Midweek Review

Statue for LTTE strategist in Paris

Published

1 year ago

2025/07/23

A framed photograph of Balasingham placed at the proposed site for the construction of statue in memory of LTTE theoretician (pics courtesy Tamil Guardian

A steady influx of Sri Lankan Tamils, seeking better life in Europe, Scandinavian countries, and Canada, gave the Diaspora wherewithal to pressure foreign political parties. The influential Tamil Diaspora had the means to secure the direct support of foreign lawmakers who raised the Sri Lankan issue at their respective legislatures. Now they have lawmakers of Lankan origin. One of them is Sathiyasangary, now known as Gary Anandasangaree, the incumbent Minister of Public Safety of Labour Premier Mark Carney’s new Cabinet. Gary, an Attorney-at-Law by profession, will oversee agencies tasked with Canada’s national security, including the Canada Border Services Agency, Royal Canadian Mounted Police, and the Canadian Security Intelligence Service. Gary previously served as the Minister of Justice and Attorney General. Having first entered Parliament in 2015, Gary has come a very long way to receive a top Cabinet portfolio in Canada.

The Tamil Guardian recently announced the laying of a foundation stone for a statue of Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE) theoretician Anton Balasingham in the Paris suburb Bondy. Bondy Mayor Stephen Hervé was present on the occasion along with several other members of the city council.

The declaration was made in spite of the LTTE still being a proscribed organisation in France and the European Union.

The Editor of the Tamil Guardian, Dr. Thusiyan Nandakumar, declared “Bala anna remains one of the most significant figures in the history of the Tamil struggle.”

Two days after the foundation-laying ceremony, the French Embassy in Colombo celebrated French National Day, aka Bastille Day, with a grand reception at the Galle Face Hotel. Among those who had been invited were Deputy Defence Minister Maj. Gen. (retd.) Aruna Jayasekera and Defence Secretary Air Vice Marshal (retd.) Sampath Thuyakontha. It would be interesting to know whether the National People’s Power (NPP) government had been at least aware of the controversial French move at the time of the event at the Galle Face Hotel.

The participation of Bondy Mayor in the foundation laying ceremony for the Balasingham statue exposed the French duplicity. Over 17 years after the successful conclusion of the war against the LTTE and 19 years after the demise of Balasingham, France has paved the way for a statue of a man who played a significant role in promoting and encouraging terrorism. In fact, his Aussie wife, Adele, was a regular feature at passing out ceremonies for Tiger female recruits, each of whom was garlanded by Adele with their trade mark suicide capsule, notwithstanding the fact some of them were child soldiers.

The world cannot differentiate Balasingham from the rest of the LTTE. Sri Lanka must take up this issue with France. It would be pertinent to mention that France, in April 2009, joined the UK in a bizarre attempt to compel President Mahinda Rajapaksa to call off the combined security forces campaign on the Vanni front. The then French Foreign Minister Bernard Kouchner, in the company of his British counterpart David Miliband, met President Rajapaksa, at Chandrikawewa, in a last ditch bid to throw a lifeline to the LTTE. If not for the courageous and bold stand taken by President Rajapaksa, the French and the British would have managed to thwart the ground offensive that brought the war to an end just weeks after their failed bid.

French political parties, like the British counterparts, always sought to please the Tamil Diaspora for obvious reasons. French voters, of Sri Lankan origin, brazenly exploited political parties there to advance their macabre cause. The Bondy Mayor’s presence at the foundation-laying ceremony for Balasingham’s statue underscored the continuing difficulties faced by Sri Lanka as Western powers backed Tamil Diaspora efforts meant to humiliate the war-winning country.

The Balasingham statue project seemed to be quite a calculated move to garner international support for the separatist cause here.

