{"id":55069,"date":"2016-05-28T23:46:56","date_gmt":"2016-05-29T05:46:56","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/?p=55069"},"modified":"2016-05-28T14:50:52","modified_gmt":"2016-05-28T21:50:52","slug":"president-premadasa-and-eelam","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/2016\/05\/28\/president-premadasa-and-eelam\/","title":{"rendered":"PRESIDENT PREMADASA AND EELAM"},"content":{"rendered":"

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

Ranasinghe Premadasa succeeded J.R. Jayewardene as the second President of Sri Lanka, 1989-1993.He was assassinated by the LTTE\u00a0\u00a0 on May Day, 1993.\u00a0 His period of rule was an eventful one. He was\u00a0 described as a \u2018mad president\u2019. (Sunday Island. 27.1.2013p 5<\/em>) .He unleashed a reign of terror, regarding which the UN and USA said nothing. His much praised housing programme was unsatisfactory. Instead of low rise housing schemes, he built free standing houses.<\/p>\n

President Premadasa had initially refused to take over the Defence portfolio, saying he disliked getting involved in wars. It was pointed out to him that he had to take it. He was the Commander in Chief of the armed forces.\u00a0\u00a0 So he reluctantly did so\u00a0\u00a0 but\u00a0\u00a0 did not chair meetings of the National Security Council. Prime Minister D.B. Wijetunge chaired them.<\/p>\n

Premadasa\u2019s handling of the Eelam issue was atrocious. He did not know how to deal with the LTTE and was completely out of his depth. He thought the LTTE was invincible and that the only course of action was to appease them. He believed whatever the LTTE told him, including their false assurances, and he did exactly as they asked. His chief negotiator A.C.S. Hameed\u00a0 also\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 supported the LTTE.\u00a0 Premadasa\u2019s blunders caused irreparable losses. Critics note that this mishandling would have been grounds for impeachment.<\/p>\n

Let us look at some of the\u00a0\u00a0 things Premadasa did. To start with, he released a large group of LTTE terrorists, from prison, including a known bomber. This affected counter insurgency operations. The military top brass realized the stupidity of this move but did not dare protest. He gave LTTE\u00a0\u00a0 money from the Treasury. He facilitated the return of Prabhakaran\u2019s wife and children from Europe \u00a0\u00a0and arranged for LTTE leader Kittu to go to UK for medical treatment. Sri Lanka air force picked Kittu up in Vanni and took him to Katunayake airport.\u00a0 Sri Lanka High commission in London was instructed to give Kittu anything he wanted.<\/p>\n

Premadasa\u2019s contribution to the ongoing war was to declare a unilateral ceasefire. The LTTE used this to consolidate their position. They built bunkers within firing range of security establishments. They continuously provoked and humiliated the army knowing that the army could not retaliate. Premadasa had instructed the army not to do anything that could be considered hostile.<\/p>\n

At the request of the LTTE, President Premadasa asked the Indian Peace Keeping Force, which was giving the LTTE a beating, to withdraw. This gave the LTTE, who were reeling under the IPKF, a new lease of life.\u00a0 As soon as the IPKF pulled out the LTTE started fighting.\u00a0 The state forces were unable to control them. The largest number of amputees were from the 1991 Akunu Pahara.\u00a0 In 1990 the LTTE took control of the overland Kandy- Jaffna route used by the military.\u00a0 This was a great blow to the armed forces. With this route blocked, the government had to send supplies to the army by sea and air. This placed a great burden on the Navy and added to the costs of the war. For instance, when the north east monsoon was on, supplies for the army in the east had to be brought to Comar, and then moved overland to Nagathevanthurai and ferried to the east in boats. The Kandy-Jaffna route stayed under LTTE control for the next 17 years.<\/p>\n

