KAMALIKA PIERIS

MADURU OYA SETTLEMENT PROJECT 1983

When work started on Maduru Oya Right Bank construction Mahaweli officials and engineers found that the Tamil Separatist Movement was quietly settling estate Tamils on the land intended for the new settlements. They were filling it up so that the Sinhalese could not get in. The UNP government of JR Jayewardene   was allowing them to do so. The government was behaving as if the north was not a part of Sri Lanka. [1]

Two Mahaweli officers in particular, were very concerned about these encroachments. They were T.H. Karunatilleke, then Director, Planning at Mahaweli and B.H. Hemapriya, Consultant to the Media Unit of the Mahaweli Centre.

Karunatilleke was a career public servant. He had worked as a resident project manager In the Mahaweli scheme and knew Mahaweli like the back of his hand”. Hemapriya had been the media man for Mahaweli under three Ministers, CP de Silva, Maitripala Senanayake and Gamini Dissanayake. He had powerful contacts with the media.  He ‘knew his Mahaweli’  and was ‘alert to every flash point in the Mahaweli scheme’ said Malinga Gunaratne.

Leelananda de Silva recalled that he had met B.H. Hemapriya when Hemapriya was Press officer, Ministry of Lands under C.P. de Silva. He was genuinely interested in the work he did and he had great knowledge of Sri Lanka’s history, specially of its irrigation works. Hemapriya was an honest and hard working public servant. He was not interested in making money, and his retirement years were not easy, concluded Leelananda. [2]

Karunatilleke and Hemapriya, who were friends, saw the significance of Maduru Oya for Eelam. Tamil settlements would strengthen Eelam. A Sinhala settlement there could puncture Eelam. They turned to Malinga Gunaratne.

Malinga Gunaratne had joined the Central Engineering Consultancy Bureau (CECB), a   Department of the Mahaweli Ministry, in 1980 as Additional General Manager, on the invitation of Minister Gamini Dissanayake, Minister for Mahaweli.  Malinga was   put in charge of the high powered battery of media men at Mahaweli Authority.

Malinga had direct access to the Minster, Gamini Dissanayake, whom he seems to have known personally and to the Director General of the Mahaweli Authority, NGP Panditeratne. Gamini and Panditeratne hardly spoke to each other. Malinga conveyed their messages. Malinga also had complete freedom to enlist the support of any official in the Ministry from Secretary downwards to perform the tasks allotted to him.      Malinga was therefore able to cut through red tape and get many things done at Mahaweli.    Malinga, it appears, had some clout at Mahaweli.

Malinga met Hemapriya at the Media unit and the two developed a friendship outside working hours.  Hemapriya briefed Malinga on how Tamil public servants were manipulating the Mahaweli water. Eelamists were at work at all strategic points in the Mahaweli Ministry and other organizations, using all sorts of tricks. Tamil separatists carried out their activities carefully, noted Gunaratne. ‘Their machinations were well calculated, well planned out and executed with clinical precision’.

The Tamil Separatist Movement was attempting to take Mahaweli waters   to the north and east through clever stratagems. Kotmale water was going to the north east. Large tracts of land were called elephant corridors, forest reserves, national parks and no settlement was allowed in them. There are more elephant corridors and forest reserves   here than in the rest of Sri Lanka, said Hemapriya.

Karunatilleke and Hemapriya briefed Malinga on the illegal Tamil settlements at Maduru Oya project. These illegal   Tamil settlements were taking place with the active assistance of the Tamil administrators in Batticaloa. The Tamil public officers in Batticaloa   out maneuvered and outflanked their complacent Sinhala counterpart with regard to work on Maduru Oya Right Bank which was close to Batticaloa.  The Left bank was close to Polonnaruwa.  

Malinga was concerned.  They met regularly in Malinga’s office from April to June 1983.  Hemapriya gave Malinga information on   what the Tamil Separatist Movement was doing at Mahaweli and Malinga alerted the Mahaweli authorities.  Malinga was receptive to what these two said because in 1980, Malinga had made a routine visit to Maduru Oya right bank when he assumed duties at Mahaweli Authority.

 On that visit, the engineers at Maduru Oya had approached him and told him that the Tamil officials in Batticaloa were creating illegal Tamil settlements at Maduru Oya. These settlements were known to the Tamil politicians. Sinhala politicians in the government were also supporting.  There will not be an inch of land left by the time the project is ready, they told him. 

