{"id":76405,"date":"2018-04-11T22:27:07","date_gmt":"2018-04-12T04:27:07","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/?p=76405"},"modified":"2018-09-05T14:35:35","modified_gmt":"2018-09-05T21:35:35","slug":"the-long-watch-of-commodore-ajit-boyagoda","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/2018\/04\/11\/the-long-watch-of-commodore-ajit-boyagoda\/","title":{"rendered":"THE \u2018LONG WATCH\u2019 OF COMMODORE AJIT BOYAGODA"},"content":{"rendered":"

KAMALIKA\u00a0 PIERIS<\/em><\/span><\/h2>\n

Revised 4.9.18<\/strong><\/p>\n

A Long Watch, War, Captivity and Return in Sri Lanka\u201d (pub 2016) by Commodore Ajit Boyagoda, \u00a0as told to Sunila Galappatti, deals with Boyagoda\u2019s \u00a0eight-years in captivity, 1994-2002, in Jaffna, under the LTTE. This is a beautifully written book. The narrative tone is retained throughout, the Sinhala nuances are preserved, and the personal aspect is skillfully woven into the political events.<\/p>\n

Commodore Ajit Boyagoda\u00a0\u00a0 was captured by the LTTE after his ship was sunk by the LTTE in 1994. Boyagoda had been on his final voyage, commanding Sagarawardene, one of the two 40 meter long Colombo Dockyard built OPVs in service at that time.\u00a0 Boyagoda had not wanted to go. He has asked to retire.\u2019 I had a middling sort of career without specialization and I wasn\u2019t expecting major promotion\u2019 and this seemed the best time, to retire and move elsewhere.\u00a0 His request was denied and he was instead sent to command Sagarawardene. SLNS Sagarawardena was sunk by the LTTE\u00a0 on the night of September 19, 1994, off Mannar, during an unofficial truce between the Kumaratunga administration and the LTTE.<\/p>\n

After Sagarawardene was hit, Boyagoda was rescued by the LTTE, who spoke to him in Sinhala. \u00a0He had told them he was the commanding officer of the ship they had attacked. They seemed surprised. Soon after arrival on land, Boyagoda was met by Soosai, the leader of the Sea Tigers. Soosai had personally commanded the Sagarawardene attack. \u2018He came and shook hands with me\u2019, recalled Boyagoda. Boyagoda had then \u00a0\u00a0said \u2018I have heard you so many times over the net. I am glad to meet you.\u2019 Soosai nodded and pointed to the jeep for Boyagoda to get in, and personally drove him away.<\/p>\n

The author never explains why he was glad to meet the man who had ordered destruction of his vessel.\u201d observed Shamindra Ferdinando. Soosai, and those around him, would have been certainly surprised by Boyagoda\u2019s remark. How could a senior officer be happy to meet the man who had ordered his vessel sunk causing the death of the majority of his crew? Sagarawardene had been the largest vessel available to the Navy at that time\u201d.<\/p>\n

The sinking of Sagarawadene and capture of its commanding officer was a \u00a0\u00a0great triumph for LTTE. They had carried out a successful attack and taken a ranking prisoner. \u00a0Boyagoda was the only Commanding Officer of a ship ever to be captured by Sea Tigers. The LTTE distributed flyers in commemoration. \u2018 A stream of people came to see me\u2019 including\u00a0 Dinesh, secretary\u00a0 to Karuna, said Boyagoda .<\/p>\n

Boyagoda was proudly presented to the media. He was interviewed for television and for the Eelam newspaper. Boyagoda\u2019s journey from Kilali to Jaffna was filmed for LTTE propaganda. Soosai was there for this film, in full camouflage uniform \u2018looking impressive \u2018 said Boyagoda . Soosai said his pistol\u00a0 and T56 were \u2018gifts from Premadasa.\u2019<\/p>\n