Premadasa issued some prize instructions, which boggle the imagination. He actually ordered the Sri Lanka army to give a large stock of arms, ammunition and equipment to LTTE, ignoring the pleadings of the military. These\u00a0\u00a0 weapons were thereafter used against the Sri Lanka army.\u00a0 Gotabhaya Rajapakse, Tassie Seneviratne and Cyril Ranatunge independently confirm that this weapons transfer took place. Most of it took place in the sensitive Weli oya region located close to Mullativu jungles. Senior officers at Weli Oya handed over weapons, while soldiers watched with deep resentment.\u00a0 The LTTE acquired\u00a0\u00a0 arms and ammunition supplied by the Premadasa government, while the state military had none. Premadasa also lifted restrictions on a range of materials, including cement, and LTTE use this to fortify their bases.<\/p>\n

Premadasa allowed the LTTE to execute 600 police officers. This is how it happened. While \u2018peace talks\u2019 were going on in Colombo in 1990 and the LTTE\u00a0 delegation\u00a0 was housed in five star hotels under the protection of the STF, LTTE cadres had surrounded the police stations at\u00a0 Batticaloa, Kalmunai, Vellaveli, Valachenai, Kalavanchikudi, Eravur, Samanthurai, Akkaraipattu\u00a0 and ordered the police to surrender. LTTE had assured Premadasa that the policemen would not be harmed, they would be taken to Ampara and released.\u00a0 Premadasa ordered IGP Earnest Pereira to direct the policemen to surrender. The policemen surrendered.\u00a0 LTTE took them to Tirukkovil jungle and killed them. They were made to lie face down, blindfolded with hands tied, then bullets were sprayed into them.\u00a0 A farmer who had been ordered to bury the bodies had seen this. Seneviratne called this a live sacrifice offered on a plate.<\/p>\n

At Kalmunai Ivan Botejue, ASP refused to follow the Presidential directive. Botejue had by then, completed his compulsory spell in the operational area but had volunteered to carry on as no one was willing to take his place.\u00a0 His unit had already successfully fought off the LTTE in November 1989. He and his men opted to face that LTTE, saying that if they surrendered they would be tortured and killed. Botejue ordered his men to take up positions and requested air and military support. The LTTE attacked Kalmunai police station and policeman returned fire in defense. Volleys of fire and defiant words were exchanged. There were more causalities on the LTTE\u00a0 side even though the LTTE had more sophisticated weapons, gifted them by President Premadasa. When the police were ordered to surrender, Botejue walked out of the police station with his men, sobbing and obeying. Tassie Seneviratne suggests that Ivan Botejue be honored posthumously.\u00a0\u00a0 He would have risen to be DIG, because if he had left the area, he would have got his promotion.<\/p>\n

Seneviratne\u00a0\u00a0 observed that there is no official record of this event. If an inquiry had been launched immediately after President Premadasa died, then the story would have come out, he said, but successive governments had not inquired into this matter.. It was unlawful to issue an order to surrender when death was imminent. These police officers should be considered war heroes and their families duly compensated \u00a0\u00a0and their names publicized. The families have so far not received the compensation due to them. Seneviratne points out that it is it is not too late even now to conduct an inquiry. Seneviratne also said that Vinayagamurthi Muralitharan (Karuna) had been directly involved in the massacre of these 600 police men. Karuna had denied this. Seneviratne alleged that there was evidence to show that Karuna was involved.\u00a0 Presidential commission to investigate missing persons has been asked in 2014, to look into this matter. Particularly whether compensation, salaries, pensions were paid to the families and whether these policemen have been honored posthumously.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

KAMALIKA PIERIS Ranasinghe Premadasa succeeded J.R. Jayewardene as the second President of Sri Lanka, 1989-1993.He was assassinated by the LTTE\u00a0\u00a0 on May Day, 1993.\u00a0 His period of rule was an eventful one. He was\u00a0 described as a \u2018mad president\u2019. (Sunday Island. 27.1.2013p 5) .He unleashed a reign of terror, regarding which the UN and USA […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[104],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-55069","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\/55069","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=55069"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/55069\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=55069"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=55069"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=55069"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}