{"id":106066,"date":"2020-08-30T14:25:29","date_gmt":"2020-08-30T21:25:29","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/?p=106066"},"modified":"2020-08-30T14:25:29","modified_gmt":"2020-08-30T21:25:29","slug":"erasing-the-eelam-victory-part-17-c-6","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/2020\/08\/30\/erasing-the-eelam-victory-part-17-c-6\/","title":{"rendered":"ERASING THE EELAM VICTORY Part 17 C 6"},"content":{"rendered":"

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

First person accounts of the second JVP insurgency\nhave been given in autobiographies of Drs B.J.C.  Perera, Sarath Weerasinghe and W.A. Wiswa\nWarnapala. They have spoken of their experiences with the JVP in their places\nof work.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

 B.J.C. Perera was Consultant Pediatrician in Kurunegala\nin 1988.  In Kurunegala there was a lot\nof public support for JVP and people in the area were openly sympathetic to the\ncause said BJC. JVP   were in almost total control.  Hospital had JVP sympathizers on the staff.\nTwo of his House officers were also JVP. \nThey tried to disrupt the working of the hospital. \u2018\u2019But I did not allow\nthem to disrupt ward activities,\u2019 Said BJC.  <\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

The hospital\nwas not closed for even one day. Kurunegala was one of the few hospitals which\nfunctioned normally, he said. Kurunegala child Immunization clinic was over\nloaded, with about 300 children brought from outstation in lorries and cars,\nsince the other clinics were not working. \u2018We managed to immunize them all,\u2019\nsaid BJC.  This  service was provided for several weeks. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

JVP was watching him and liked his concern for\nhis patients. They sent him a message that since he had a baby at home, he\ncould use the electric lights in the house. JVP   had ordered the public not to put on\nelectric lights. BJC refused, saying he\nwould be labeled a JVP sympathizer, so they told him to use thick curtains and\nonly a couple of lights. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

 Towards\nthe end of the insurgency, both army and JVP were active in Kurunegala. An army\nofficer came to the hospital, said BJC. He spoke separately to doctors, and\nasked them to continue the good work, told nurses, separately that any\nsaboteurs would be treated like insurgents, told laborers that he knewexactly who JVP were. He will kill the\ntwo of them and hang them for all to see at the entrance to the hospital. He\nwill personally shoot them through the heads, said the army officer. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

In 1988 JVP made final error in Kurunegala,\nsaid BJC. They had dragged out a supporter of the government His children had come\nrunning and hugged the father. JVP killed the children as well. This disgusted\nthe public who went to the police and army and told them details of JVP\nactivity in the entire Kurunegala region. The force and police came out at\nnight, rounded up the JVP.  Nothing was\nheard of them after that. They were   \napparently eliminated and burnt in the jungles and forest areas of\nKurunegala. The insurgency collapsed virtually overnight in 1989 in Kurunegala,\nconcluded BJC Perera.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Dr.  Sarath Edirisinghe, who taught at<\/em> the Medical Faculty,\nPeradeniya, spoke of his encounters with the JVP in the University in the Bheeshanaya\nperiod. One day a group of medical\nstudents who were JVP informed us lecturers that they were going to have a\nmeeting in Physiology Theater and all the staff must attend. We all trooped in\nthere, a medical student activist spoke, and scolded us for not being receptive\nto the vast changes taking place. We must respond to the youth uprising. They\nsaid, among other things, , that they had to    \nright to stop and check any vehicle passing Wijewardana. We were not\nallowed to voice our views, said Sarath. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

On one occasion\nSarath watched the captive medical staff of Peradeniya Teaching Hospital,\ncarrying placards against the IPKF, herded along toward Peradeniya   road junction. A consultant had told him\nlater that they had been taken to Peradeniya Bo tree bus stop, given paste and\ntold to paste posters on the buses that stopped there. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Once there\nwas a huge commotion at the turn off to Wijewardana Hall. There was a huge\ncrowd and  much chaos. Sarath saw a man\ntied to a tree. Someone started beating  him.  He\nwas later taken away.  We heard later\nthat he was the driver of a passing vehicle owned by a UNP MP. He was found\nmurdered in a nearby quarry. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

The Meewatura\nUniversity house complex, where Sarath lived, had been visited by JVP and\nidentity cards confiscated. Electric\ntransformers in the area had been bombed or vandalized. On dark days\u201d the\nresidents did not switch on the lights. Sarath was pulled up for putting on\nlights when all round it was dark.  These\nJVP were definitely University students, said Sarath.  <\/p>\n\n\n\n

