Midweek Review

AKD in dilemma over anti-terror laws he used to condemn

Published

2 years ago

2024/12/11

President Dissanayake

President Dissanayake’s government promptly utilized the PTA – the first since the presidential election – to deal with those who had been suspected of allegedly planning to mount an attack on Israelis in the Arugam Bay area. The government couldn’t have ignored the alleged threat, especially against the backdrop of the warning issued by the US Embassy here, of what it called a serious risk. In line with the statement, dated Oct. 23, the Embassy imposed travel restrictions on mission personnel as well, while strongly urging US passport holders to avoid the area.

By Shamindra Ferdinando

The Prevention of Terrorism Act (PTA/No 48 of 1979)) that had been introduced in 1979 as a temporary measure by President JRJ in response to emerging threats from separatist terrorists and made into a permanent law in 1982 (No 10 of 1982) attracted considerable public attention over the past few weeks in the wake of the police making arrests under this draconian law.

The issue at hand should be freshly examined against the backdrop of the Janatha Vimukthi Peremauna (JVP), the dominant partner in the newly elected National People’s Power (NPP), having been at the receiving end of that piece of controversial legislation in the ’80s, particularly during their second violent uprising (1987-1990 period).

The JVP constantly demanded the repealing of the PTA at a time the party never dreamt of an opportunity to win a national election under any circumstances. In fact, the abolition of the PTA had been one of the JVP’s main demands throughout the war/insurgency and thereafter. However, now that the JVP-led NPP having had convincingly won the presidential (Sept. 21) and general (Nov. 14) elections and is in the process of consolidating its power, the powers that be have no option but to revisit its previous highly critical stand on the controversial Act.

Can President Anura Kumara Dissanayake, who is also the Commander-in-Chief of the armed forces, in addition to being the Defence Minister, as well as head of the National Security Council (NSC), do without the PTA.

Can the PTA be abolished and whatever existing/future security threats be dealt with other relevant laws, or replaced with a new law acceptable to all political parties represented in Parliament. But, that does not mean that concerns of those outside Parliament should be discarded without proper examination.

President Dissanayake’s government promptly utilized the PTA – the first since the presidential election – to deal with those who had been suspected of allegedly planning to mount an attack on Israelis in the Arugam Bay area. The government couldn’t have ignored the alleged threat, especially against the backdrop of the warning issued by the US Embassy here, of what it called a serious risk. In line with the statement, dated Oct. 23, the Embassy imposed travel restrictions on mission personnel as well, while strongly urging US passport holders to avoid the area.

The government had no option but to invoke the PTA again to deal with those who sought to humiliate the administration over the Mahaveer Naal events conducted in the Northern and Eastern provinces in memory of LTTE leader Velupillai Prabhakaran’s birthday.

Responding to the Mahaveer Naal events, Public Security and Parliamentary Affairs Minister Ananda Wijepala, first time entrant to Parliamen, accused Opposition activists of exploiting the situation to undermine the government. Wijepala, who had served as Anura Kumara Dissanayake’s private secretary when he served as a lawmaker, alleged that the involvement of the New Democratic Front (NDF) in the conspiracy, while shortly, thereafter, law enforcement authorities arrested the administrative secretary of the SLPP, Renuka Perera, for allegedly disseminating false information with regard to Mahaveer Naal.

It would be pertinent to mention that not all those who were apprehended for disseminating such false information been taken in under the PTA.

The issue is whether the government needs a draconian law, like the PTA, to deal with persons circulating videos of LTTE events during the conflict and after.

Apprehending people for circulating videos of such events seemed ridiculous when the Illankai Thamil Arasu Kadchi (ITAK), having recognized the LTTE as the sole representative of the Tamil-speaking people, received an audience with no less a person than President Dissanayake. The meeting between President Dissanayake and the ITAK delegation took place at the Presidential Secretariat amidst the continuing furore over people being arrested for circulating Mahaveer Naal content. Some of the ITAK members recently had paid tribute to the LTTE publicly while the government struggled to deal with bad press over Mahaveer Naal events.

The writer is of the view that commemoration of LTTE cadres should be permitted, regardless of their status. In fact, such events underscored the futility of the LTTE macabre cause. Mahaveer Naal automatically reminds the country of the atrocities that had been perpetrated by the LTTE over the years until their very end on the Vanni east front.

Let me remind those shedding crocodile tears for terrorists of the cold blooded killing of academic Rajani Thiranagama in Jaffna in late Sept 1989 during the deployment of the IPKF. Dr. Thiranagama was shot dead on Sept. 21 while cycling home from the Jaffna University, where she was Head of the Anatomy Department.

Yahapalana

bid to repeal PTA

While in the Opposition, Ranil Wickremesinghe relentlessly campaigned against the PTA. Wickremesinghe had an opportunity to explore the possibility of doing away with the PTA after he facilitated Maithripala Sirisena’s victory at the 2015 presidential election. Wickremesinghe’s broken promise due to delaying of the required action, should be discussed, taking into consideration Western governments’ unbending interest in abolition of the PTA. They felt that in the aftermath of the LTTE’s eradication, Sri Lanka didn’t require such a law.