Boyagoda, together with a select group of\u00a0\u00a0 prisoners, which included\u00a0 his Leading Supply Assistant Vijitha, were thereafter housed in various camps. They were chained around the ankles \u00a0and given very poor food. In one prison they were put into animal cages till the cells were ready. \u00a0In another 27 of them were locked into one room, because the LTTE had forgotten to bring the\u00a0 padlocks for the cells\u00a0 and had to use the padlock of the lorry they had come in. But they were not tortured and killed. That is because they were special. They were to be exchanged for LTTE prisoners held by the Sri Lanka\u00a0 government. LTTE was\u00a0 going to use Boyagoda \u00a0to bargain for a good \u00a0exchange.<\/p>\n

Therefore, Boyagoda and the rest were registered as a prisoners by ICRC.\u00a0 They were seen regularly by the ICRC and their progress monitored. There were letters from home. Boyagoda said that he had never been a \u2018temple going man\u2019 but his wife and mother-in-law sent books on Buddhist meditation and that had\u00a0 helped him.<\/p>\n

They received newspapers, and in one prison they played cricket in their chains. LTTE permitted them to cook their own food. \u2018We began to live very well,\u00a0 cooking with fine ICRC deliveries of milk, dhal, oil, noodles, canned fish, tea and\u00a0 coffee,.\u2019 They shared the biscuits and cigarettes they got with their guards. ICRC sent playing cards and Sinhala books. ICRC also gave them unexpected gifts, things they had not asked for such as a shirt, a\u00a0 towel. ICRC had given them appointments diaries too.<\/p>\n

Boyagoda\u00a0 took a liking to the Tamil captors he mixed with. And they took a liking to him. \u2018When Sri Lanka \u00a0cricket team won \u00a0its first world cup final, the guards cheered with us.\u2019 George Master, was a\u00a0 retired postmaster who had served in \u00a0Ratnapura and elsewhere in southern Sri Lanka . After 1983 riots he was displaced and\u00a0 came to Vanni. He was fluent in English, Sinhala, and Tamil. He\u00a0 used to talk with Boyagoda about his days in the south.George Master was now the official LTTE translator.<\/p>\n

Mohan, one of Boyagoda\u2019s guards\u00a0 spoke to him in Sinhala. Mohan\u00a0 had been in Wellawatte, went to Royal College, then went to Jaffna after 1983. The rest\u00a0 of his family had gone to Switzerland, but he had joined the LTTE. His mother had\u00a0 been greatly opposed to this.\u00a0 The Boyagoda\u00a0 group of prisoners\u00a0 seem to have been provided with guards who had lived in the south.<\/p>\n

One of his guards, Newton always hoped Boyagoda and the rest would go home. Boyagoda\u00a0 looked after his two daughters when Newton had to bring them to work \u00a0\u00a0\u00a0and when Boyagoda\u00a0 left for Colombo, Newton had given him a photo of the two children. It is still in his possession. Newton wanted a Tamil homeland. Boyagoda\u00a0 agreed that\u00a0 regional devolution was necessary.\u00a0\u00a0 \u2018This gentle soft spoken man was reputedly one of the best and most ruthless bomb experts the LTTE had ever had\u2019, announced Boyagoda .<\/p>\n

Selvaratnam, head of the LTTE reconnaissance unit\u00a0 and\u00a0 military office, was a frequent visitor to Boyagoda . Selvaratnam belong to the second generation of LTTE cadres. He was from \u00a0an area between Trincomalee and Weli oya, He experienced\u00a0\u00a0 upheaval and displacement on account of his culture and ethnicity and this led straight to the movement, said Boyagoda.<\/p>\n

Selvaratnam spoke\u00a0 English. They had long discussions on Tamil politics. He gave out scraps of information. He said that\u00a0 the only arms they had surrendered at the Ceasefire were arms they were going to decommission. Selva did not believe in peace talks, they were just a breather, giving LTTE time to prepare for another war. Selva \u00a0was sure that Eelam would have come by 2000.<\/p>\n

Boyagoda did not see the war but he was able to see the LTTE reactions. When they bombed Central Back LTTE were jubilant, in ecstatic mood. It was one of the most successful and symbolically significant attacks the LTTE had ever made. When the Mullaitivu debacle took place, as usual our jailer looked happy and told us the story. The Tigers had completely destroyed the military camp at Mullaitivu, 1200 government troops were killed. When something good happened they were ready to talk, when there were reversals they were moody and monosyllabic, such as the Welioya incident where they were killed, said Boyagoda .<\/p>\n