Malinga conveyed this to the Minister. Gamini responded immediately. He asked Malinga to contact Additional Defense Secretary-General Attygalle and get an army post placed there. The Maduru Oya engineers when they heard this wanted the army post created quickly, the situation was very serious, they said.

But Malinga was not prepared to phone General Attygalle directly. He conveyed the request to Panditeratne, who did nothing about it. Therefore a vital action that could have halted illegal Tamil occupation was not carried out, despite the fact that the Minister had requested it. Neither the Minister nor the DG, Mahaweli were prepared to take direct action on the matter.  The illegal Tamil settlements continued without obstruction.

In early August 1983 Malinga received information of a massive encroachment of lands on the Right Bank. At that time Malinga says they were busy helping their Tamil friends who had been victims of the July riots.  Malinga dispatched two of his officers to Maduru Oya to report. They were asked to visit the Batticaloa    section of the Maduru Oya scheme and see whether unauthorized Tamil settlements were going on.   

The officers reported that organized Tamil settlements were taking place around numerous small tanks in Maduru Oya. These settlements were made in a systematic and methodical manner. Houses were coming up overnight. Food was sent in to the settlers by an organized body. Villages were given Tamil names, district boundaries were altered. The Tamil government officials in Batticaloa were behind the activity.    

 When Panditeratne was informed of this, he immediately declared the Maduru Oya delta as a part of the Mahaweli scheme. The Government agent, Batticaloa no longer had authority over the area.  

Right at this time, Dimbulagala Hamuduruvo stormed into the Mahaweli Centre and informed the DG, Mahaweli about the encroachments. Dimbulagala had come to complain about the Tamil encroachments from Batticaloa area on the right bank of Maduru Oya. There will be no land left for the Sinhala people.  There is tremendous pressure for land from people in Polonnaruwa, Minneriya and Hingurakgoda. They are objecting to the Tamil encroachments, said Dimbulagala. Malinga was present at the discussion.  Malinga informed Gamini Dissanayake.  

Malinga Gunaratne   told Gamini Dissanayake in   July 1983,    that there were unauthorized Tamil encroachments on Maduru Oya right bank. Tamils of Indian origin were encroaching on state lands in Vadamunai.  Gamini Dissanayake had replied, Why you don’t settle some people unofficially in Maduru Oya.

Malinga wanted President Jayewardene informed before he took any action on the matter. Gamini Dissanayake assured Malinga that he had informed the President about the Maduru Oya project.  N.G.P. Panditeratne, Director General of Mahaweli Authority also assured Malinga that the President would be informed.  

Gunaratne then contacted   Dimbulagala Hamuduruwo and asked him to   settle Sinhalese at Maduru Oya right bank. Malinga told Dimbulagala that the project had the quiet support of the Minister and assured him of the Mahaweli Authority’s assistance.  The priest acted on that assurance.

Hemapriya, Malinga, Dimbulagala, P. Pelpola and a Mr. X met at Mahaweli Centre and   discussed the procedure. They identified suitable tanks for Dimbulagala to go and   check out. Malinga released several public relations officers (PRO) from his Media unit to help Dimbulagala with the project. Dimbulagala wanted a vehicle, which was supplied.

Dimbulagala Hamuduruwo went back happily. He advertised in Riviresa that land was available for settlers. He planned to settle at least 500 Sinhala in Maduru Oya .  the date was September 1, 1983. He had a good response. Sinhala settlers came in droves. Almost 3000 men had turned up at his temple, with cadjans, alavangu,   mammoties and food stuffs to last for three months. Dimbulagala also had obtained a large stock of cadjans. 

Before leaving with his convoy, on September 1^st, Dimbulagala addressed the crowd. The   settlement that you are about to start is a historic one, he said. We are being threatened on all sides by separatists, he told them.  The separatists want continuous block of land in the east. You are going to break that. You are assembled here not only to get a piece of land. You are going to be the frontier men. You are not to return from this journey. Whatever happens, stick to your land. Proudly hold aloft the flag of Sri Lanka. Remember Dutugemunu. Now let’s go.” Sadhu, Sadhu, said the future settlers.