Regardless of the eradication of the LTTTE’s conventional fighting capacity, as well as the utter destruction of its naval and air wings by May 2009, the Tamil Diaspora managed to pursue its campaign, thanks to its growing voter base. A steady influx of Sri Lankan Tamils, seeking better life in Europe, Scandinavian countries, and Canada, gave the Diaspora wherewithal to pressure foreign political parties. The influential Tamil Diaspora had the means to secure the direct support of foreign lawmakers who raised the Sri Lankan issue at their respective legislatures. Now they have lawmakers of Lankan origin. One of them is Sathiyasangary, now known as Gary Anandasangaree, the incumbent Minister of Public Safety of Labour Premier Mark Carney’s new Cabinet. Gary, an Attorney-at-Law by profession, will oversee agencies tasked with Canada’s national security, including the Canada Border Services Agency, Royal Canadian Mounted Police, and the Canadian Security Intelligence Service. Gary previously served as the Minister of Justice and Attorney General. Having first entered Parliament in 2015, Gary has come a very long way to receive a top Cabinet portfolio in Canada. In addition to him, there is another lawmaker of Lankan origin in the current Parliament.

The Canadian Parliament declaration in May 2022 that Sri Lanka perpetrated genocide during the war underscored the absolute power the Canadian Tamil Diaspora exercised over political parties therein. Canada went a step further in the following year when in January Ottawa imposed sanctions on former Presidents Mahinda and Gotabaya Rajapaksa over “gross and systematic violations of human rights.”

Canada ignored Sri Lanka’s feeble protests as political parties, represented in Parliament, whatever their differences, remained united in their support to the Sri Lanka separatist project. The way Canada promoted Khalistani groups which advocated a separate Sikh state in India, even at the expense of a powerful nuclear capable country, must help us to understand the difficult situation we are in.

Balasingham’s legacy

Anton Stanislaus Balasingham died at his own London home on 14 December, 2006. The Jaffna-born LTTE strategist was 68 years of age at the time of his demise. LTTE leader Veluppillai Prabhakaran conferred on Balasingham the title ‘Thesathin Kural’ (Voice of the Nation) posthumously.

Balasingham succumbed to cancer at the onset of Eelam War IV. The LTTE remained supremely confident of its capacity to withstand the combined security forces offensive. Their failure to assassinate Army Chief Lt. Gen. Sarath Fonseka and Defence Secretary Gotabaya Rajapaksa, in late April 2006, and early October 2006, contributed to the overall collapse of strategy. The armed forces counter attacks were heavy and determined and, over a period of two years and 10 months, the government forces decimated the LTTE. Balasingham was fortunate not to know the ultimate fate of those who were persuaded by him and others of his ilk to wage mainly raw terror campaigns of death and destruction for over three decades.

By the time Balasingham passed away, the LTTE had lost only Sampur but was fighting back strongly in the Northern and Eastern theatres. In early October 2006, the LTTE caused significant losses, both in terms of men and material, on the Army trying to evict Tigers from the Muhamalai line.

The Island coverage of the disastrous Muhamalai battle infuriated Lt. General Fonseka so much he called the writer to his heavily guarded office to express his grave displeasure. The then Military Spokesman Brigadier Udaya Nanayakkara was present at that meeting where the Army Chief declared that the decision to launch the operation was his own.

Let us get back to Balasingham, the public face of the terrorist organisation that was once considered invincible. Balasingham, who also served as the LTTE’s chief negotiator, wielded immense power and was considered one of the few allowed unhindered access to Prabhakaran.

Those who conveniently call Balasingham thr LTTE’s theoretician, or political strategist, forget that the internationally proscribed organisation was responsible for thousands of deaths, including Sri Lankan politicians, former Indian Premier Rajiv Gandhi, and forced recruitment of children. Balasingham cannot, under any circumstances, be absolved of his responsibility for the LTTE’s murderous actions.

France should have forthrightly denied permission for Bondy city council to build a statue for Balasingham. Although the writer had contacted Balasingham over the phone a couple of times in the late ’80s, the top Tiger agreed for an exclusive interview in the second week of October 1989. During the interview, at his suite at the Galadari Meridien, Colombo, Balasingham basically emphasised what his organisation expected President Ranasinghe Premadasa to do: (1) dissolve the temporarily merged North-East Provincial Council, headed by Varatharaja Perumal and (2) conduct fresh elections once the Indian Army pulled out of the Northern and Eastern Provinces. The Tiger theoretician also flayed the Indian strategy here. He was exceptionally harsh on New Delhi’s utterly disgraceful decision to form the ‘Tamil National Army’ to prop up Perumal’s fragile administration. Such a meeting wouldn’t have been possible if not for direct negotiations between President Premadasa and the LTTE (May 1989-June 1990) during the deployment of the Indian Army here (July 1987 to March 1990).

