KAMALIKA PIERIS JVP ragging in the University started in the 1970s. G.R.Morrel recalls that at University of Kelaniya where he taught as an instructor in the late 70’s, the Students’ Council was in the hands of the JVP.   They ran the campus mainly through intimidation. New students were ragged mercilessly, and staff members who […]

KAMALIKA PIERIS JVP had two levels of activity, open and secret. They had two parallel political agendas, one for the public and another for the insiders in the party, said analysts. JVP functioned openly as an agitation group, whilst, at the same time recruiting combatants into a clandestine military organization, said Jayantha Somasunderam. JVP‘s public […]

KAMALIKA PIERIS The University student was a very important component of the JVP.  Undergrads were active in the two insurgencies of 1971 and 1987. In 1971 the army had found large quantities of explosive, weapons, bombs and a transmitter at University of Peradeniya. Uniforms were being stitched in women’s hall of residence, reported General Cyril […]

KAMALIKA PIERIS JVP had two levels of activity, open and secret. [1] They had two parallel political agendas, one for the public and another for the insiders in the party, said analysts.[2] JVP functioned openly as an agitation group, whilst, at the same time recruiting combatants into a clandestine military organization, said Jayantha Somasunderam. [3] […]

KAMALIKA PIERIS But there were criticisms as to how the darling JVP was treated. In 1971, Senator S Nadesan drew attention to the Emergency Regulations enacted at the time, particularly Regulations 19 and 20 which dealt with arrest, detention, cremation and burial. These Regulations say that any police officer may arrest without a warrant a […]

KAMALIKA PIERIS The two JVP insurgencies of 1971 and 1987 have not been looked at analytically. Commentators have focused on describing what the JVP did, not why they did it.  Commentators treat the JVP with great indulgence, calling the JVP an idealistic, romantic youth movement, which arose spontaneously.  It was nothing of the sort. It […]

KAMALIKA PIERIS The 1987–89 JVP insurrection was the second unsuccessful armed revolt conducted by the Janatha Vimukthi Peramuna against the Government of Sri Lanka, then under President J. R. Jayewardene. Victor Ivan said that he had anticipated the rise of the JVP in its second insurrection. He was told that old JVPers who refused to […]

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, […]

KAMALIKA PIERIS Wiswa Warnapala declared that violence was first injected into the politics of Sri Lanka by the JVP. JVP was a violent murderous movement from the very beginning. They were guilty of gruesome killings, said Rohan Gunaratne. Despite JVP ‘s attempts to identify itself with Fidel Castro and Ché Guevara,  JVP had more in […]

KAMALIKA PIERIS The JVP’s Political Bureau  its highest decision  making body decided  in September 1970 decided to begin collecting arms, with Loku Athula placed in charge of the armed section and directed to collect 100,000 bombs. At the next PB meeting, held at year-end, Loku Athula reported that 3,000 bombs were ready. The hand bomb […]

KAMALIKA PIERIS JVP was given a new lease of life when the UNP came to power in 1977. Under the previous SLFP government JVPers were brought before the Criminal Justice Commission, (CJC) a special tribunal set up through a special Act of Parliament. JVPers were charged with waging war against the lawfully elected government, breaking […]

KAMALIKA PIERIS One of the tasks assigned to the JVP in 1987-89 was to    weaken the Sri Lanka army and divert military attention away from the Eelam war. The first targets of the JVP in 1987 were, therefore, armed forces and police. JVP targeted the armed services and the police in both insurgencies. JVP infiltration […]

KAMALIKA PIERIS The notion that in 1971 the JVP was only interested in taking over police stations is incorrect. This was only a cover. Even then, the target was the armed forces and the military installations. During the 1971 insurgency, JVP took over the Anuradhapura air strip and was eyeing the one at Vavuniya. JVP […]

KAMALIKA PIERIS Initially, there was much sympathy for JVP in villages, said Rohan Gunaratna. Many people had genuine sympathy for JVP because they too when they were young, had experienced the frustrations articulated by JVP.  The lower and lower middle class thought JVP offered a better alternative to UNP and SLFP. They had high expectations […]

KAMALIKA PIERIS University of Peradeniya was the one of the main centers of JVP activity,  in the 1987 insurgency. It was the epi-center of JVP activity in 1989. Some members of University minor staff and University security were in the JVP military wing. Instructions for prison attack and central command attack in Kandy were issued […]