Boyagoda thought that it would have been hard for the LTTE to hold on to their cadres as the war continued. \u2018They joined at 18 they were still there at 28 when they wanted other things, like a family. Struggle would not be the only thing and beside you have been in it for a long time. Many cadres escaped south and disappeared, \u2018said Boyagoda.<\/p>\n

Boyagoda and the other prisoners also had a glimpse of the other side of LTTE. LTTE had a network of prisons and Boyagoda was moved from one to the other. \u00a0One prison had been a regular house. They mixed these military houses with civilian houses for camouflage and protection.\u00a0 In one of his prisons he found Sinhala names scratched on the walls.<\/p>\n

Boyagoda had seen the torture chairs the LTTE locked them into before removing their fingernails. They saw other prisoners, who looked only half conscious, as if they had been tortured. I have heard screams from underground cells. . In one prison, we heard their cries, then the noise stopped, I think they were killed.<\/p>\n

Boyagoda\u2019s co prisoner, Sagarawardene\u2019s Leading Supply Assistant, Vijitha hated the LTTE for capturing them. Vijitha had also swum towards the boat and was captured but he was not treated well, he was hit. \u2018 Godata genella dekak anna\u2019. Boyagoda \u2018s gold chain was\u00a0 taken when he was captured..\u00a0 It was returned by the LTTE, LTTE knew the value of their prisoner and the need to maintain a clean image.<\/p>\n

Boyagoda presents a negative picture of the Sri Lanka army. He says the LTTE attack in Karainagar in 1991 was \u2018not bad\u2019 but after that the army had looted wholesale. The looting was systematic. They knew the shrine room contained the family safe so they broke into that looking for gold jewelry.<\/p>\n

I had heard that they looted gold this was the first time that I saw it with my own eyes.\u00a0 Further, whatever they saw they destroyed. Wardrobes, opened, clothes pulled out photographs smashed. 90% of the houses had been forced open by the marching troops. Anyone returning to those homes, if young would have joined the LTTE.\u201d<\/p>\n

It was here that I really saw the mentality of the Sinhala army walking through a Tamil village. I could not stop the looting but I stopped them taking it off the island of Karainagar.\u00a0 He later tried to return the items to the owners. \u00a0\u00a0He also feared other types of aggression if the women were separated from the men. He suggested that families should be kept together.<\/p>\n

Boyagoda \u00a0presents a negative picture of the navy as well.. Some officers in the navy were smuggling gold, he was asked to get back some lost gold and take a cut, instead he looked up the roster found that a boat had gone out without sailing order, reported it and the officer was called\u00a0 up and never promoted.<\/p>\n

Boyagoda was openly sympathetic to the Tamils. He does not hide this. In 1977 at home in Kandy, he had rushed to save a Tamil mother and daughters in their town, the father and sons were working in Zimbabwe. When he was serving in Karainagar in the 1980s he took vegetables and medicine back to Karainagar residents when he returned from his leave in Colombo.<\/p>\n

Boyagoda firmly supported the Tamil cause. \u2018I never felt any animosity to the LTTE,\u2019 \u00a0he said in the book. \u00a0\u2018After 1983 never\u00a0 could I take issue with the idea of a Tamil homeland in the north, if Tamil people were not safe in the south and were safe in the north then that was their homeland. \u2018I had accepted the causes of LTTE struggle, but not the means.\u2019 \u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0Boyagoda\u00a0 favored a federal solution, not Eelam.<\/p>\n

But, best of all, he indirectly \u00a0helped \u00a0\u00a0the LTTE navy. Soon after he was captured he was shown\u00a0 an album with photographs of the ships belonging to the Sri Lanka navy. He had promptly identified Sagarawardene as the ship they had destroyed. \u2019I found, later, \u00a0that the LTTE knew more of the Sri Lanka Navy than I did. They had made a study of the Navy.\u2019\u00a0 They asked him about places he had not worked in for years and he found that their knowledge was more up to date. Boyagoda saw names of retired naval officers\u00a0 in the books the LTTE had with them.<\/p>\n