JVP said they\nwere going to send him a set of instructions to be conveyed to the rest of the\nhouses. Sarath had said how to read instructions when there are no lights. He\nwas told that around 3 am, instructions would be pushed through the door and to\ncomply. Use torch to read it. However, since they had a baby, he was told to\nhave a 15 or 25 watt bulb in a back room. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

The document\narrived. They were told to display a large placard saying that IPKF must leave\nSri Lanka, also hang a black flag. Their activities would-be closely watched\nthroughout the day. At dawn  Sarath saw a\nrow of University houses with black flags. Some had torn umbrellas to get the\nblack cloth. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Then the army\ncame. Sarath and others were warned in time,  they  pulled the black flags down. An army jeep\ncame, with two rows of  unsmiling soldiers\nscrutinizing the houses, When the army left the academics put back the placard\nand flag. Throughout the day, there were young men on motorcycles checking our\nhouses.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Then JVP\nbombed the Water Purification plant, nearby, which meant no water for the\nhouses.  The Vice Chancellor appealed to\nJVP by poster   to get the plant working.\nJVP complied.    The    \u2018Reply\u2019 poster came, saying plant will be\nrepaired and water will be issued for two hours a   day. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

 It was well known that these University campaigns\nwere carried out by IUSF and the Deshapremi Sishya Viyapraya.   The leading activists were hardcore JVP\nmembers, and they included final year students and university staff.  There was also a group of third-liners,  who were clearly followers not leaders. Sarath\nmet a few of them.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

One day, Sarath\nfound that there was no one in the Medical Faculty and he went  along to the Dean\u2019s room, where he found Dean\nand the Senior Assistant Registrar, Miss Jayasuriya. While he was there,  the door opened with a bang and a well dressed,\nbearded young man came in and wanted to know why the Faculty was open, it was a\nhartal day. Miss Jayasuriya had shouted back and said the man had no business\nentering the Dean\u2019s office and ordered him to leave immediately. The man said\nsomething threatening but left the office. The man was a technical officer in\nthe Medical Faculty, said Miss Jayasuriya. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

After several\nmurders had taken place at Peradeniya campus, a dozen senior academics, from\nthe Medical Faculty, led by Prof Ralph Panabokke had gone to see Vice\nChancellor Arjuna Aluwihare, by appointment. There\nwere three student activists there, recalled Sarath. We were introduced to the\nstudents.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

 Prof. Panabokke said his say which was\ntranslated to the students, who said very eloquently in Sinhala that there was\na liberation movement taking place and we should recognize the fact and as\nacademics we should extend our support. Panabokke said that murders by\nUniversity students should be stopped. \nThe students looked agitated, they had a short discussion among\nthemselves and the leader blurted out that they had no control over these\nactivities. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Sarath and\nhis family then went to Nugegoda, where again they met the JVP.  Sarath\u2019s wife, Jayanthi visited an uncle who\nwas a retired army man. when she knocked on the door,     a young man holding a gun pulled her into\nthe house. Jayanthi, who was a lecturer in the University, guessed that these\nwere probably University students.  She\nshouted at the gang telling them she was a University don. She asked them to\nleave the house immediately. They had a whispered conversation and left,\nwarning her not to leave for one hour and not to get the police. They had cut\nthe telephone wires beforehand. They had vanished into thin air, there was no\nsound of a motor cycle. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Sarath and\nhis family   returned to Peradeniya . A\nSenior Assistant Registrar had been killed near Senate House. In retaliation,\naround ten youths  were killed and  their severed heads placed round the Alwis\npond. \u2018One can imagine how brutal the government backed counter terrorist\nactivities were at the time.\u2019 said Sarath.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Towards the\nend, there was fear, panic and danger everywhere. Militant students patrolled\nthe area on wheels and on foot. They were checking vehicles. They expected a\nshowdown with the government and counter preparation were being readied by them. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

