{"id":116213,"date":"2021-07-16T17:03:28","date_gmt":"2021-07-17T00:03:28","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/?p=116213"},"modified":"2021-07-16T17:03:28","modified_gmt":"2021-07-17T00:03:28","slug":"erasing-the-eelam-victory-part-21e","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/2021\/07\/16\/erasing-the-eelam-victory-part-21e\/","title":{"rendered":"ERASING THE EELAM VICTORY Part 21E"},"content":{"rendered":"

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

LTTE was able\nto sustain the war for thirty years because the Tamil population supplied the\nmanpower and other support. If the Tamil civilians had refused to support the\nLTTE and decided to support the Sri Lanka army instead, the Eelam wars would\nhave collapsed.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The Tamil civilians\nhad two choices, to be loyal to the central government which was looking after\ntheir needs, such as salaries and food or to link with the LTTE which was engaging\nin a separatist war. They chose the second alternative.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The Tamil civilians\nin the north did nothing to help the Sri Lanka army bring the war to an end.\nThey could have resisted the LTTE, helped the Sri Lanka army and brought the\nwar to an end. But they did not do so. They stayed with the LTTE. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

This could be\ncontrasted with the JVP insurgency of 1987. When the JVP militants took up arms\nin 1987, the Sinhala public helped to bring JVP under control. Private armed groups, such as Black Panthers\nand Yellow Scorpions, emerged to counter JVP terrorism. These private vigilante groups killed JVP\nmembers. When JVP issued threats,   these\nvigilante groups issued counter threats. They replied JVP death threats with a\nposter which said ape ekata thope dolahak.\u201d \n <\/p>\n\n\n\n

The\n\u2018Deshapremi Sinhala tharuna Peramuna\u2019 circulated a letter to JVP. This letter\nsaid Dear father\/ mother\/ sister, your son, \/ brother\/ husband has taken the\nlives of mothers like you, also sisters and innocent children.  They have killed the family members of heroic\nSinhala soldiers who fought the Tamil tigers to protect the motherland.  Is it not justified to put you also to death?\nBe ready to die. May you attain Nirvana. . <\/p>\n\n\n\n

A  female JVPer returned to her village, but\nfound that it was difficult to live there since the villagers suspected her   and\ndecided to return to the JVP camp.  J. H.\nPremasiri,  who had  belonged to the JVP, said, when interviewed\nin 2021 that the 1971 insurgency failed, not because of   a mistake in the timing of the attacks on\nApril 5th<\/sup>, but because ofthe\nlack of support from the masses.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In the north,\nhowever, the situation was different. An\nanti-Sinhala stance was evident among the Tamils in the north and east from in\nthe 1970s. Tensions between the government and Tamil militant groups had  also been brewing since the 1970s.  <\/p>\n\n\n\n

When Jayatissa Bandaragoda went as GA Trincomalee in 1978, his\nfirst public function was to attend the prize giving of St Joseph\u2019s College.\nWhen he went there, he found posters urging parents not to be a part of a\nceremony to receive a Sinhala chief guest. The boycott was effective,\nauditorium was almost empty, a few prizes were given away and the ceremony\nconcluded. Bandaragoda also observed that on National day, 1980, many of the\nschools in Trincomalee did not hoist the national flag. Instead in one school\nthey set the flag on fire. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

LTTE would,\ntherefore  not have found it difficult in\nthe 1980s to brainwash  the Tamil\ncivilians, to convince the Tamil civilians that the  Sinhalese were very brutal and anti Tamil. Amnesty\nInternational reported in 2001 that LTTE visited families and questioned them.\nThose who said they have no problems with the Sri Lanka army were scolded\nseverely. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

LTTE  controlled the civilians in various ways. The\nLTTE had a separate Tamil Civilian\nArmed Force (Makkal padai brigade) who were trained to kill. LTTE used \u2018civilian spotters\u2019 as informants.\n<\/p>\n\n\n\n

LTTE had\ncreated a Family Card as a tool for \nenumeration and surveillance. The Card contained  the names of all  members of the family, starting with the  male head of the household.  After the Ceasefire agreement was signed,  in 2002 two  LTTE operatives were  made \nGrama sevaka in each area. They knew the \u2018family details of every\nfamily\u2019. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

LTTE wanted\nto alienate the Tamil people from the Sri Lanka government.   They banned the movement of people to\ngovernment controlled areas, after the Ceasefire Agreement.  They could only go if somebody stood surety\nfor them and they had to return within the stipulated time. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