The convoy left for its destination at an auspicious time. Dimbulagala heading the convoy in a vehicle prominently flying the Buddhist flag and blaring pirith through a loudspeaker.  He had obtained over 200 vehicles, vans, lorries, cars and motorcycles from rich mudalalies in Polonnaruwa for the project.

N.G.P. Panditeratne, Director General of Mahaweli Authority who knew of the project, initially had doubts about it ever happening. Panditeratne had told Malinga you wait and see what happens”. But when the settlement actually took place, Panditeratne released Rs 2 lakhs from Mahaweli funds for the project.

Officials at Mahaweli Authority welcomed a Sinhala settlement and supported the project whole heartedly. They were concerned about the unauthorized Tamil settlements at Maduru Oya Right Bank and the fact that the government was allowing it.

Mahaweli Authority officials, contractors and workers helped the project. Vehicles belonging to the Mahaweli Ministry were shown transporting men and materials. Its fleet of lorries transported the peasants from the Dimbulagala temple to the settlement site, said journalist T. Sabaratnam. [3] 

The fleet ferried poles, tin sheets, cadjan and other materials needed to put up sheds to house the settlers.  It carried stocks of cement and provisions needed for the settlers.  The Mahaweli Authority’s tractors and bulldozers cleared the land needed to put up the sheds, Sabaratnam said.

The Tamil officials responded immediately.  IGP Rudra Rajasingham reported to Mahaweli Chairman NGP Panditaratne that a massive convoy was moving towards Batticaloa, headed by Dimbulagala monk. K.W. Devanayagam, MP for Batticaloa    protested.

 Government Agent Batticaloa, M.Anthonimuttu, informed Secretary, Mahaweli, that there is large scale encroachment in System B in Meeradavillu .About 700 persons led by Ven. Seelalankara have come in a large number of vehicles and started clearing the land.  Wadiyas have been put up Mahaweli authority officers were also there. We saw a Mahaweli authority jeep with Mahaweli officials in it.  GA further reported that the police refused to evict Dimbulagala and his group because he had the unofficial backing of Mahaweli Minister Gamini Dissanayake and his ministry. 

AGA of Koralai Pattu had complained to Antonimuttu that a Buddhist monk had led about 15 lorry loads and 10 tractor loads of people into Meerandavillu from Polonnaruwa distinct, with the intention of settling them on state land there. They were mostly from Aralaganwila, Hindurakgoda, Jayanthipura and adjoining areas. These new settlers had threatened the earlier settlers with bodily harm and chased them away.  Those had been long standing settlers.     Pillaiyar temple was damaged, moaned the AGA. 

AGA said that    when they went there, the monk was holding a meeting of a society he had formed. The monk and the settlers flatly refused to leave. If necessary they were going to occupy the land by force and will not withdraw under any circumstances. They were very emphatic about it and their utterances were marked by loud cries of ‘sadhu, sadhu’ reported the AGA. Ven. Seelalankara had flatly refused to leave. In 1972 when he had come with settlers to the area, he had been chased away by the MP, the GA and others. This time he was staying.

GA Batticaloa reported to Devanayagam on 15 September that the number had swelled to about 40,000. They occupied 3000 acres at Meerandavillu-Wadamunai area, 2,500 to 3000 acres at Mathavanai Mahaella area and 100 acres at Punani in Koralai Pattu, Batticaloa district. 

 KW Devanayagam MP for Batticaloa   promptly responded. He made strong representation to the President and released press statements objecting to the presence of Sinhalese in his area. Devanayagam produced photographs which showed Mahaweli Authority officials, contractors and workers in action.  lorries and other vehicles belonging to the Mahaweli Ministry were transporting men and material.  A highly worked-up Devanayagam issued two warnings during the press briefing. He said if a Sinhala- Tamil clash is to be avoided, the squatters should be sent away.

The matter was taken up by the press. there was talk of intrusion into Tamil lands.   Press statements were made not only by Devanayagam but also by Gamini Dissanayake and Dimbulagala Hamuduruwo. Controversy raged, there were accusations and counter accusations,  recalled Malinga Gunaratne.

In the meantime, the Maduru Oya settlement  settler project had acquired a momentum of its own.   It was reported that more and more people were flocking toward the Right Bank. Dimbulagala told Riviresa later   that people from all four corners of Sri Lanka had bundled up their belongings and come”. The movement of 40,000 person to Maduru Oya was something that we did not expect, said Malinga.