Since the successful conclusion of the war in May 2009, the Western governments had been putting pressure on war-winning President Mahinda Rajapaksa to abolish the PTA. The JVP, too, backed the Western call to do away with emergency regulations and the PTA. However, President Rajapaksa resisted relentless Western pressures but the Yahapalana government initiated a high profile project to do away with the PTA over a year after the 2015 January presidential election.

Instead of doing away with the PTA as demanded by various interested parties, Wickremesinghe sought to replace the existing law with what he called the Counter Terrorism Act (CTA).

The committee that had been tasked with drafting the policy and legal framework of the proposed law was headed by Sagala Ratnayake, Minister of Law and Order and Southern Development. Obviously Wickremesinghe couldn’t have done away with the PTA without taking adequate provisions to counter terrorism. Wickremesinghe subjected the whole process to the scrutiny of Western governments. Among those invited for discussions on the CTA and an Amendment to the Code of Criminal Procedure Act on Dec. 16, 2016, were Justice Minister Wijeyadasa Rajapakse, Minister Sagala Ratnayake, British High Commissioner James Dauris, French Ambassador Jean-Marin Schus, EU Ambassador Tung-Lai Margue and several other foreign envoys.

However, the Yahapalana government couldn’t go ahead with the project. Wickremesinghe couldn’t muster the required support for his move as the Yahapalana parliamentary group gradually fell apart. By late 2017, the relationship in the coalition between the UNP and Maithripala Sirisena’s SLFP had deteriorated to such an extent, agreement on such a significant piece of proposed legislation seemed very much unlikely. Their decision to go it alone at Local Government elections in early February 2018 sealed the fate of the Yahapalana alliance, and the much touted bid to introduce CTA in place of the PTA, fizzled out.

The Sirisena-Wickremesinghe alliance had been in turmoil since Wickremesinghe’s nominee for the post of Governor Central Bank, Singaporean Arjuna Mahendran, perpetrated the massive Treasury bond scams in Feb. 2015 and March 2016. The humiliating defeat suffered by both the UNP and the SLFP at the Local Government polls effectively ended their partnership while the CTA was put on the back burner. The government had been in such a desperate situation, the top leadership simply could not deal with the CTA and the matter was quickly forgotten.

Having neglected national security to their heart’s content, the UNP leadership relaunched the CTA project in the wake of the 2019 Easter Sunday carnage. The UNP saw an opportunity to pressure political parties represented in Parliament, as well as other interested parties, over the proposed CTA. However, Wickremesinghe’s move hadn’t received much anticipated support as those who opposed the PTA alleged that the new law never really changed the powers granted to law enforcement authorities.

In spite of the Easter Sunday attacks, the opposition to the PTA, and the proposed CTA, remained unyielding. Political parties, civil society and Western governments haven’t been able to reach consensus on anti-terrorism law legislation though all post-war administrations discussed the issues at hand at length.

President Gotabaya Rajapaksa, too, made an effort to amend the PTA. In late January 2022, President Rajapaksa’s Cabinet approved a spate of amendments to the PTA. But, the proposed amendments failed to secure the backing of those concerned about anti-terrorism law. The introduction of amendments meant that President Rajapaksa had absolutely no interest in at least examining Wickremesinghe’s brainchild CTA.

The civil society, legal scholars and other interested parties simply rejected the amendments on the basis the government failed to address their long standing concerns. The Rajapaksa administration in Dec. 2019 withdrew Wickremesinghe’s proposed Counter terrorism Bill to pave the way for a new initiative that was launched in June 2021. Obviously, it hadn’t been a priority for the Rajapaksa administration though under Foreign Minister Prof. G. L. Peiris’s leadership a Cabinet subcommittee deliberated a report prepared by Defence Secretary Gen. Kamal Gunaratne. That bid, too, failed and during Wickremesinghe’s presidency (July 2022-Sept 2024) nothing really happened with regard to the PTA.

New challenges

The European Union has linked the repeal of the PTA with its continuing relationship with Sri Lanka. The EU, in Oct. 2021 during Gotabaya Rajapaksa’s presidencyk told Sri Lanka that the country must amend the PTA that gave law enforcement authorities sweeping powers to arrest and hold suspects, without trial, if it wanted to retain the lucrative GSP-plus trade status with the 27-member economic bloc.

President Dissanayake now faced the daunting task of addressing the concerns of the EU and various other members of the Western world with regard to anti-terrorism laws here.

Dissanayake’s administration cannot ignore the renewed calls for the abolition of the PTA or the introduction of suitable amendments. However, the government cannot weaken Sri Lanka’s defences against terrorism though the LTTE rump is unlikely to pose a conventional military threat. But, the 2019 Easter Sunday carnage proved responsibility on the part of the government to ensure the armed forces, the police and intelligence services had legal safeguards when dealing with terrorism.