KAMALIKA PIERIS 1987–89 JVP INSURRECTION JVP staged a second uprising which lasted from 1987 to 1989. This was not an open revolt, but a low intensity conflict with the JVP resorting to assassinations, raids and attacks on military and civilian targets. With these practices of fear and intimidation, the JVP was able to bring the […]

KAMALIKA PIERIS From 1987 to 1989, the JVP was able to dominate the country. A wave of violence swept in after 1987. There were suddenly large number of people who were willing kill. And a larger number who were willing to accept this. There was a general increase in murder, rape, abduction and holdups, said […]

KAMALIKA PIERIS B.J.C. Perera was Consultant Pediatrician in Kurunegala in 1988.  In Kurunegala there was a lot of public support for JVP and people in the area were openly sympathetic to the cause said BJC. JVP   were in almost total control.  Hospital had JVP sympathizers on the staff. Two of his House officers were also […]

KAMALIKA PIERIS The JVP did not fade away after April 1971 as it would have done, had it been a purely local affair. Instead, JVP met secretly and reorganized.    JVP first retreated into their hideouts in the jungles of the North Central Province. They moved the camps from place to place.  They did not stay […]

KAMALIKA PIERIS Ten out of the island’s 22 Administrative Districts were battlegrounds, in the 1971 insurgence, said observers. There were attacks on police stations in all 22 districts. JVP attacked with home-made weapons in groups of 25 to 30. JVP believed that controlling these rural police stations would provide them with weapons and also provide […]

KAMALIKA PIERIS The government of Sri Lanka had received reports from intelligence that an armed insurrection was planned by a select group of youth. This information was ignored by the government.  A report submitted later to Criminal Justice Commission inquiry no 1 indicated that two years prior to April 1971, groups of young persons between […]

KAMALIKA PIERIS The 1971 JVP Insurgency was totally a new experience for Sri Lanka. Once the government woke up to the fact that they had a full blown insurgency on its hands, it moved fast to squash it, said Gamini Gunawardene. The Opposition UNP got to a side, did not obstruct and engage in the […]

KAMALIKA PIERIS The Janatha Vimukthi Peramuna   was created by Rohana Wijeweera, whose real name was Patabandige Don Nandasiri Wijeweera. He was a member of Sri Lanka’s Communist Party   (Moscow wing) led by S.A. Wickremasinghe and in 1962 was awarded a scholarship to Lumumba University in Moscow, to study medicine. Sunday Times carries biographical information on […]

KAMALIKA PIERIS The subversive activities of the JVP had come to the attention of the intelligence services and  a special unit has been formed in the CID to watch them, said Indradasa Godahewa. The first police report of the existence of the JVP underground movement was presented to the Cabinet in 1968. In 1970 the […]

KAMALIKA PIERIS JVP was allowed to register as a political party in 1981. The first elections the JVP contested were District Development Councils elections.  JVP contested four seats in the District Development Councils election in 1981, and won two.  The seats were Colombo, Gampaha, and Galle. I was unable to find out what the fourth […]

KAMALIKA PIERIS Why did the two JVP uprisings happen precisely in 1971 and 1987, asked commentators. The answer is that they were both linked to the Eelam war. JVP insurgency and the Eelam Wars both started around the same time. The first JVP insurgency started in the south in 1971. LTTE activities also started in […]

KAMALIKA PIERIS Shivanthi Ranasinghe observed in May 2022 that for the past two months, the country has been experiencing different types of protests. Television news from March 2022 onwards showed groups of people in different towns blocking the main roads protesting against the shortage of petrol, gas, kerosene, as well as electricity cuts. These protests […]

KAMALIKA PIERIS GotaGogama was attacked on the afternoon of  May 9th,2022 around 2.30 pm- 3 pm. Sri Lankans who were watching live television coverage of the Temple Trees meeting called by  Mahinda Rajapaksa , saw mobs carrying wooden poles and other objects trooping out of Temple Trees, immediately after Mahinda Rajapaksa had ended his speech. […]

KAMALIKA PIERIS Sarath Fonseka is credited with two achievements relating to the Eelam war. Firstly he single handedly, opposed the Ceasefire Agreement of 2002 (CFA) and secondly he played a major role in winning Eelam War IV. Fonseka had strongly opposed the Ceasefire Agreement. He was the only officer who had the guts to publicly […]

KAMALIKA PIERIS Fonseka went in for self promotion once the war ended. DBS Jeyaraj observed that on July 9 2009, Fonseka spoke at a book launch about the war, in which he heaped compliments upon himself lavishly. Token lip service was paid to the President’s role. Gotabaya was virtually ignored. According to Sarath he and […]