{"id":104873,"date":"2020-07-25T15:57:56","date_gmt":"2020-07-25T22:57:56","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/?p=104873"},"modified":"2020-07-25T15:57:56","modified_gmt":"2020-07-25T22:57:56","slug":"erasing-the-eelam-victory-part-17-c2","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/2020\/07\/25\/erasing-the-eelam-victory-part-17-c2\/","title":{"rendered":"ERASING THE EELAM VICTORY Part 17 C2"},"content":{"rendered":"

KAMALIKA PIERIS<\/em><\/span><\/h2>\n\n\n
  1. OBSERVATIONS OF SENATOR S. NADESAN <\/strong><\/li><\/ol>\n\n\n\n

    Senator S.\nNadesan (1904-1986) made a speech in the Ceylon Senate on 14 and 15 of May 1971\nregarding the JVP insurrection of April 1971. This speech was published as a\nbooklet in 1988, by the Nadesan Centre for Human Rights. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

    Suriya\nWickremasinghe in her introducitn to the Nadesan Centre booklet said Nadesan\u2019s\nspeech on the 1971 insurrection in the Ceylon Senate, was the first forthright\nobjective assessment made in public on the matter. There was a curfew and\npeople could not easily meet and discuss. But Senator Nadesan had a curfew pass\nand \u2018used it to the full\u2019   to go about\nand make inquiries.  He used this information\nin his speech, she said. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

    In his\nspeech, Nadesan attributes the rise of the JVP to population growth, higher\neducation and unemployment. The insurgents were mainly poor undergraduates,\nstaying in hovels, seven or eight in a room, for their undergraduate studies and\nexploited by the landlord in Peradeniya and Colombo. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

    These\nstudents saw no future for themselves, said Nadesan. There were no jobs\nawaiting them.  They were studying\nbecause there was nothing else to do. They did not go to the campus gymnasium\nor playground, instead they were seated discussing jobs, their futures, and\nsocialist politics. Politics was the principal diet of the students. The     voting age had been reduced to 18 years,\nso they were very much a part of the electorate too. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

    Nadesan\nsays JVP  campaigned for the United Front\ngovernment of 1970. The JVP youth stopped their work and organized house to\nhouse campaigns in support of the United Front. \nThe UF  victory was the victory of\nthe youth vote.  A study of the voting\npatterns will show that it was the youth who defeated the UNP, said Nadesan. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

    But once\nthis new government came into power there was an unprecedented outburst of\nlawlessness throughout the  country. JVP\nhad infiltrated  government industrial\nconcerns and had intimidated the workers. \nThere were work stoppages.  \u2018 I do\nnot know why that happened,\u2018 said Nadesan. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

    Nadesan  agreed that the   armed uprising  had attacked a duly established,\ndemocratically elected, popular government. But  he \nlisted several weaknesses in the government , such as nepotism,\nfavoritism when it came to jobs. Also said Nadesan, there was unemployment.\nPeople were thrown out of jobs.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

    MPs gave\nthemselves pensions, enhanced allowances and \nwanted to import Peugeot cars for official travel. The JVP has also complained that the MPs\ntook the Rs 50 allowance per day and vanished without staying for the\nConstituent Assembly meetings. The\nSenators listening to Nadesan, helpfully \nadded at this point, \u2018there  were\nalso objections to MPs foreign  travel  and safaris\u2019. Nadesan said he   did not know of those and was speaking only\nof what he did know.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

    One of the\nfirst items referred to at the JVP rally held at Hyde Park in Feb 1971,   continued \nNadesan,  and was the fact that\nthe government had introduced compulsory retirement of those over 55.  Very \nviolent speeches were made by the sons of these dependants, observed\nNadesan. JVP had also objected to the fact that \nthe government had gone to the agents of American imperialism such as\nWorld Bank, IDB  for loans like the\nprevious government. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

