{"id":86968,"date":"2019-04-04T16:05:44","date_gmt":"2019-04-04T23:05:44","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/?p=86968"},"modified":"2019-04-04T16:05:44","modified_gmt":"2019-04-04T23:05:44","slug":"april-insurgency-a-little-known-story","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/2019\/04\/04\/april-insurgency-a-little-known-story\/","title":{"rendered":"April insurgency \u2013 a little known story"},"content":{"rendered":"

Janaka Perera<\/strong><\/em><\/span><\/h2>\n\n\n

April 5, 2019 marks\nthe 48th<\/sup> Anniversary of the JVP insurgency of 1971 the first\never armed uprising against the Sri Lankan State since the British departed our\nshores.  It was one of two Southern insurgencies within a span of less\nthan two decades. Both led two generations of youth and many others to their\ngraves.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Following is a\nstory of April \u201971 which exposes how these so-called liberation struggles drove\nmen to mercilessly kill even their friends and colleagues.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Towards the end of\nMarch, 1971, the Trincomalee Naval Base received a letter from the Peradeniya\nUniversity requesting to arrange a football match between university students\nand navy personnel on the naval base grounds on April 5. The letter also\nrequested the Navy to arrange for the university team to spend the night at the\nbase, since it was difficult for them to return to Peradeniya the same day after\nthe match. The university team was scheduled to arrive in Trincomalee by bus.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

However since there\nwere signs of trouble in the country the Naval Authorities were discussing\nwhether they should accede to the request from the university. The Government\nhad already declared an island-wide emergency following an armed attack on the\nAmerican Embassy, Colombo, causing the death of a police officer. Naval\npersonnel had also been deployed to guard the Trincomalee and Kantale police\nstations. Moreover the Peradeniya University at that time was suspected to be a\nhotbed of JVP activity.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Eventually the Navy\ndecided it was not safe to allow a football match between the navy and\nuniversity teams on April 5.  Accordingly the university authorities were\ninformed that the naval base grounds could not be given for the match on the\nscheduled date.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

If the match was\nheld as planned one of the navy men who would have participated was Able Seaman\nH.M. Tillekeratne, one of the navy\u2019s best football players. He had also been\nselected as an all-island hockey champion.  A strong well-built man,\nTillekeratne was serving at the navy\u2019s Elara Camp in Karainagar at the time.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

He was in the habit\nof regularly travelling between the Elara Camp and the Trinco Naval Base. \nThe reason was that he was conducting political classes for some navy\npersonnel.  Tillekeratne was the \u2018Coordinating Officer\u2019 between the Navy\nand the JVP which was planning to appoint him as North-East commander if they\nseized power.     <\/p>\n\n\n\n

All this was\nhappening before the Navy received the letter from the Peradeniya University.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

On April 4, the\ndate on which the Navy decided not to have the football match, Tillekeratne was\non duty at the Elara Camp.  In the early hours of the following day, began\nthe JVP insurrection with an attack on the Wellawaya Police Station, killing a\npoliceman at his desk.  Fighting then commenced country-wide with attacks\non 92 police stations, heralding the end of a phase in Sri Lankan politics.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

By this time the\nCID had got wind of Tillekeratne\u2019s strong connection with the rebels.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Within 48 hours of\nthe JVP uprising and the government declaring an island-wide curfew the then\nSuperintendent of Police Jaffna, Ramachandra Sunderalingam received a message\nfrom Colombo of a suspected  move by Tillekeratne to put sleeping tablets\ninto the water filters at the Elara Camp\u2019s officers mess.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Sunderalingam in\nturn confidentially informed the camp commander that Tillekeratne was wanted on\n\u2018special duty\u2019 (actually a CID interrogation) in Colombo.  Following this\ninformation Tillekeratne was ordered to take meals for the navy personnel\nguarding the Chunnakam power station and thereafter proceed to Palaly airport\nfor the flight to Colombo.  He knew the game was up.  There was no\nquestion he would be arrested as soon as he arrived in Colombo.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