*One of the major shortcomings in the amendments proposed by President Gotabaya Rajapaksa, according to civil society groups, is the failure on the part of the amended Bill to address problems with the admissibility of statements and confessions under the PTA. They have repeatedly pointed out provisions of the PTA waived the application of the Evidence Ordinance and there were no safeguards to be followed in recording confessions and statements from suspects.

*Another issue of concern is that the period of 72 hours after arrest and before production before a magistrate had not been amended. They have declared this is a loophole in the PTA that facilitated the torture of those arrested under the PTA while in custody.

*They are also concerned about the absence of sufficient judicial oversight during investigations conducted in terms of the PTA.

*As the definition of the acts which came within the offence of terrorism is of a broad and vague nature, those in authority tend to abuse the PTA. The amendments that had been approved by Gotabaya Rajapaksa’s Cabinet in January 2022 hadn’t addressed concerns expressed by interested parties.

The above were some of the concerns raised by those demanding abolition of the PTA/suitable amendments to the law. Anti-terrorism laws in force in all countries regardless of their status always attract public criticism and can be described as a source of intense debate. Critics say that anti-terrorim laws violate even the basic freedoms enjoyed by the people.

Neighbouring India employs a spate of laws meant to deal with terrorism. Amendments have been introduced over the years and like here these laws have been abused though stakeholders accept the need for tough anti-terrorism laws to meet security challenges. India has gone to the extent of neutralizing those living overseas in case New Delhi felt they posed a threat. The ongoing controversy involving India and Canada over the alleged hit ordered by New Delhi in Vancouver is a case in point.

Sri Lanka, under any circumstances, cannot afford to do away with the PTA altogether. However, the government, in consultation with political parties represented in Parliament, should take tangible measures to ensure law enforcement didn’t deliberately abuse PTA for political or private purposes. There is no point in denying the fact that the PTA had been grossly abused over the years by all governments. Perpetrators hadn’t been properly dealt with thereby creating an environment for such abuses. However, the PTA had provided invaluable support for law enforcement operations as successive governments battled Northern and Southern terrorists.

During the war against the LTTE, the PTA had been a critical part of the government arsenal. Interrogation of suspects had been part of the overall security strategy meant to thwart attacks as law enforcement authorities battled LTTE terrorists assigned for covert operations in the South and especially suicide bombings.

Terrorist infiltration couldn’t have been averted without continuous operations, based on available information. The government had no option but to discourage people from the Northern and Eastern provinces from taking up residence in Colombo and its suburbs, as well as other predominantly Sinhala areas, as part of the overall measures to neutralize the threats on soft targets.

The LTTE targeted public transport in a bid to mount pressure on the government as it was retreating on the battlefield.

In spite of allegations of its misuse and abuse, the PTA had been quite useful in combating Southern and Northern terrorism. That is the undeniable truth. Whatever its shortcomings, the PTA cannot be done away with unless the government introduces a new anti-terrorism law that meets security requirements, in a challenging environment.

Though the West impose pressure on countries like Sri Lanka to undo such laws, they themselves have introduced even much harsher laws like the Homeland Security Act 2002 passed by the USA, primarily in reaction to the 9/11 attacks there, in the previous year, by Muslim terrorists, that claimed few thousand lives and somewhat similar draconian laws were introduced in England after the bomb attacks in London soon afterwards. But there is hardly a whimper from our Foreign Ministry that generally plays deaf and dumb like our diplomats about such unfair demands from us by the West.

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Midweek Review

Legacy of enforced disappearances: Vital facts conveniently forgotten to whitewash LTTE and India

Published

1 day ago

2026/09/9

Sahan Weerasooriya

One-time child soldier Jesuthasan Antonythasan poses with actresses Claudine Vinasithamby and Kalieaswari Srinivasan during a photocall for the film "Dheepan" at the 68th Cannes Film Festival in Cannes. The movie won the Palme d'Or in 2015. Antonythasan fought for the LTTE terrorist group before fleeing Sri Lanka and reached France in 1993. Of those categorised as missing, perhaps he is the most famous.

Those demanding accountability from Sri Lanka for war crimes allegations are strangely silent on atrocities committed by the LTTE. On the orders of its leader Velupillai Prabhakaran, the LTTE killed hundreds of members belonging to rival terrorist groups. It assassinated President Ranasinghe Premadsasa, almost succeeded in assassinating President Chandrika Bandaranaike Kumaratunga and made attempts on President Mahinda Rajapaksa. But, the indiscriminate use of children as cannon fodder went unnoticed. How many children, forcibly recruited into their ranks, perished in fighting? And, lastly, shouldn’t the Tamil community hold the Illankai Thamil Arasu Kadchi (ITAK)-led now defunct Tamil National Alliance, that recognised the LTTE in 2001 as the sole representative of the Tamil speaking people, responsible for death and destruction caused since 2001?

By Shamindra Ferdinando

Working Group on Enforced or Involuntary Disappearances (WGEID) representative Ana Lorena Delgadillo Pérez, and head of the Association of Relatives of Enforced Disappearances (ARED) Yogarasa Kanagaranjini, on 30 August, opened an exhibition at the Thanthai Selva Auditorium in Jaffna. The exhibition, appropriately named ‘Long Road for Justice,’ coincided with the International Day for Victims of Enforced Disappearances.