Selvaratnam brought four young cadres\u00a0\u00a0 to Boyagoda. He told Boyagoda \u2018these are our students and we want them to learn about the Sri Lanka \u00a0Navy. Tell them everything you know.\u2019 The four consisted of the boy Oppilan and three girls. They were teenagers not experienced interrogators. They wanted to ask about the Sri Lanka navy. They \u00a0came to see him every morning. \u2018I answered their questions.\u2019<\/p>\n

We would sit together in the hall around the table. They\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 gave me the seat at the head. Oppilan brought a questionnaire with him and he would work through the questions one by one.. Oppilan would ask me questions and I would answer. Mohan acted as translator. It was all done very politely . All the questions asked were general not operational.\u00a0 But they wanted to know about the layout of Trincomalee. \u2018They brought me a map and they would ask me about the places on it one by one\u2019<\/p>\n

Boyagoda says that the information the LTTE got from him was neither exact nor extensive. It would have been impossible to base an attack on what he said. I did not need to lie, said Boyagoda . The answers he gave were all in \u2018Janes fighting ships.\u2019 . Since he had not served in HQ he\u00a0 did not know any secrets. \u2018I only knew how things has been in the places I had been posted to\u2019.<\/p>\n

Boyagoda said he did occasionally hold back, such as when they asked about the naval armaments department which he had served in the 1980s. \u2018I gave vague answers. Sometime I gave out-of-date information, I did not refuse to answer questions, but I was not eager to give information about my own force\u2019.<\/p>\n

\u2018These four \u00a0\u00a0also asked for my help in translating a standard manual of seamanship. This I was willing to do, I read the English manual,\u00a0 and explained to Mohan in Sinhala and Mohan then translated from Sinhala\u00a0 to Tamil.<\/p>\n

The LTTE naturally had high hopes of\u00a0 Boyagoda . A person called\u00a0 Sangeethan came to see him, and said they could arrange for him to return to his family immediately. In exchange he was to provide shelter for LTTE cadres gathering intelligence in the south. Boyagoda\u00a0 had to house\u00a0 them and find plausible cover for them. They would cover all costs and Boyagoda would be paid as well. Sangeethan said there were lots of people in the south helping them. Boyagoda\u00a0 should not miss this opportunity of going home.<\/p>\n

Boyagoda greatly to his credit\u00a0 refused, but\u00a0 did so\u00a0 diplomatically, he was still a prisoner. Sangeethan made a second offer, to work covertly for the LTTE when the ICRC brought his wife to visit. His\u00a0 wife had also been approached separately when she came to see him. They both \u00a0said NO. The LTTE remained hopeful. When the whole family was reunited briefly, later on, the LTTE had gene all out to please. They\u00a0 prepared the best food, with \u00a0jumbo prawns, crab. The family was taken on outings to see LTTE graveyards and\u00a0 Mullaitivu.<\/p>\n

The long awaited prisoner exchange took place on Sept 28, 2002. \u201813 LTTE cadres were exchanged for 7 of us.\u2019 \u00a0Shamindra Ferdinando recalls \u00a0 I was among those journalists, taken by the Army to Omanthai, to cover the exchange of prisoners of the conflict. The LTTE turned the event to a major propaganda project. The then Army Chief Lt. Gen. Lionel Balagalle, had to sit between two terrorist leaders in uniforms carrying arms.<\/p>\n

Boyagoda recalls it differently. He was happy to see that the two\u00a0 sides were represented by the top officials. \u2019It was an incredible and hopeful gesture, this gathering of important people from both sides of the conflict.\u2019 Selvaratnam and Suda Master had\u00a0\u00a0 come to speak to the\u00a0 Boyagoda\u00a0 family\u00a0 and to shake hands with Boyagoda .<\/p>\n

Boyagoda\u00a0 was swapped for Kennedy, (Jesumy Fernando), whom the LTTE most wanted back. Kennedy\u00a0 had led a successful commando raid, on Palaly airbase, in early August 1994.. Prabhakaran made several attempts to secure Kennedy\u2019s release, over the years, and finally succeeded in Sept 2002. Boyagoda had\u00a0 said Hello to Kennedy as the exchange proceeded.<\/p>\n