He decided to act\nfast.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

After spending a\nsleepless night Tillekeratne headed for Chunnakam in a navy jeep the following\nmorning (April 7). He was unarmed since the naval authorities did not allow him\nto carry weapons after coming under a cloud of suspicion. The jeep was driven\nby another person.  <\/p>\n\n\n\n

What happened next\nwas like a scene from a gangster movie.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Upon reaching the\npower station Tillekeratne got off the jeep, instructing the driver to keep the\nengine running.  Tillekeratne then walked nonchalantly towards the power\nstation which was guarded by a detachment from the Elara Camp. They knew him\nwell.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

When he entered the\npower station the naval guards who had completed their duty the previous night\nwere relaxing. They had kept their submachine guns aside. Suddenly Tillekeratne\npicked up one of the guns ordered the other navy men to raise their hands.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

All obeyed\nTillekeratne, except Petty Officers Cecil Gunasekera, N.J.T. Costa and another.\nSince the three men were his close friends they thought he was joking. He then\nrepeated his order. This is my last warning. Are you putting up your hands or\nnot?\u201d  But three men ignored him.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Then Tillekeratne\nopened fire, killing two of them \u2013 Gunasekera and Costa – on the spot. \nSeriously injured were several others, among them a Navy PT instructor, T.M.N.\nAbdul who was crippled for life as a result.  He was the father of five\nchildren. His mother had fallen ill and died following the shock she had on\nhearing her son\u2019s cruel fate.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

According to Abdul,\nwhom this writer met eight years later in 1979, Tillekeratne had shot him\nbecause he wanted to \u2018settle\u2019 a score. Abdul was the man earlier detailed to\nescort him to Colombo for the CID interrogation.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Following the\nshooting Tillekeratne, according to Abdul, had forced two other navy men at gun\npoint to load the jeep with all the weapons and ammunition he had seized from\nhis colleagues and accompany him in the vehicle.  Tillekeratne\u2019s aim was\nto join the insurgents waging guerilla war against the State to usher in\n\u2018socialism\u2019.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

At the time of the\nshooting Sunderalingam SP was at his office. It was just two days after the\nJVP\u2019s failed attempt to rescue their leader Rohana Wijeweera from the Jaffna\nPrison. When the telephone rang at the SP\u2019s office it was to inform him of the\nshooting incident at the Chunnakam Power Station. Sunderalingam realized that\neven a moment\u2019s delay would give the wanted man the chance to escape.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Suspecting that he would try to flee\nJaffna, the SP promptly telephoned ASP Mendis manning the Elephant Pass Police\ncheck point to be on the alert for the jeep carrying Tillekeratne.  As\nsoon as the message was received the policemen at the check point along with\narmy personnel waited for the vehicle to appear. A short while later they saw\nthe jeep at a distance. They waited until it came close and then ordered the\ndriver to stop. Their guns were aimed at the jeep.  At first it appeared\nthe vehicle was going to slow down. Suddenly Tillekeratne tried to grab the\nsubmachine gun on his seat. But those manning the check point were faster.\nTheir shots killed Tillekeratne and the driver on the spot. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Everything happened within a matter\nof three minutes, according to Sunderalingam.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

After\nTillekeratne\u2019s death, police searched his personal belongings and found secret\ndocuments and several bottles of sleeping tablets which were to be put into the\nwater filters of the Elara Camp\u2019s officers\u2019 mess.  His plan was to seize\nall weapons and ammunition from camp\u2019s magazine, before joining his JVP\ncomrades after making naval officers unconscious.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Wars and\ninsurrections bring out the best and worst in humans. Those \u2018intellectuals\u2019 who\ncondemn only the State\u2019s counter-terrorism should better keep in mind the\nsaying: When you sow the wind you reap the whirl wind.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Janaka Perera April 5, 2019 marks the 48th Anniversary of the JVP insurgency of 1971 the first ever armed uprising against the Sri Lankan State since the British departed our shores.  It was one of two Southern insurgencies within a span of less than two decades. Both led two generations of youth and many others to […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":true,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[82],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-86968","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-janaka-perera"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/86968","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=86968"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/86968\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=86968"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=86968"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=86968"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}