{"id":104427,"date":"2020-07-12T18:35:44","date_gmt":"2020-07-13T01:35:44","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/?p=104427"},"modified":"2020-07-12T18:35:44","modified_gmt":"2020-07-13T01:35:44","slug":"erasing-the-eelam-victory-part-17-a","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/2020\/07\/12\/erasing-the-eelam-victory-part-17-a\/","title":{"rendered":"ERASING THE EELAM VICTORY Part 17 A"},"content":{"rendered":"

KAMALIKA PIERIS<\/em><\/span><\/h2>\n\n\n

Sri Lanka\nis now in approaching its fourth round of western rule, this time under the\nUnited States of America. When the British left Ceylon in 1948, USA was ready\nto take over, but in the euphoria of independence, this went unnoticed.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Britain\nhad anticipated that its empire would end some day.   It was too huge, too expensive to run and\nthe colonies were starting to kick. Britain had therefore   made all the necessary arrangements   to help its successor take over the island\nof Sri Lanka. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

The\nimportance of Sri Lanka lay in its coast, not the interior. Sri Lanka coast\ngave access to the Bay of Bengal on the right and to south India on the left.\nThe prime attraction was the ready made capacious harbor at Trincomalee, but\nthere was also the Pulmoddai mineral sands, and,   much  later on, the possibility of oil near Mannar.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Britain\ntherefore created three    coastal\nprovinces, which they called, the Northern, Eastern and North Western\nprovinces.  These are not natural\nprovinces. They are not historical provinces either. They were artificially\ncreated by the British. The Northern and Eastern Provinces were created in 1833\nand the North Western Province in 1845.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Northern Province is 8,884 square kilometers and Eastern province 9,996 square kilometers. The Eastern Province went right down the Eastern flank of the island. It was kept separate from the interior. The Eastern Province faced the Bay of Bengal, and had within it, the harbor of Trincomalee.\u00a0 These three provinces joined together, (minus Kurunegala district) make Eelam\u201d. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
\"\"<\/td>\"\"<\/td>\"\" <\/td><\/tr>
Northern and Eastern
provinces <\/td>		Northwestern
province <\/td>		 Map of Eelam <\/td><\/tr><\/tbody><\/table>\n\n\n\n

The\nBritish invented two bogus races, the \u2018Ceylon Tamil\u2019 and the \u2018Ceylon Moor\u2019 and\nallocated these three coastal provinces to them. ( Denham. Census of Ceylon\n1911). These two bogus races, particularly the bogus \u2018Ceylon Tamil\u2019 race was\ncreated to function as a disruptive entity working against the unity of the island.\n<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Britain\nretreated from Ceylon, leaving a pro-west government in place.  This was no accident. Britain sent D.B.\nJayatilaka to India, ignored SWRD Bandaranaike, and selected D.S.Senanayake\n(1947-1952) to lead the newly independent Ceylon. DS Senanayake was not very educated\nnor well travelled. He was very pro-British. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

When he\ndied,  D.S.  Senanayake’s son, Dudley was chosen as Prime\nMinister by the Governor General, Lord Soulbury, \u2018to the surprise of many \u2018.Dudley did not last long as Prime Minister\nand was followed by Sir John Kotelawala, (1953-1956) who, to the delight of\nUSA, was utterly anti Communist.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The US had\nestablished a presence in Sri Lanka in the 1950s. Philip Gunawardena observed\nin 1956, that an American NGO, CARE, had been invited\nby the UNP government to distribute milk powder. CARE was an acronym for\nCooperative for American Relief Everywhere\u2019. Philip\nobjected to CARE distributing milk powder. It could be done by local agencies. Also what was the need for CARE to set up an\noffice here, for the mere supervision of distribution. Why  did the previous government allow a\nvoluntary  organization to set up a\nbranch office in Ceylon. Philip was suspicious. \u2018I fear the Greeks  even when they offer gifts \u2018he said.  Philip \nhad  tried to change the agreement\n,but  found that was not possible. \u2018I\nlooked,\u2019  he said. \u2018<\/p>\n\n\n\n

US  showed that it could take aggressive action\nwhen necessary. When the Rubber Rice pact of 1952 was signed, USA promptly cut\noff aid to Sri Lanka, under its rule of not giving aid to countries that sold\nstrategic materials to Communist countries. USA also stopped the sale of its\nsulphur fungicide, needed by Sri Lanka rubber plantations.   <\/p>\n\n\n\n