Tamil Separatist Movement had no intention of allowing a Sinhala settlement at Maduru Oya. They had known In August, even before the settlement started,  that something was up. in mid August Tamil settlers at   Meerandavillu had seen Dimbulagala Hamuduruwo come in a jeep, inspect the area and leave. Obviously a Sinhala settlement was being planned.

Tamil Separatist Movement  promptly tried to prevent such  a Sinhala settlement from taking place. They informed India In August 1983 .India responded.  Prime Minister Indira Gandhi sent G. Parthasarathy to Sri Lanka as her personal envoy in August.  This was a secret visit. the media were not informed. He met Gamini Dissanayake   and discussed the issue of human settlements at Mahaweli. But Gamini   did not give in  and the settlement took place as scheduled on September 1^st.

In September after the Maduru Oya settlement took place, the frantic Tamil Separatist Movement informed India again. TULF leaders who were in Chennai at that time alerted Indira Gandhi.  Amirthalingam, who was in London, telephoned Parthasarathi and Indira Gandhi and drew attention to the Maduru Oya Sinhala invasion” which he said, was supported by President Jayawardene. Indira Gandhi was annoyed, Amirthalingam said.

 India objected to the Sinhala settlement at Maduru Oya and told JR Jayewardene so. S.J.S. Chhatwal, High Commissioner for India in Sri Lanka, was told to meet President Jayewardene and convey India’s displeasure.  Chhatwal told Jayewardene that India was worried and displeased with the Maduru Oya invasion.  JR was also informed by Sri Lanka’s High Commissioner in India, Bernard Tilakaratna   that   that Indira Gandhi was angry.

Tamil Separatist Movement also  alerted others. Tamilnadu newspapers took up the cry. They called it an invasion into traditional Tamil lands. Aid giving agencies started to make noises.

Jayewardene who had not objected to the settlement   when told about it earlier, now  got alarmed. he did not want a confrontation with India. He feared India.  JR sent Ranil Wickremasinghe for a first hand report on ‘what the Dimbulagala priest is doing out there.’  Ranil reported that there were about 40,000 unauthorized settlers there.

Jayewardene held a series of high-level conferences with Mahaweli Authority officials.  Panditaratne and other officials played down the invasion.  They told President Jayewardene that the reports appearing in local, Indian and international media were exaggerated.  Panditaratne said that Dimbulagala priest had taken the settlers there. 

President Jayewardene was not interested in all this. He wanted the    Maduru settlement completely dismantled. He asked Panditaratne to evict the settlers. Panditeratne told Malinga, we cannot allow these squatters to remain, at Maduru Oya. We must shift them. President is very angry, we must move them 

 Panditeratne decided to keep 500 families behind at Maduru Oya so that future encroachments from Batticaloa were halted. The rest would be sent to Trincomalee, Vavuniya and Mullaitivu.  Instead of retreating Panditeratne was getting ready to penetrate  even deeper into Eelam.

On the 10^th of October Dimbulagala Hamuduruwo went to see Malinga at his residence. Mahattaya, tell me clearly, does the government want us to settle on the Right Bank or not,” he asked. He was told that the settlers had to leave. We plan to transfer them to Trincomalee, Vavuniya and Mullaitivu. Will you lead them there, asked Malinga. I will lead them to any part of Sri Lanka, replied Dimbulagala.

President Jayewardene  however,  did not want an embryo settlement left  at Maduru Oya. He  wanted the new Sinhala settlement at Maduru completely dismantled. He wanted a mass scale evacuation. Since Mahaweli Authority officials seemed reluctant to do so  JR turned to UNP Minister Paul Perera, the invisible leader of the Gampaha underworld”.[4]

Paul Perera was  quickly made Additional District Minister of Polonnaruwa and authorized to evict the settlers, using force if necessary.  Col. Benedict Silva, a volunteer soldier from Katana, was appointed his assistant.