Pérez later addressed a conference held therein where the responsibility on the part of Sri Lanka was stressed.

Civil society activist Sunanda Deshapriya, in an article titled ‘Sri Lanka’s Disappeared: Where Do We Go from Here?’ carried in Jaffna Monitor, dealt with missing persons issue. Deshapriya focused on the North-East war (https://www.jaffnamonitor.com/sri-lankas-disappeared-where-do-we-go-from-here/)

The ICRC, Colombo, issued a statement regarding the International Day of the Disappeared. When the writer sought the number of missing persons in the country, Ruwanthi Jayasundare, Head of Communications, said that they had a caseload of 15,000 registered tracing requests (1983-2009) but she asserted that the actual number of missing was far bigger (https://island.lk/icrs-sustained-and-collective-efforts-critical-to-address-issue-of-missing-persons/)

Perhaps, many people wouldn’t know that the ICRC arrived here in 1989 during the second Janatha Vimukthi Peramuna (JVP) terror campaign in the wake of Indian military intervention here. The much discussed issue of disappearances must be appropriately dealt with, taking into consideration the relevant factors. At the time of their deployment here, President Ranasinghe Premadasa had been engaged in direct talks with the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE) and the Geneva-headquartered body never expected a gruesome outbreak of violence. It would be pertinent to mention that within weeks after the ICRC’s arrival here, the JVP was crushed with brute force as it, too, resorted to senseless violence. The counter violence unleashed by the state apparatus was such that the then Marxist group’s top leadership was killed, except for Somawansa Amarasinghe, who escaped, with Indian help, in February 1990, and remained in exile till late 2001.

The ICRC deployment took place in mid October, 1989, and JVP leader Rohana Wijeweera was captured in the second week of November, at Ulapone, and shot in custody, and was allegedly cremated alive at the Borella cemetery.

In fact, at the time the ICRC arrived here, the JVP was on its last legs. The UNP government never bothered to hand over the bodies of slain JVP cadres to their families. Those who had been listed missing at that time were no longer in the land of the living, by the time the ICRC brought its operation in the South to an end.

What the country never expected was a fresh flare-up in the northern and eastern regions. The LTTE resumed large-scale hostilities, in June, after the Indian Army pulled out from Sri Lanka in late March 1990. Interestingly, some of those demanding justice for the missing/disappeared are conveniently silent about the disappearances during the Indian Army deployment here (July 1987 to March 1990).

Soon after hostilities erupted in the northern and eastern regions, following a 14-month truce between President Ranasinghe Premadasa and LTTE leader Velupillai Prabhakaran (May 1989 to June 1990), the ICRC was invited to open offices in that region. There had been excesses on the part of the military and law enforcement authorities as the government battled the LTTE, the world’s most ruthless terrorist organisation as assessed by none other than the US Federal Bureau of Investigation.

Yet Sri Lanka must earnestly address accountability issues and take meaningful measures to compensate the families of the innocents.

However, the Tamil community must come to terms with the reality that the vast majority of dead were members of the LTTE. The LTTE enjoyed considerable firepower as it literally wielded a conventional fighting capability, which even included a fledgling air force and directly challenged the government, and the armed forces had no option but to fight back. Obviously, the LTTE, that achieved significant battlefield successes over the years, never expected the almost non-stop three-year-long offensive that brought the war to an end in May 2009. Disappearances became exceptionally an important issue in the overall agenda pursued by the Tamil Diaspora and Tamil speaking political parties here only after the LTTE’s eradication.

Multiple reasons

In September 1990, several months after the Indian Army was literally forced to pull out from Sri Lanka as Tigers fought back the mighty IPKF to a standstill, while President Premadasa, too, made it clear that they were no longer welcome here, Amnesty International (AI) documented 43 cases of disappearances. According to the London headquartered AI, the majority of these disappearances happened in the Jaffna peninsula, following the outbreak of fighting in October 1989. The Indian Army launched ‘Operation Pawan’ meant to disarm the LTTE in line with the Indo-Lanka Accord, signed on 29 July, 1987.

During the Indian Army deployment here (1987 July to 1990 March), the Sri Lankan armed forces were confined to their barracks in the North and East. The AI accused the Indian Army of torture, extrajudicial executions and disappearances. The deaths of nearly 1,500 Indian officers and men, and injuries to approximately 3,000 others during the Indian deployment here, underscored the ferocity of the situation.

The Indian Army carried out reprisals, following LTTE attacks in both provinces. The Indian Army was also accused of sexual violence. Perhaps, the August 1989 Valvettithurai orgy of violence, during which Indian soldiers killed civilians, tortured detainees, committed sexual violence, and systematically destroyed homes and businesses, while the town was under curfew, was the worst case.

In October, 2025, the International Truth and Justice Project (ITJP) presented a detailed reparations claim, in association with the Valvettithurai Citizens’ Committee, to the Sri Lankan Office for Reparations, requesting USD $15 million (LKR 4.5 billion) for victims of a 1989 orgy of violence committed by the IPKF where at least 66 civilians were killed and 34 injured.