The US had\nsupporters in high places. Bandu de Silva observed that the Rubber Rice Pact\nwas heavily opposed by some members of Parliament, notably J.R. Jayewardene,\nMinister of Finance. When the Pact came up for renewal in 1957, certain parties\nattempted to sabotage the   Pact. The\nprominent name was J.R. Jayewardene, continued Bandu.  The press had published some  secret communications on the matter, and it\nwas suspected that the source was “Yankee Dickie”,  added  \nBandu de Silva. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

The next\nPrime Minister, SWRD Bandaranaike \n(1956-1959)  initiated diplomatic\nrelations with Russia and China and \nfavored non alignment. This would not have pleased the US. The MEP  government of the period was in constant\nturmoil   over local issues,  such as Sinhala Only and the Paddy lands Bill.\nThe focus was on  internal matters .<\/p>\n\n\n\n

But Philip\nGunawardene saw signs of   active foreign\nintervention. Philip   was familiar with\ninternational intrigue, having seen it at first hand   when he was working with socialist groups in\nFrance, Germany and Spain. Therefore Philip, unlike the rest, could detect\nforeign intrigue in Sri Lanka, when he saw it.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Certain\nembassies, were developing close connections with the armed forces, Philip\nGunawardene  said.  He specially\nmentioned US embassy.  Powerful forces are work, he said in Parliament in 1958. A\ngroup was working to overthrow the MEP government and set up dictatorship.   Philip   anticipated the creation of a junta. NM Perera agreeing, spoke of a possible coup\nd\u2019\u00e9tat. Philip ended his speech saying to SWRD, <\/strong>Sir, your life is in danger. <\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

SWRD\nwas assassinated in  September\n1959 by a Buddhist priest, Somarama, on the verandah of his home. This was the\nUSA\u2019s first assassination in Sri Lanka and its first attempt at regime change\nin Sri Lanka . The assassination was planned. That was obvious. But it was not\ndifficult to execute. Bandaranaike had no security protection whatsoever.  Anyone could kill him anywhere.  <\/p>\n\n\n\n

At that\ntime the public readily swallowed the explanation that the person responsible\nfor the assassination was the High Priest of Kelaniya, Buddharakkhita. They\naccepted the ridiculous argument that Buddharakkhita got Bandaranaike killed\nbecause Bandaranaike had\nrefused to give Buddharakkhita a contract to import rice and another to set up\na sugar factory. Heads of state are not assassinated for such flimsy reasons. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

There is an interesting religious twist to the\nBandaranaike assassination. The participation of the Sangha in this\nassassination was expected to be a triumph for anti-Buddhist forces and a\nterrible blow to the powerful Buddhist movement of the time. But that did not\nhappen. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Somarama  \ngave up robes during the trial and weeks before his execution was\nconverted to Christianity and was baptized in his cell by the Anglican priest\nMathew Peiris. Somarama had used a revolver which had belonged to a notorious underworld\nfigure, Ossie Corea. Ossie Corea was a Catholic. Vimala\nWijewardene, another accused, converted to Catholicism and gifted her houses\nand land to the Catholic Church. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Satchi Ponnambalam writing in\n2009   wondered whether the CIA was\nbehind the Bandaranaike assassination. Was any \u2018foreign hand\u2019 involved, he asked.  Did Buddarakkitha have any contacts with\ninternational agents.\u2019 it is now well known that between 1959 and 1962 the CIA\nhad made several assassination and assassination attempts on political leaders\nwho were pro-Left, why not SWRD. The death of Buddarakkitha in prison at the\nrelatively young age of 46, during a UNP government may also be significant, he\nsaid. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

D.B.S.Jeyaraj (2014)  also\nopenly questioned whether\nany \u2018foreign hand\u2019 was involved in Bandaranaike\u2019s assassination. Did\nBuddharakkhita and Somarama act on their own. He points out that USA had a\nstrong anti-communist policy at this time. It was well known, he said, that\nbetween 1959 and 1962, the CIA was involved in assassinations,  and failed attempts at assassination, of political\nleaders who were pro-Left, like Lumumba, Sukarno and Fidel Castro. In the 1990s\nit was found that the CIA had given money to the Dalai Lama who was opposing\nCommunist China\u2019s takeover of Tibet. (http:\/\/dbsjeyaraj.com\/dbsj\/archives\/33515<\/a>)<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The intended regime change, after the death of\nSWRD,  did not take place .SWRD\nwas replaced by Sirimavo, which the US did not expect.\n Bandaranaike\u2019s wife, Sirimavo took his place\nas Prime minister in the SLFP led government of 1960  and, to the surprise of everybody, including\nprobably, Sirima herself, ran the country better than SWRD had done.  She    \ntook firm decisions as PM, without dithering, and was excellent in her\nforeign policy. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

