the public.

Black July of 1983 is celebrated each year, as our so- called Day of shame, but in 1983 lives were not snuffed out, only houses. In the case of Arantalawa, it was young promising lives.  Hereafter, when Black July of 1983 is   memorialized, the Arantalawa massacre of June 1987 should also be given publicity.  Also the many attacks on Sinhala villages carried out by the LTTE. (CONTINUED)