There hadn’t been a previous instance of a comprehensive compensation claim for such a wartime crime. Thousands of LTTE cadres, some of them trained in India, and civilians, perished in Indian Army action. The Indian Peace Keeping Force (IPKF) earned such a bad reputation it came to be dubbed the Indian People Killing Force.

The war in Sri Lanka, or whatever one chooses to call it, should be examined in the context of a high profile Indian destabilisation project ordered by Premier Indira Gandhi. Over a year after the Indian Army pullout, the LTTE assassinated Rajiv Gandhi, by then out of power, but he was the person Velupillai Prabhakaran held responsible for the Indian Army deployment in Sri Lanka. Following Gandhi’s assassination, India hunted down the LTTE team, involved in the operation, carried out by a female suicide cadre.

The LTTE forgot the Indian role in the transformation of the Tamil separatist terrorist movement to a deadly conventional threat. If not for the despicable Indian action, Sri Lanka wouldn’t have been hauled up before the Geneva-based United Nations Human Rights Council (UNHRC). That is the unpalatable truth.

How many Sri Lankan Tamils disappeared during weapons training in India? Did India investigate such disappearances as well as deaths caused by fighting among rival Tamil terrorist groups operating in India at that time? Among the groups that had been armed by India were PLOTE (People’s Liberation Organisation of Tamil Eelam), EPRLF (Eelam People’s Revolutionary Liberation Front) and TELO (Tamil Eelam Liberation Organisation) responsible for quite a significant number of killings and human rights violations.

India never accepted responsibility for the PLOTE raid on the Maldives on a contract to topple the then Maldivian PM Gayoom’s government given by a domestic rival in early November, 1988. Shouldn’t New Delhi at least apologise for the sea borne raid on the Maldives that resulted in deaths of Maldivians, as well as raiders? The Indian Navy sank a ship commandeered by the attackers fleeing the Maldives after air borne Indian troops brought the situation under control.

The Indian and global media praised swift Indian intervention but ignored two key factors, namely (i) the operation targeting Maldivian President Maumoon Abdul Gayoom was mounted by one of the groups trained, armed and deployed by India and (ii) two trawlers carrying the raiding party left the northern part of Sri Lanka, at that time held by the Indian Army.

The writer had the opportunity, in November, 2011, to interview the Maldivian businessman, Abdullah Luthufee, who convinced the PLOTE leader Uma Maheswaran to carry out the operation. (Male plot leader speaks out 3 November, 2011, Rajiv saved us from Gayoom-Male coup leader 4 November 2011 and How Luthufee moved SAARC venue from Male to Addu 11 Nov 2011) dealt with the operation that should have drawn international attention to the Indian destabilisation project. Let me stress that some PLOTE cadres perished when the Indian Navy sank the vessel commandeered by the fleeing PLOTE cadres. They were among those who had been listed missing during the conflict.

Australian and US interventions

One-time top JVPer Kumar Gunaratnam secret arrival in Sri Lanka as an Australian Citizen Noel Mudalige, in early September, 2011, emphasised the issuance of foreign passports in assumed names to Sri Lankans under controversial circumstances. The writer exclusively reported how the head of the breakaway JVP faction, known as the Frontline Socialist Party (FSP), arrived here. The Australian High Commission in Sri Lanka acted swiftly and decisively when Gunaratnam disappeared after entering the country, using Australian passport bearing number N 1016123 on September 4, 2011 (https://dbsjeyaraj.com/dbsj/?p=43914). The writer dealt with the same issue again in August 2016 (https://dbsjeyaraj.com/dbsj/?p=47936).

Among thousands of Sri Lankans, now having foreign citizenship, there can be many people listed here as “missing/forcibly” disappeared. Western governments never helped Sri Lanka to establish the real identities of Sri Lankans living abroad, under assumed names. If Gunaratnam never acted in a manner inimical to the JVP, he could have easily lived a comfortable life in Australia as Sinhala Buddhist Noel Mudalige.

There had been many interesting stories of those categorised as missing/dead turning up in the West, under new identities. One of the most intriguing ones, is about an ex-LTTE terrorist turned Frenchman Antonythasan Jesuthasan, the lead actor in Dheepen that won the prestigious Palme d’Or at the 2015 Cannes Film Festival.

Internationally acclaimed Jacques Audiard directed the movie about three Sri Lankans who formed a fake family to escape the war and to secure asylum in France. Antonythasan Jesuthasan’s performance in Dheepan earned him a Best Actor nomination at the 2016 César Awards (the French equivalent of the Oscars). Jesuthasan is the only ex-LTTE terrorist to receive international acclaim as an actor.