She seemed set to go on forever. Another round\nof \u2018regime change\u2019 was necessary. Philip Gunawardene warned\nSirimavo in 1960 of the danger of a military coup. Such a coup was planned to take place on  27 January 1962. If\nit had succeeded,  Sirimavo would have\nbeen killed.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The coup was planned by an assortment of army and police\nofficers.  They were almost entirely,\nChristian, upper class, westernized, right wing and UNP. The leaders were F. C. de Saram<\/a>, Commanding Officer, Ceylon\nArtillery<\/a>  who later made a confession assuming full\nresponsibility, Maurice De Mel, former Chief of Staff of the Army and Royce de\nMel, Captain of the navy. They were joined by \nfive subordinate officers  from\nthe Ceylon Artillery, several commanding officers from the Ceylon Signals Corps<\/a>, and one from Ceylon Electrical\nand Mechanical Engineers<\/a>\n.The Police  was represented by\nC.C.Dissanayake Deputy Inspector General of Police, Sidney\nde Zoysa<\/a>, former\nDeputy Inspector General of Police (DIG) , three Superintendents of Police and\ntwo Assistant Superintendents  of Police. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

The coup was to be carried out by troops from the 3rd Field\nRegiment, 2nd Volunteer Antiaircraft Regiment of the Ceylon Artillery<\/a>, almost the entire officer corps of these regiment were involved,\n2nd (V) Field\/Plant Regiment of the  Ceylon Engineers<\/a>, 2nd Volunteer Signals Regiment of the  Ceylon Signals Corps<\/a>, the  Armored cars of the\nSabre troop of the Ceylon Armoured Corps<\/a> and some members  of the\nPolice.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

It was to be a swift, surgical strike, accomplished within a few\nhours from midnight on the 27th<\/sup>.Police cars equipped with radio and\nloudspeakers were to go around Colombo and outskirts at midnight, announcing a\n24 hour curfew. People had to remain indoors. Anyone seen outside would be shot\non sight. Soldiers with vehicles and radio equipment were to be stationed at\nkey locations in suburban Colombo and strategic junctions within Colombo city.\nArmoured cars and army vehicles fitted with radio equipment were to be\nstationed at the two Kelani bridges.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Police headquarters, Criminal Investigations\nDepartment (CID) and the Central Telephone and Telegraph exchanges would be\ntaken over and all tele-communication suspended until further notice. A special\ntelephone line from the Army headquarters to the Army barracks in Echelon\nsquare in Fort had been set up earlier, to be used for urgent intra-army\ncommunication. Fully armed Signals corps dispatch riders on motor cycles were\nto be positioned from 11 pm  at\nTorrington (Independence) square, to storm Radio Ceylon\u201d and take it over when\nthe password \u2018Holdfast \u2018 was given.  Lake\nHouse and Times of Ceylon were also to be taken over and newspapers were to\ncease publication for a few days. At\nTemple Trees the duty officer for the night had been replaced. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

After 1956, many\nSinhala-Buddhists were taken into the armed forces to counter the large number\nof Christians who had been recruited in British times. These soldiers it was\nanticipated would be loyal to the government. The coup leaders had to therefore\nprevent a potential counter-strike by such officers and troops.  Soldiers stationed at the Panagoda cantonment\nhad to be prevented from entering Colombo at all costs, until the transfer of\npower was completed. Armoured cars and army vehicles fitted with radio\nequipment were to be stationed at the Kirillapone Bridge. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

The Prime Minister , Cabinet Ministers,  Parliamentary Secretary<\/a> for Defence and External affairs (Felix Dias Bandaranaike<\/a>), Permanent secretary<\/a> to the Ministry of Defence and External affairs (N. Q.\nDias<\/a>),  Army Commander,  acting Captain of the Navy,  Inspector General of Police as well as DIG<\/a> (CID<\/a>) (S A. Dissanayake) and SP<\/a> (CID<\/a>) (John Attygalle) were to be arrested and taken to the Army Headquarters<\/a>, where they would be held as prisoners in the ammunition\nmagazine, which was an underground bunker. Government members of Parliament and\nall LSSP, MEP and CP members of the opposition were to be detained en masse at\ne the Sravasti\u201d MP\u2019s hostel. Other officials, including service commanders,\nwere to be placed under house arrest in their own homes in Colombo.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Maurice de Mel was to coordinate from Army headquarters, F.C. de\nSaram from Temple Trees\u201d where the password \nwas to be British Grenadier\u201d and Dissanayake from President\u2019s House,\nthen known as \u2018Queens House\u201d, password was Dowbiggin\u201d. Queen\u2019s House was the\nofficial residence of the Governor-General Sir Oliver Goonetilleke. Once the\ncoup was successful, the coup leaders would meet Sir Oliver, request him to\ndissolve Parliament and take direct control. The country would then be run by a\n\u2018junta\u2019 of ex-Prime Ministers, Dudley Senanayake and Sir John Kotelawela. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