LTTE incited\nhatred against army. In this they specially focused on children, indicating\nthat the LTTE was thinking very far. LTTE had street plays. One play was about\nthe Struggle. It had a father, mother, two children. One child gets shot and\nkilled by the Sri Lanka army. Remaining child decides to join the LTTE. Father\nencourages. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

The main\nattitude of the Tamil civilians towards the Sri Lanka army was one of\nhostility, but there were a few instances where the Tamil civilians helped the\nsoldiers.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

 After the Mankulam attack of 1990, some\nsoldiers  lost their way and  got to the Eastern front of Weli oya. Some\nhad stumbled upon Tamil villages  where\nthey were chased off with knives and machetes.\nBut  in some Tamil villages,\nthe  villagers  had helped them secretly, feeding them and\nsending them off in the direction of Vavuniya. Had the LTTE found that they had\ngiven them even a drop of water they would have been killed, observed Kamal\nGunaratne. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Kamal\nalso  recorded  the experience of a lone soldier who made it\nback,  after the Mankulam attack    Three escaping soldiers had been attacked by\nthe LTTE. Two were killed, the  third,\nthough injured, escaped  and reached a\nhut  where    an old Tamil man had given him shelter, and\nmedicine. This man had hidden the soldier in his house till midnight, then took\nhim 15 kilometers on his bicycle \nand  showed him the Sinhala\nvillage of Mamaduwa. He had  then spoken\nto him in Sinhala, when you are back in the field and fighting the terrorists,\nremember that every Tamil is not your enemy\u201d.Such incidents were few. The\ngeneral attitude, it appears  was one\nof  opposition and hostility. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Other authorities in the north also  took the \nposition that the Sri Lanka army was bombing Tamils in their homes, for\nno reason. They  seem unaware that all\nfour Eelam Wars were started by the LTTE .<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In 1994, during Eelam War II,   the Methodist Church, Jaffna arranged  for a good will  visit from a \ngroup of Methodists from Colombo. Anne\nAbayasekara who led the mission wrote about it in her newspaper column. It was like going to another country, she said. We had\nto show ID and obtain visas at LTTE checkpoint to enter. No radios, TV,\nfridges, electrical conveniences, no water on tap, no telephones, no regular\nmail service, all cooking done on wood \nfires, No drugs including even Panadol.\nTriposha is not allowed into Jaffna so they were trying to prepare a\nlocal substitute. There were  memorials all over to LTTE heroes. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

A priest told Anne the children in Jaffna do not know any\nSinhala people. The only Sinhalese they know is the soldier at Palaly releasing\na shell that kills people. One person said to me,  reported Anne, our children have never met any\nSinhalese people but when the shelling starts from Mullaitivu or the bombs\ndrop  from the skies they know it is\nSinhalese people who are doing this to us. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Children of Jaffna know what it is to be subject to\nshelling and bombardment, noted Anne. The\nmessage given by the shelling and aerial bombing is that the Sinhala government\nis our worst enemy. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Young persons\njoined the LTTE because the Sri Lanka army had started killing Tamils for no\nreason. 49 bodies of\ndead Tigers were brought to Pooneryn, immediately 112 boys and girls joined the\nmovement,  they  told Anne. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Anne observed that there was deep distrust of the\ngovernment and outrage towards the army. A doctor told Anne  \u2018you have seen the destruction, tell this to\nthe Sinhala people. How intolerable are the conditions we have to live under.\nAre people in the south aware of the \nconditions here. We live in\nfear. We want to lead a normal life. If they would at least stop the bombing and\nshelling. They were shelling even on Christmas day and Thai Pongal. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

We are not against the Sinhala people, we are against the\ngovernment. If Sinhalese can bring pressure on the government to establish\npeace and harmony we would be very happy. Tell\nthe Sinhala people we would like to live peacefully with them. Old grievances have not been settled, and\nnow our children are fighting for their rights, the  Methodist Church told Anne.  ( Continued)<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

KAMALIKA PIERIS LTTE was able to sustain the war for thirty years because the Tamil population supplied the manpower and other support. If the Tamil civilians had refused to support the LTTE and decided to support the Sri Lanka army instead, the Eelam wars would have collapsed. The Tamil civilians had two choices, to be […]<\/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-116213","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\/116213","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=116213"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/116213\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=116213"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=116213"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=116213"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}