    The\ngovernment had failed to nationalize \nbanks as promised,  and put a\nceiling on land ownership. So their\nonly hope lay ,  JVPers said, in\nestablishing by themselves a socialist society in this country. They proposed\nto give the government a little time and then take matters into their hands.\nThese were the type of speeches made, said Nadesan. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

    The JVP\nleaders, instead of advising these youth that the government should be given a\nreasonable time and chance of redeeming its promise,  instead started propaganda against the\ngovernment  and organized discontented\nyouth to attack. The youth were impatient for radical measures, they had been\nprepared for warfare. They wanted results. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

     The youth were either misled  or were foolish enough to think that\nimmediate solutions were possible. The\nYouth may have thought that if they deferred their actions and make\npreparations quietly over the years, they would miss the bus,  because by that time the security forces\nwould have hunted them down . That is my analysis. I am looking at this\nobjectively, said Nadesan.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

    Government\ndeclared a state of emergency to wipe put this movement and the security forces\n\u2018went  round to a number of places and\nsometimes through  good fortune and luck\nwere able to find bombs, ammunitions and arms collected at various places and\nthey started hot on the trail of this movement, continued Nadesan.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

    The\nsignificant part of Nadesan\u2019s speech comes after this. Nadesan  draws attention to the weaknesses of the  Emergency Regulations enacted at the time,\nparticularly Regulations 19 and 20  which\ndeal with arrest, detention, cremation and burial. These Regulations say that\nany police officer may arrest without a warrant a person suspected of an\noffence under the Emergency Regulations. \nThe earlier safeguards that such a person must be produced before a\nmagistrate within 24 hours and also that police must report to magistrate if\nthey arrest a person without a warrant were removed.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

    Further,\nnothing need be done in any part of the country in respect  not only of person shot dead while in combat\nbetween security forces and insurgents but also of person who dies while in\ndetention after they have been taken into custody, said Nadesan. Any ASP of officer in charge of a police\nstation can bury or cremate any dead body without inquest, or death\ncertificate.  And the burials needed not\nbe recorded anywhere. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

    In  the case of those who die in combat, it is\nwell known all over the world that a count is taken of the people who die and\ntheir identities established if they can be  \nascertained.  A list is given of\nthe wounded and the dead, so that people from the other countries can know\nwhether somebody is a prisoner, dead or wounded. These are dispensed with here\nin Sri Lanka, Nadesan said. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

    Nadesan\nobserved that the police have many honorable capable people but \u2018 there are\nalso a  number of persons who oppress the\npublic\u2019. In certain police stations people are frightened that they will be\nassaulted,  even in normal times. When police are attacked some of them, not\nparticularly educated,  may think of\nrevenge. Some members of the police have been guilty of  cowardly attacks.  One can just imagine what they will do at a\ntime of  civil strife when they can\nwithout giving  account to anybody, be a\nlaw unto themselves.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

     The bulk of the police will not take advantage\nof ht regulations to abuse their powers, \nbut in any society, particularly in a country like ours  there are bound to be certain people who will\nutilize the safeguards provided by these regulations to carry out some\nprivate  vendetta or misuse the power\ngranted to them, said Nadesan.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

    Nadesan\nthen listed a series of allegations regarding criminal behavior on the part of\nthe  armed forces  dealing with the insurgency. Allegations have\nreached my ears from  reputable\nsources  whose names I will not disclose\nhere, that insurgents who surrendered or were captured were shot in a large\nnumber on the ground that there was no way of keeping them in prison and there\nwere no faculties for transporting them or for accommodating them. Whether this\nallegation is true or not is a different matter. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

     Allegations have been made that in areas far\naway from the place of actual confrontation between security forces and\ninsurgents, a number of youth were arrested on suspicion, some were shot\nsummarily, others assaulted, tortured, taken away and shot. Suspects were asked to run away from the\npolice station and then shot when running. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

    Allegations\nhave been made that  in some police\nstations torture and sadisms have been indulged in by some police officers,\nthey were deprived of their wrist watches and then sent off. Nadesan had been\nable to verify one such case. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