It was published under the heading “LTTE doubts Indian intentions in Sri Lanka” in The Sunday Island of 15 October, 1989.

Balasingham appreciated The Sunday Island coverage and a couple of weeks later offered the writer an opportunity to meet the LTTE’s number two Gopalswamy Mahendraraja, alias Mahattaya. Only after arriving in Vavuniya, in the morning train, the writer realised that except the late veteran journalist Rita Sebastian, who, over the years, contributed to The Indian Express, Inter Press Service, Kyodo news agency, The Sunday Times, etc., the rest were Indian journalists (LTTE pledges to eliminate pro-Indian Tamil groups, The Island, January 10, 1990) and (In Tiger country, The Sunday Island, January 14, 1990).

Balasingham couldn’t have been unaware of Prabhakaran’s intention to unleash his terror group with a vengeance soon after the Indian Army withdrawal. Balasingham must have been part of the informal decision making group that reached consensus on resuming hostilities in June 1990, just over three months after the Indian pullout. They probably calculated that the group could quickly overrun the isolated Army detachments, situated north of Vavuniya, and Elephant Pass, thereby cutting off the overland Main Supply Route (MSR) to the Jaffna peninsula. The LTTE achieved that objective within a few months after resumption of hostilities but the second phase of their operation went awry the following year. Had they succeeded in overrunning the isolated but strategically located Elephant Pass base, the Palaly air base and the Kankesanthurai harbor couldn’t have been defended.

The country should be grateful to the intrepid Elephant Pass troops, commanded by the then Maj. Sanath Karunaratne (Sinha Regiment), who repulsed relentless attacks (July –August 1991) until the sea-borne Operation Balawegaya forces broke the siege. Like Prabhakaran, Balasingham must have been deeply disappointed by their failure to overrun Elephant Pass. Retired Maj. Gen. Sanath Karunaratne, accompanied by his wife, recently visited Elephant Pass where they paid floral tribute to the war monument there.

France-Sri Lanka relations

Sri Lanka must make representations to France, which has a criminal and shameful colonial past, especially in Africa, Indo-China, and elsewhere, and now pretends to be lily white, like other colonial powers, and, therefore, not to justify terrorism and promote separatism here. There cannot be any justification in France allowing a monument for the LTTE. A statue for Balasingham, whether the world accepts it or not, is nothing but a monument for the LTTE. Against the backdrop of France and Sri Lanka celebrating 75 anniversary of diplomatic relations, the Macron government should examine the impact a monument for the LTTE would have on bilateral relations.

French President Emmanuel Macron visited Sri Lanka on 28 July, 2023. Although the French leader met the then President Ranil Wickremesinghe at the Bandaranaike International Airport, the occasion, the first ever visit by a French President, was hailed by both countries.

It would be pertinent to mention that the LTTE had been very active in France during the conflict, with the group having a fully-fledged office in Paris. The group raised a significant amount of money in France as it did in other countries and their fundraising operations continued until the very end. In fact, the Tamil Diaspora realised that the LTTE couldn’t withstand Sri Lankan armed forces on its own when the media reported French and British foreign ministers meeting President Rajapaksa in a bid to compel Sri Lanka to halt the offensive.

Nearly two decades after the crushing of the LTTE, militarily, Macron’s France is keen to expand and consolidate its position in Sri Lanka. The French moves should be examined taking into consideration the overall Western response to the growing Chinese global influence and France seeking an enhanced role against the backdrop of the unpredictable US stand on the Russia-Ukraine conflict.

Sri Lanka needs to comprehend the ground realities-the US-led approach that included India and exclusive Indian approach vis-a-vis Sri Lanka. France and India a couple of years ago fostered a strategic military partnership with the focus on maritime relations. Western powers want Sri Lanka to be part of their so-called Indo-Pacific strategy. Japan and Sri Lanka are aligned with the Western strategy.