In an interview with Tom Seymour (Dheepan’s Antonythasan Jesuthasan: from Tamil Tiger to star of a Palme d’Or winner in The Guardian) posted online on March 31, 2016, transformed Frenchman Jesuthasan, unwittingly revealed how he deceived the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) to secure political asylum. Seymour reported that Jesuthasan, after having shown him a dense lattice of scars on his forearm, declared: “I did those to myself. I was 22, and I had spent years trying to come to the west. I wanted to get a fake French passport, but I had to be accepted as a refugee. I went to the UNHCR [the UN High Commissioner for Refugees], but they wouldn’t believe my story. So I cut myself, and held up my arm, and said to them: ‘Look at my blood. This is my word.”

Jesuthasan is just one among thousands who obtained political asylum on false claims. Jesuthasan ended up as the star of Dheepan, directed by Jacques Audiard, possibly France’s most celebrated modern director. There cannot be a better example than Jesuthasan to highlight the web of deceit pertaining to the vast majority of those who successfully secured political asylum. But, the Sri Lanka Foreign Ministry never bothered to set the record straight. Born in Allaipiddy, on the Velanaitivu islet, Jesuthasan claimed he fought the Sri Lanka Army in August 1990 and subsequently fled the country and managed to reach France.

But, the case of Kathiravel Thayapararajah is one of the most controversial cases. Thayapararajah had been involved in a Tamil Diaspora funded project in Kilinochchi during Eelam war IV. He couldn’t have secured the Diaspora assignment without the approval of the LTTE and remained in the Vanni during the war. He disappeared in September 2009.

His disappearance prompted a section of the media, as well as some international NGOs, to accuse the Directorate of Military Intelligence (DMI) of executing him. No less a person than the then US Assistant Secretary of State for South Asian Affairs and one-time US Ambassador in Colombo, Robert O. Blake, inquired about the missing person.

The University Teachers for Human Rights (Jaffna), the Australian Government Refugee Review Tribunal, Tamilnet and the European Centre for Constitutional and Human Rights among others blamed the Sri Lankan intelligence for the disappearance. However, the Indian media, in May, 2014, revealed Thayapararajah’s arrest though they didn’t know at the time that he was the person who was supposed to have been killed by the Sri Lankan Intelligence. At the time Indian police apprehended Thayapararajah, at Arichamunai off Dhanuskodi, after arriving there in a boat from Sri Lanka, he had been with notorious female human smuggler Uthayakala. She claimed Thayapararajah was her second husband.

That chance detection exposed a blatant lie propagated over the years. The then Head of Missing Persons Commission, retired High Court Judge Maxwell Paranagama, is also on record as having called for international cooperation to trace persons living overseas under new identities. Paranagama told the writer that at that time both the international community, including the ICRC, had declined to help Sri Lanka identify those taking cover behind new identities.

Chemmani mass graves

Sri Lanka needs to investigate war crimes allegations, particularly the high profile Chemmani mass grave. The country cannot ignore the continuing accusations with the international media taking advantage of the situation to tarnish the country, especially the Rajapaksa rule. It must be a way of the West taking revenge from the Rajapaksas for going against their wish to save the bold thirsty Tigers. It is like their logic that Israel can do no wrong!

The CNN dealt with the Chemmani issue while the International Commission of Jurists (ICJ), in July last year, called for what it claimed as victim-centred investigation into the alleged mass graves in compliance with international law and standards.

Tamil political parties, too, repeatedly demanded tangible action against the perpetrators. The Chemmani mass grave site drew national and international attention in 1998 following the confession of a soldier implicated in the rape and murder of schoolgirl Krishanthy Kumaraswamy. Chemmani has become a powerful and painful symbol of the country’s war-torn past.

Krishanthy Kumaraswamy was raped and killed by soldiers on the 7th of September, 1996. The same group of soldiers later killed her mother, her younger brother and a family friend who went out searching for the teenager.

An excavation, in 1999, led to the recovery of 15 sets of remains, and then the matter was allowed to rest for about a quarter of a century. On the orders of the Jaffna Magistrate’s court, a fresh excavation was ordered last year, following the chance recovery of some skeletal remains and so far nearly 600 sets of human remains have been found, among them children and infants. Tamil media have declared Chemmani as the largest mass grave found in Sri Lanka.

It would be pertinent to mention that some time back the Army was accused of the Mannar mass graves but investigations undertaken by the Office of Missing Persons (OMP), with international expertise, proved the claims false. Bone fragment samples were submitted to Beta Analytic, a specialised US radiocarbon-dating laboratory. This happened during the Yahapalana administration (2015-2019) Later, the lab indicated that the tested bone samples dated back to the period between 1499 and 1719 AD (the 15th to 18th century). That brought an end to the Mannar mass graves hoax.

Whatever the circumstances, the government cannot remain silent regarding the Chemmani mass graves. The area that had been under Security Forces Headquarters, Jaffna continues to receive public attention, both here and abroad. The Army will have to address the issue without further delay. Let me stress the importance of investigating the atrocities perpetrated by others, namely the Indian Army for which the responsibility lies with the government of India as well as the LTTE, and over half a dozen other terrorist groups that subsequently entered the political mainstream.