The showdown came\nsoon after. In the biting pre-dawn, Sarath and other academics  living in Meewatura heard  students in Hilda Obeyesekera Hall, ( then a\nmale student hall) calling out  names of\nlecturers and begging those lecturers to come  and rescue them as they were surrounded by the\narmy. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Instead of\nrunning to the rescue, the lecturers in the Meewatura houses were all in their\nback gardens watching. We did not see any army activity until a helicopter came\nby. The cries of students rounded up by the armed forces could be heard, then\nthere was silence, said Sarath. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Helicopters\nkept swooping down on  the Halls of residence\ntill mid day. There was also bus after bus transporting students out of the\ncampus. As they went past Meewatura to Gampola \nvillagers hooted, some shouted don\u2019t come back.\u201d The Bheeshanaya was\nblamed on University students and \nthe  surrounding villages were\nrelieved to see the student evicted from campus. The  Campus was closed,  concluded Sarath. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

W.A.Wiswa\nWarnapala, was SLFP organizer for Kegalle in the 1980s. In 1987, party activity\nin Kegalle was done amidst JVP terror, he said. JVP mounted a campaign of\nviolence in Kegalle  to prevent a free\nand fair election. They wanted to prevent the voters from voting     also from  \nparticipating in election activity. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

The SLFP  organizers were provided with guns and were\nexpected to arrange for their own security. JVP  threatened Wiswa with death and  he was prevented from going to certain\nvillages by blocking the road to these places.\nThere was a large spate of political violence throughout the country  at the time.   \n<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Wiswa\nwas  teaching political science  at University of  Peradeniya , during the Bheeshanaya  period. The   \nviolence inside the University \nparticularly University of  \nPeradeniya   was such that the University\ncould not control it,  said Wiswa. No one\nwas safe inside the campus. The Inter\nUniversity  Student  Federation \nformed Action Committees and \nthese committees were behind the violence. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

The\nfrightened University authorities gave recognition to the Action Committee, in\norder to avoid open confrontation and prevent destruction of life and property.\nThe Action Committee   turned itself into\na parallel administration  making use of\nthe University administration and issuing orders to University officials.  There was \nsporadic stoppage and boycott of lectures. No Department could function steadily.\nAcademic progammes came  to a standstill,\nsaid Wiswa. \u2018Palamuwa mawbima devenuva upadhiya\u2019 said the slogan.    <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Wiswa\nobserved that the  JVP leaders in the\nUniversity  came  not from Arts faculty, but from science,\nengineering and medicine. This was \nstrange  because they  were sure of getting jobs and rising in\nlife,  but these   students, unlike in the past, came from different\nsocial backgrounds. The undergrad community of the 80s was entirely different to\nthat of the 50s, they were more militant and aggressive.  Wiswa was a strong critic of the JVP. He got a\nthreat on his life. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Violence,\nthreats and killings were the order of the day inside  Peradeniya  campus. Nobody \nwas safe inside. Any trivial matter was enough for the students to\nindulge in violence and they were armed with lethal weapons, said Wiswa. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

A Senior\nAssistant Registrar was shot at the entrance to Senate House at 12 noon by a\nJVP who came on a push bike. Victim died leaning on a car. Culprit escaped and\nno attempt was made to apprehend him. . <\/p>\n\n\n\n

On another\noccasion, there were ten bodies in front of the arts theatre.   it was rumored that this was done by the\nstate, which shot them one by one as a message to the JVP. this murderous act  was a part of the reprisals of the state.\nThose responsible for this terrible event blocked the roads so they could\ncommit the crime with impunity . This act devastated the academic community,\nsaid Wiswa. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

One activity\nof these students was to watch the comings and goings of the academics. When\nWiswa\u2019s brother in law, a Brigadier in the army \nvisited Wiswa,  the JVP \u2018had the\naudacity  to come and question me as to\nwhy there was an army visit,\u2019  said\nWiswa.  When  B.S. Wijeweera, one of his post graduate\nstudents had visited Wiswa at home, JVP \nthought that Rohana Wijeweera\nhad visited . <\/p>\n\n\n\n

 Osmund Jayaratne, a lecturer in Physics said\nin his autobiography, that he was informed, after he left Peradeniya that the\nacademics living in Mahakanda had put up a notice saying \u2018Osmund Jayaratne no\nlonger lives in this housing scheme\u2019. ( continued) <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

KAMALIKA PIERIS First person accounts of the second JVP insurgency have been given in autobiographies of Drs B.J.C.  Perera, Sarath Weerasinghe and W.A. Wiswa Warnapala. They have spoken of their experiences with the JVP in their places of work.  B.J.C. Perera was Consultant Pediatrician in Kurunegala in 1988.  In Kurunegala there was a lot of […]<\/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-106066","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\/106066","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=106066"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/106066\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=106066"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=106066"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=106066"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}