Dimbulagala Hamuduruwo tried to protect his settlement. He rushed to Colombo to meet Gamini Dissanayake and Panditaratne to get their assistance to press President Jayewardene to reverse his order.   He went to the Mahaweli Ministry, but Panditaratne and Gamini Dissanayake declined to meet him

He visited all the newspaper offices in Colombo.  He visited Lake House and met the Dinamina editor and the editorial staff.  I was present at the Daily News office at that time, said Sabaratnam. The monk was fuming.  He was shouting at the top of his voice.  He charged that Paul Perera was indulging in anti-national and anti-Sinhala actions.  He charged that Paul Perera was doing this because he was a Catholic.  He raised his umbrella and said, if I see him I will hit him with this. 

Dimbulagala then went to Independent Newspapers office. He  told   ‘ Weekend’ newspaper that his settlers could be evicted only if all illegal settlers of Indian origin were evicted from state land in Vavuniya, Trincomalee and Batticaloa .

 He gave  them information on Tamil settlements  in Batticaloa area. There were large areas of barren land there. These lands have now been encroached on by Indian Tamils from the tea estates. They were illegal settlers. Nearly 15,000 acres have been colonized in this manner in Pullimalai, Unnichchai, Rugama and Pumnakuda.  When Devanayagam heard this, he provided the usual counter argument. Batticaloa was part of the Tamil homeland. It is the Sinhalese, who are encroaching into Kalkudah, he replied.

Dimbulagala was unable to stop the   dismantling of his Maduru Oya settlement. Paul Perera carried out JR’’s order and the smell of blood was everywhere”, said Malinga Gunaratne. The loquacious Gunaratne, whose book is full of irrelevant observations went silent at this point in his book, saying he did not like to besmirch his narrative with the methods they used .He should have done so. That information would have far more been useful than some of the trivia included in the book.

But Malinga does say atrocities were committed. There are living but lame witnesses in Nikawewa at Padaviya who will bear testimony to the atrocities committed. They were chased out with butt stroke and jackboot. The evicted settlers confirmed that their houses at Maduru Oya had been burnt. According to eye-witnesses, the encroachers were treated quite brutally, said Ajit Kanagasunderam. [5]The people who did the chasing were Sinhala, observed Malinga.  They were chased away by Sinhalese, he said.

Medhananda corroborated. The settlers were    assaulted and chased away, on JR’s orders, by Paul Perera, said Medhananda . [6] The houses of the settlers were set on fire. The settlers took refuge in Dimbulagala pansala. Maduru Oya and  20 other  projects were closed down, reported Asoka Bandarage.

Maduru Oya settlers were resettled elsewhere, said Muggah. [7]  Settlers were assembled in groups of between two and three hundred  and resettled along a line from Padaviya to Nedunkerni in the Mullaitivu district with jungles being cleared and new roads being opened from Padaviya to Dollar Farm, Kumbakarna Malai, Ariyakundam, Kokkuchchankulam, Kokkuttoduwai and Veddukkan malai. The project was done with the resources and vehicles of the Army, Agrarian Services, Illmenite Corporation, Tobacco Corporation and Petroleum Corporation,said Wikipedia. [8]

To summarize, Dimbulagala was asked to send in some Sinhala settlers to Maduru Oya, to match the Tamil settlements there. He overdid it. Instead of doing it quietly and secretly as expected, Dimbulagala took his settlers in to Maduru Oya  openly, with much enthusiasm .  Tamil politicians complained, the government got scared, the Sinhala settlers  were forcibly and brutally  removed. The Tamil settlements continued undisturbed. (Continued)

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[1]  Malinga Gunaratne. For a sovereign state 

[2] Leelananda de Silva. , The Long Littleness of Life island.  2022/08/14 https://island.lk/ministry-of-lands-irrigation-and-power

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[3] www.sangam.org/articles/view2/?uid=626 T Sabaratnam

[4] Dharman Wickremaratne, http://www.lankaweb.com/news/items/2015/08/15/how-the-unp-gave-birth-to-underworld-rapist-gonawala-sunil-dies-under-a-hail-of-bullets/

[5] https://thuppahis.com/2017/01/14/gal-oya-addressing-errors-in-ajit-kanagasundrams-recollections/ GH Peiris

[6]  Lakshman Kahatapitiya. Ellawela Medhananda hamuduruwo. P    314

[7] Robert Muggah 2008 https://dokumen.pub/relocation-failures-in-sri-lanka-a-short-history-of-internal-displacement-and-resettlement-9781350222250-9781848130463.html

[8] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Weli_Oya