The formation of Tamil National Army (TNA) by India before the Indian Army pullout by March 1990, too, must receive the attention of Sri Lanka as well the concerned international community. Having totally destabilised the smaller neighbouring county by arming scores of terrorist groups, New Delhi went a step further by the formation of the TNA meant to protect Varatharaja Perumal’s North-East provincial administration.

In spite of President Ranasinghe Premadasa drawing strong criticism for arming the LTTE against the Indian Army, in hindsight, if not for his controversial decision, India’s proxy, TNA may have taken root. Whatever various parties say today, the TNA had been formed to ensure the continuation of the deeply unpopular Perumal’s administration that went to the extent of forcible conscription. India can never absolve itself of responsibility for what it did in Sri Lanka. The destabilisation project, largely influenced by the then Premier Indira Gandhi’s concerns over the developing situation in Tamil Nadu, caused massive death and destruction. No less a person than J.N. Dixit, who served as their High Commissioner in Colombo (1985 to 1989), and later appointed National Security Advisor (2004 to 2005) disclosed in his memoirs ‘Makers of India’s Foreign Policy: Raja Ram Mohun to Yashwant Sinha’, Indira’s Gandhi’s intervention. The late Dixit in no uncertain terms blamed her for Indian intervention in Sri Lanka.

Midweek Review

A street where Sri Lankan stories found their readers

Published

1 day ago

2026/09/9

Sahan Weerasooriya

Margaret Richardson and Asanka de Mel / Ashok Ferrey

By Ifham Nizam

Pictures by Nishan S Priyantha and Kamal Bogoda

Ashok Ferrey took readers into an older Colombo through Colpetty People. Vivimarie Vanderpoorten opened the door to the personal stories behind her poetry. Andrew Fidel Fernando brought cricket, culture and the distinctive world of Sri Lankan school cricket into the conversation, while Ramya Jirasinghe spoke candidly about the long and often difficult road from writing a manuscript to seeing it published.

Then came Margaret Richardson and Asanka de Mel, whose conversation moved from literature to the question of where Sri Lanka should be by 2048.

These were among the voices that gave life to Fairway Street of Stories, a new initiative that sought to bring Sri Lankan English-language writers closer to their readers.

But behind the gathering of authors, readers, books, children, book clubs and aspiring writers was a bigger idea—the brainchild of Amendra Haputhanthri, Director of Sarasavi Bookshop (Pvt) Ltd.

For Haputhanthri, Fairway Street of Stories is not merely another literary event. It is part of a much larger attempt to create a marketplace for Sri Lankan talent and to persuade readers to discover stories that are unmistakably their own.

“Usually, when we have exhibitions, such as the Colombo Book Fair, we always think about what sells the most. Here, we wanted to create a niche market for people who want to read Sri Lankan writing,” she said.

And the first event demonstrated just how wide that literary world can be.

Stories from a Sri Lanka we know

Haputhanthri believes one of the greatest strengths of Sri Lankan English writing is its sense of place.

A thriller set in an unfamiliar foreign city may be entertaining. But a thriller unfolding at the Galle Face Hotel or Mount Lavinia Hotel carries another kind of intimacy for a Sri Lankan reader.

“You have familiar words and actual real-world places that we have been to. There will be a connection with the book,” she said.

That connection can be even more powerful when the story takes readers into places and experiences that are disappearing.

This is one reason she admires Ferrey’s work.

During his Fairway session, Ferrey, together with Tanya de Mel, offered readers an engaging glimpse into the world behind Colpetty People and the Colombo it captures.

Amendra Haputhanthri (extreme left) with winners

For Haputhanthri, Ferrey’s writing is also a record of a rapidly changing city.

“Even Sri Lanka is changing very rapidly. Within Colombo also, the environment is rapidly changing, and that is being addressed nicely in the books of Ashok Ferrey,” she said.

Literature, in that sense, becomes more than entertainment.

It becomes memory.

The stories behind the poems

Vivimarie Vanderpoorten offered a very different literary experience.

Haputhanthri describes her as one of the country’s outstanding contemporary talents, particularly because of the personal histories embedded in her poetry.

A poem on a page may be only a few lines long. But behind those lines can lie an entire life.

Vanderpoorten spoke about those experiences at Fairway, including deeply disturbing events she had witnessed during her university years.

For Haputhanthri, hearing those stories transformed the poems.

“All her stories, there is a back story. All her poems, there is a back story,” she said.

She believes such conversations are precisely what literary events should create—a space where readers can move beyond the printed page and understand the human experience that produced it.

She also encouraged people to read poetry, even if only one poetry collection a year.

Poetry, she believes, forces readers to think beyond what is immediately presented.

“It gives you the ability to think out of the box,” she said.

Cricket is more than a score

Andrew Fidel Fernando brought yet another dimension to the event.

For someone who writes and comments on international cricket, his work naturally takes readers into the world of the game. But Haputhanthri noted that Fernando’s writing also captures the culture surrounding cricket in different countries.

And Sri Lanka has a particularly richstory to tell.

Andrew Fidel Fernando / Dr. Vivimarie Vanderpoorten

For Haputhanthri, the island’s school-cricket culture is something the world should know more about.