French Ambassador for the Indo-Pacific, Marc Abensour, during a visit to Colombo in February last year, reiterated their unwavering commitment to the Indo-Pacific region while emphasising the pivotal importance of Sri Lanka, within the strategic framework.

In the run-up to the last presidential election, President Wickremesinghe proposed the establishment of a ‘Regional Centre for Maritime Studies (RCMS).’ That proposal was made on behalf of France. The two countries agreed to set up the RCMS at the General Sir John Kotelawala Defence University with additional support and infrastructure provided by the Trincomalee Naval and Maritime Academy.

In spite of being portrayed as an academic and training facility, with the focus on maritime safety, security, marine environment preservation, and pollution response, it will have other ‘responsibilities.’ Unfortunately, Sri Lanka, still struggling to overcome the economic crisis that resulted in the ouster of President Gotabaya Rajapaksa, in mid-2022, lacked the capacity to comprehend the developing situation.

Some have described the French move as their first significant maritime initiative in the South Asian seas. Various interested parties must be evaluating their deeper strategic motives for extending the proposal to set up RCMS. Over the past several years, French Navy vessels had visited Colombo as Paris increasingly expressed its desire for an enhanced role in the region. Of them, the visit, undertaken by the French spy ship, Dupuy de Lôme (A759), in June 2023, is of significant importance. It was the first publicly reported visit by a Signals Intelligence / Satellite Tracking vessel to Sri Lanka since the controversial visit to Hambantota International Port by the Chinese Yuan Wang 5 (IMO: 9413054) satellite tracking vessel.

The Colombo port welcomed several other French ships over the past few years. They were multi-role escort Destroyer Provence (March 2025), assigned to the French aircraft carrier strike group deployed in the Indo-Pacific region, and Hydrographic vessel ‘Beautemps-Beaupré’ (May 2025).

While advancing its agenda here, the French will do anything to appease the Tamil Diaspora. For those political parties, represented in Parliament here, the French strategy is not difficult to comprehend. Politicians world over will do simply anything to appease their voters, regardless of consequences. Therefore we must not be like our trusting forefathers who got played out by the Portuguese, the Dutch and the English, in turn, one after another. So we must be doubly wary of French.

Let me give you an example of the pathetic French explanation given following the unveiling of a bust of LTTE terrorist S.P. Thamilselvan in the Seine-Saint Denis district the year after the eradication of the LTTE. Thamilselvan was killed in a surgical air strike carried out by a pair of MiG 27 and Kfir in early November, 2007. The following is the text of a statement issued by the French Embassy, in Colombo, in the wake of media reports on the unveiling of Thamilselvan’s bust: “Following the initiative of the Franco-Tamil association of La Courneuve, a bust of Suppayya Paramu Tamilselvan, sculpted by a local artist was unveiled on the 1st of November 2010 in front of the Art gallery “Le Sens de l’Art” in La Courneuve, within the district of Seine-Saint Denis. Some elected members of the Municipal Council of La Courneuve participated in the event.

Any person, group or organization on the French territory has to respect French law.

The Constitution of France establishes a decentralized state, in which the Government does not have the authority to intervene in the domains devolved to the local institutions and cannot oppose the activities of elected local representatives, as long as these are in accordance with the law. Moreover, the Constitution of France protects the freedom of expression and the Rights of Association.

The organization of the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE), of which Suppayya Paramu Tamilselvan was a cadre, is a movement which has been listed since 2006 as a terrorist organization by the European Union and is forbidden by all European Union Member States including France. France, as well as its European partners, condemns with the utmost strength the use of violence and terrorism.”

So, Sri Lanka shouldn’t be surprised if a bust or a statue of Prabhakaran becomes a reality in France. According to the French Embassy press release issued on November 4, 2010, unveiling a monument for a terrorist group is not a violation of the French law.

By Shamindra Ferdinando

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Midweek Review

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

Published

3 days 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

3 days 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.