    Allegations\nhave been made that the houses of parents of a large number of young persons\nwho were suspected of being insurgents have had their houses burnt down.\nAllegations have been made that some members of the police force and army have\nin broad daylight gone to shops, markets and other places and helped themselves\nto goods and in some cases they have indulged in looting of shops and\nboutiques, taking away jewellery. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

    Allegations\nhave been made that after curfew house in places close to Colombo like Nugegoda\nand in faraway places like Badulla \nmembers of security forces have gone into boutiques and shops and\ncarried away jewellery and cash to the extent of Rs 5,000, 6000 and 7000.\nAllegations have been made that people\u2019s residences, shops and boutiques with\nall valuables have been burnt down. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

    I do\nnot  say the armed force and the police\nare lawless. What I say is that there are certain allegations of lawlessness\nmade against them which it is not possible in the present climate to\ninvestigate.  Government should take up\nthe position that it will investigate these when the time is suitable and every\nrespondent who has a genuine complaint to make will be  given the opportunity.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

    Senator\nNadesan then moved on to the main thrust of his speech, the need to tell the\n\u2018truth \u2018 about of  what the security\nforces had done  during the insurgency\nand after. The first casualty in civil \nwar is  truth\u201d he said,  In a\ncivil war, to ensure the security of the state, propagandists  prefer to \nutter an untruth or  give a\ngarbled version to the people, than to state the truth and run the risk of  more trouble.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

    \u2018I do not\nexpect the government at a time like this, to come out with the truth, and to\nstate the whole truth in respect of all that has happened. The time is not yet ripe for that. But\neventually, it is necessary to report excesses committed by some members of the\npolice and security forces. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

      I implore the government  in respect of these allegations not to say whether\nthey are true or false. I ask them not commit themselves one way or the other\nwhen they do not have the facilities\u2019 for the purpose of investigating and\narriving at the truth.  Better take the\nposition.  Well there are these\nallegations, we cannot say anything one way or other, at  present but later we will inquire into them.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

    In the\nprocess of combating the insurgents and putting down the movement with a firm\nhand we should not give the impression that we are at any  time \nprepared to tolerate indiscipline or lawlessness on the part of the  armed forces or the police. Once  matters have settled,  the government must promise to investigate.    Nadesan then called for economic reform and\nthe speech ended  with a statement\non  banning the import of  potatoes and chillies. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

    There were\ninterruptions to Senator Nadesan\u2019s speech. There were interruptions while\nNadesan was narrating this list of \u2018allegations\u2019. Senator Kumarasuriar had\ninterrupted Nadesan to say these allegations are false. Senator Somaratne asked\nto whom these allegations have been made. Nadesan\u2019\nreply was  people dare not complain, so\nthey don\u2019t. In any case the police will deny.\u201d Nadesan  speech seems to have  led to laughter as well. Nadesan said, at one\npoint,  \u2018this is not an occasion for laughter,\u2019  and again, \u2018this is not a time for levity. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

    • OBSERVATIONS\nOF NEVILLE JAYAWEERA <\/strong><\/li><\/ul>\n\n\n\n

      Neville Jayaweera was in Vavuniya  \nas Government Agent when the 1971 JVP insurgency took place. He wrote\nabout it in  The Vavuniya Diaries\u201d.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

      In Jan and Feb of 1971 headmen of Madukanda, Mamaduwa and\nPavatkulam had  reported unusual\nactivities among the youth of the area. They were holding secret meetings in\nthe jungles, were seen wearing strange blue uniforms, guns were vanishing from\nhomes and there was a sharp increase of burglaries from Coop stores. Similar\nreports were made from most Sinhala districts \nin Vavuniya, said Jayaweera. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