Having lived with the LTTE for eight years, Boyagoda had been so sorry to leave his guards, particularly Newton, who had been in charge of them for some time. “It was a heart-breaking departure, if you can believe that. We had been living with all of these cadres for so long that there was a kind of brotherly understanding between us. We were taking leave of a family we would probably never see again. .<\/p>\n

However, he was wrong there. He met them all a few years\u00a0 later. The private company he was working for asked Boyagoda to take Tsunami supplies to the LTTE. (Dates not\u00a0 given)\u00a0 When he went there, \u2018everyone greeted me\u2019. Suda Master and Daya Master were there. \u2018George Uncle,\u2019 he was told was at home, his wife had died. Boyagoda went to see him. George\u00a0 was very pleased to see him, the two had chatted for one hour. The children who had come from abroad were summoned and \u00a0introduced to Boyagoda.<\/p>\n

The\u00a0 firm sent him on a second relief programme to Elephant Pass to hand over some fishing boats. There he met Newton, who had travelled from Mullaitivu to Kilinochchi ,over an hour by motor bike to see him. \u2018We talked and drank tea together.\u2019 Newton was then in his 30s, Boyagoda was in his\u00a0 50s.<\/p>\n

Boyagoda had met\u00a0 Pulidevan, a high ranking LTTE officer, at ICRC meetings in Jaffna. He was surprised, after his release to Colombo,\u00a0 to see Pulidevan in the queue to pay a Dialogue bill. He said \u2018Ah captain how.\u2019 He \u00a0too had come to pay his bill\u00a0 It was such a surprise to see him moving freely about in Colombo. He had a phone with satellite communication as there were no mobile towers in Vanni.<\/p>\n

Oppilan, had found Boyagoda on Face book and had called him, Oppilan was now Murali and living in Canada. Oppilan\u00a0 told Boyagoda that when he was in LTTE intelligence he was also simultaneously working for RAW who had blackmailed him in to service. Then he had worked with the Sri Lanka intelligence in return for passage out to Canada.<\/p>\n

Boyagoda \u00a0found \u00a0the Sri Lanka Navy was \u2018now a huge professional force\u2019.\u00a0 He returned to work but found he had no real place in it. \u2018Nobody asked about the 8 years I had spent in captivity. Not even in a chatty curious way. They all thought he had sold out to the LTTE. I never got over this mistrust.\u2019<\/p>\n

The Navy was clearly not interested in what Boyagoda had to say. The navy would have had reports on Boyagoda from the ICRC and the prisoners who had left before Boyagoda. The navy had its own intelligence and was aware, that the LTTE was not the fearsome organization it was made out to be.<\/p>\n

In his absence\u00a0 the navy had found Boyagoda\u00a0 guilty of willful negligence for\u00a0 \u2018anchoring my ship in one place and putting the vessel and it men in danger.\u2019 Boyagoda wished to clear his name. On his return, Boyagoda asked for an inquiry. An inquiry was held, and Boyagoda was able to show that he had reason for keeping his ship anchored in one place for so long. His witnesses were the ships Communicator and two additional officers who had been on board. These men, fortunately had escaped the attack. In addition, the ships logbook\u00a0 had\u00a0 also survived the attack. Boyagoda was exonerated of all charges and no new charges were brought against him. He was given the promotion he asked for but was asked to retire.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

KAMALIKA\u00a0 PIERIS Revised 4.9.18 A Long Watch, War, Captivity and Return in Sri Lanka\u201d (pub 2016) by Commodore Ajit Boyagoda, \u00a0as told to Sunila Galappatti, deals with Boyagoda\u2019s \u00a0eight-years in captivity, 1994-2002, in Jaffna, under the LTTE. This is a beautifully written book. The narrative tone is retained throughout, the Sinhala nuances are preserved, and […]<\/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-76405","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\/76405","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=76405"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/76405\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=76405"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=76405"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=76405"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}