The coup never happened. The government was alerted by P de S\nKularatne, who had been told about it by his son in law, Stanley Senanayake.\nthe leaders were rounded up, charged and found guilty. They got off on an\nappeal to Privy Council, London. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

The coup was not led by the head of the army which meant that\nother high ups were masterminding it.. It was alleged that several VVIPs were\nin on this. Sir Oliver Goonetilleke, who was never charged,  resigned as Governor-General and went into\nself-imposed exile in Britain. The public had  suspected \nfor decades that  JR may have had\na hand in it. this was confirmed in his biography which recorded some advice\nthat JR gave to Sydney de Zoysa, reported analysts.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

I cannot recall what the public thought of\nthis coup at the time, but people started saying, decades later,  on the Internet, that western powers were\nprobably behind it. One commentator said the coup was Plan B. Plan A was the\nassassination of Bandaranaike, which was easily achieved but did not bring the\nexpected outcome<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Another said in 2014,  that  he\nthought the CIA, MI5 and \u2018other such organizations\u2019 were trying to set up\npuppet governments in the emerging nations. A third commentator, Nicky\nKarunaratne, also 2014,  wondered whether \u2018those guys handling the 1962 coup  were being groomed by the CIA to carry out\ntheir agendas. Such actions were openly carried out in other countries\u2019.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The United States\nhas interfered in at least four elections in Sri Lanka , in support of UNP,\nsaid Prof. Dov Levin of Carnegie Mellon university, a leading expert on\nAmerican and Russian interventions in foreign elections. Prof. Levin says he has found no evidence of\nSoviet meddling  in any of the Sri Lankan\nelections he studied.   <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Levin observed\nthat John Foster Dulles visited in March 1956 \nbefore the General election of 1956. \nHe was the first US Secretary of State to visit the island .He spoke\nwith Prime Minister , John Kotelawala.  UNP\nsigned an aid pact with  the USA for 5\nmillion USD aid ,in April just days before the 1956 General  election. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

 There was covert CIA  support  to the UNP In the two 1960 general elections,\nas well. Members of the UNP directly requested help from the US embassy in both\nelections and were directed to the CIA.    The US sent campaign\nadvisers to help the UNP and probably gave covert funds to the party, Levin\nsaid.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

 In 1965 election, too, there was similar\ncovert interference by the US.\nLevin\u2019s research\nis supported by information from elsewhere. Diplomat Robert Keeley   said that the US intervention in Sri Lanka\nin 1965 installing the UNP in power was held up as an example by  US embassy staff in Athens as they discussed\nproposals for a possible massive intervention by the CIA, in Greece’s elections\nof 1967. UNP\u2019s  acceptance of US\/CIA\ncovert aid in the 1965 elections \nwas  considered a possible model\nfor US intervention in Greece.  This is\nsaid in Keeley\u2019s book  The Colonel’s Coup and the American Embassy:\nA Diplomat’s View of the Breakdown of Democracy in Cold War Greece\u201d . <\/p>\n\n\n\n

The 1965 election\nwas closely followed by US media which hailed the UNP\u2019s crushing victory\u201d as a\n  triumph for America itself, commented Hassina Leelaratna. Dudley\nSenanayake was frequently referred to as either pro-Western\u201d or pro-American\u201d\nand praised for his promises of improving relations with the US, opening the\nisland toforeign investors, and\ncompensating the  American oil companies, Esso and Caltex, and British oil\ncompany, Shell nationalized by Mrs. Bandaranaike\u2019s government. The US media  called the UNP\u2019s win an American victory, for\nSenanayake prefers American foreign aid to Soviet aid.\u201d. (\ncontinued)<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

KAMALIKA PIERIS Sri Lanka is now in approaching its fourth round of western rule, this time under the United States of America. When the British left Ceylon in 1948, USA was ready to take over, but in the euphoria of independence, this went unnoticed. Britain had anticipated that its empire would end some day.   It […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":true,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[104],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-104427","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-kamalika-pieris"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/104427","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=104427"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/104427\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=104427"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=104427"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=104427"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}