“We are the best in the world when it comes to having a culture for school cricket. It is something very unique to our country,” she said.

She even suggested that writers interested in Sri Lankan cricket should explore this largely distinctive phenomenon in greater depth.

Because literature can sometimes reveal what statistics cannot.

A schoolboy walking onto a cricket ground carries with him a school, a city, friendships, rivalries, family expectations and an entire culture.

From manuscript to book

Ramya Jirasinghe’s contribution was particularly relevant to aspiring writers.

She spoke about her own journey and the realities of getting a book published.

Her experience demonstrated that literary success rarely happens overnight.

Winning recognition is one thing. Turning a manuscript into an internationally published book is another.

For emerging writers listening to her, the message was clear: writing requires patience, revision and persistence.

Haputhanthri knows that process well.

Writers, she said, can be rejected repeatedly—even at international level.

And translations create another layer of difficulty.

Sometimes an author reads a translation of his or her work and says: “This doesn’t have my voice.”

That, Haputhanthri acknowledged, illustrates how complex the journey from an original manuscript to another language can be.

A speech from the future

Carmel Miranda

Asanka de Mel and Margaret Richardson brought another perspective to Fairway.

De Mel’s 2048: A Speech from 2048 looks towards the centenary of Sri Lanka’s independence and asks why the country has not yet become a developed nation.

But his message, as Haputhanthri interpreted it, was not one of resignation.

Sri Lanka should not allow its small geographical size to become a psychological limitation.

De Mel’s own journey—from two decades in Silicon Valley to returning to Sri Lanka and embarking on entrepreneurial ventures—was offered as an example of what persistence and confidence can achieve.

For Haputhanthri, it reinforced one of the central lessons of both writing and life.

“There is no shortcut in life,” she said.

Stories that preserve a country

Fairway Street of Stories also reflected Haputhanthri’s belief that literature can preserve aspects of Sri Lankan identity that are increasingly vulnerable.

She spoke about Angampora, Beeralu weaving, traditional culture and historical stories.

Even the country’s royal heritage can become a gateway for a new generation to understand the island’s past.

She recalled seeing foreign visitors browsing books about Sri Lankan kings.

Those books were doing more than recounting history. They were presenting the story of a country with a long and complicated heritage.

Haputhanthri believes Sri Lankan literature can perform a similar role internationally.

“Our stories should also reach people in the same way our food and cultural experiences have reached the world,” she said.

She recalled meeting two foreigners who had visited Sri Lanka around 156 times.

Their extraordinary attachment to the country reminded her that Sri Lanka’s culture has an ability to attract people repeatedly.

The stories of the country, she believes, deserve the same reach.

The problem is not the e-book

Ramya Jirasinghe (third from left)

Yet while Haputhanthri is passionate about books, she is equally concerned about the future of reading.

She does not believe e-books are necessarily the enemy.

“If people are reading an e-version, as long as they are reading something valuable, that will add something to you,” she said.

The bigger threat, in her view, is the endless scrolling culture of the smartphone.

“Scrolling on the phone reduces your attention span and you can’t do any sort of deep work,” she said.

She has observed this challenge among young people entering the workplace and believes sustained concentration is increasingly difficult.

But her answer is not to blame young people.

It is to begin much earlier—with parents and teachers.

“Whatever the parents read, the children also will read,” she said.

‘Readers Are Not Born, They Are Created’

That belief is now developing into another initiative.

Haputhanthri is working on a programme titled ‘Readers Are Not Born, They Are Created’, which she hopes to take from school to school and community to community.

The target will be parents as much as children.

The message is that reading habits are cultivated. They are demonstrated, encouraged and nurtured.

She also hopes to involve children who have themselves developed through reading, allowing them to share their experiences with others.

For Haputhanthri, the issue is deeply personal.

“I would credit everything that I have today, and everything I am today, because of reading,” she said.

She believes avid readers develop empathy, creativity and critical thinking—qualities that are increasingly valuable in a world dominated by information but often short on attention.

Beyond one literary weekend

Fairway Street of Stories, therefore, is not intended to remain a once-a-year literary celebration.

Haputhanthri wants to see activities connected with reading and books continue throughout the year.

A bargain book sale is among the ideas being considered, making use of books from Sarasavi’s extensive network of branches that may have suffered minor damage or discolouration while remaining on shelves.

The next major event will be the book fair, followed by further initiatives.

But the larger ambition goes beyond sales.

It is about discovery.

A reader discovering a Sri Lankan writer.

A child discovering poetry.

An aspiring author discovering that rejection is not the end.

A foreign visitor discovering that Sri Lanka’s stories are as rich as its food, landscapes and traditions.

And a country discovering itself in its own books.

That is perhaps the most significant contribution of Fairway Street of Stories.

Because the authors who gathered there did more than talk about their books.

They demonstrated the many ways in which Sri Lanka can be written, remembered and imagined.

And behind that gathering was Amendra Haputhanthri’s conviction that these stories deserve not only a place on a bookshelf, but a place in the minds of readers—and eventually, a place in the wider world.