      Jayaweera was  informed in\nApril, 1971 that a  bus load of JVP had\nset off for Vavuniya from Jaffna.  200 JVPers  attacked Vavuniya Police station on April 4th<\/sup>\n1971.  The attack was resisted by\nJayaweera and his team. Village headmen of adjacent villages  then  informed Jayaweera on April 5th<\/sup>\nthat 100- 150 rebels were mustering on eastern shore of Vavuniya tank. They\nwere planning to raid the town that night.   The monks at Madukanda temple and\nIratperiyakulama temple also kept Jayaweera \ninformed  of the movement of the\nJVP. They reported that JVP were\nplanning to take Vavuniya on 12th<\/sup> April. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

      JVP did succeed in taking Vavuniya. They did so   in a\nplanned manner. JVP  controlled the road\nat Iratperiyakulama and Omanthai, cutting Vavuniya off from Anuradhapura and\nJaffna. JVP also  controlled roads at Medawachchiya, Rajangana,\nand Polgahawela, which meant they had control of  all key road and rail junctions.    JVP controlled Madukanda, a village   in Vavuniya which  provided a link to  Trincomalee.\n<\/p>\n\n\n\n

       Vavuniya was one of the\npockets where the JVP  was able to hold\nout for a long time, observed Jayaweera.  They were eventually defeated, but   a hard core of about 25 stayed on in the  thickly forested ridge off Mamaduwa village,\nnorth east of Vavuniya from where till mid August they made regular incursions\ninto town and torched school buildings and buses and sniped at army camps and\npatrols. Air strikes failed to flush them out, \nsaid Jayaweera.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

      Finally, they were taken  and brought to the police stations where the\npublic flocked to see the arrested JVPers.  The JVP  were much loved by the public whom they\nprotected from the sadistic army captain ,sent to Vavuniya with the army unit,\nwho every night had   engaged in the\nmurder of innocent village youth. The\nJVP had said that it was their anger towards the sadistic army  Captain that made them destroy public\nproperty in retaliation and   hold out\nfor so long without surrendering, stated Jayaweera. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

      Jayaweera   was impressed by\nthe JVP. My encounters with them in 1971 in Vavuniya had been wholesome ones,\nhe said. Jayaweera had sent some money\nto his wife through a trusted bus driver.  JVP had stopped the driver, detained him, used\nthe bus, and then sent him on  to Colombo\nwith the money intact. JVP leader attacking Vavuniya police station was shot\nand killed. He took over three hours to\ndie, it was heart rending<\/strong> Said Jayaweera.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

      Jayaweera said the  JVP\nwere  not mean criminal types. They were\ndecent and most respectful. Very young and idealistic.They were fighting for a\nnew society. They were a couple of thousand starry eyed youth armed with shot\nguns and homemade bombs, with a charismatic leader. They had no idea what they were to do after\ncapturing Vavuniya police station and Kachcheri, added Jayaweera. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

      Neville Jayaweera felt sorry for the dead JVP.  They were misguided  but they had caught a vision . The loss of\ntheir lives was no less tragic, their deeds no less heroic. For their dead no\nbugles, no volley in salute, only the indignity of tyres.  I was left with a pang of conscience at the\nwanton killings of their cadres carried out by the security forces, said\nJayaweera.  <\/p>\n\n\n\n

      Jayaweera\nfound that several young men had disappeared under burning tractor tyres and he\nwas not allowed to inquire into the matter. However he prepared a list of names\nof the disappeared. But Jayaweera\u2019s dossier of missing youths was not taken up\nby the government. Jayaweera said that the government number of 1100\nmissing  was far too little. ( Continued) <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

      KAMALIKA PIERIS OBSERVATIONS OF SENATOR S. NADESAN Senator S. Nadesan (1904-1986) made a speech in the Ceylon Senate on 14 and 15 of May 1971 regarding the JVP insurrection of April 1971. This speech was published as a booklet in 1988, by the Nadesan Centre for Human Rights. Suriya Wickremasinghe in her introducitn to the […]<\/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-104873","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\/104873","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=104873"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/104873\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=104873"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=104873"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=104873"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}