The SJB yesterday (09) said that what had happened at the Batalanda detention centre (Batalanda Housing Scheme of the State Fertiliser Corporation) couldn’t be debated leaving out the JVP terrorism in the late ’80s.

The top SJB spokesman Mujibur Rahuman said that the JVP, that made an abortive bid to assassinate the then President J.R. Jayewardene, inside Parliament, on 18 August, 1987, as they opposed the signing of the Indo-Lanka peace accord on 29 July, 1987, couldn’t absolve itself of the responsibility for the atrocities it perpetrated at that time.

The Colombo district MP said that the SJB intended to use today’s debate on the Batalanda detention centre to remind the country of the JVP’s brutal conduct at that time.

Responding to another query, the former UNPer said that this debate couldn’t have been held at a better day. Declaring that the UNP had no option but to fight back in the face of JVP terror, the outspoken lawmaker said that the attack on President JRJ claimed the life of Deniyaya MP Keerthi Abeywickrema and wounded several others, including then National Security Minister Lalith Athulathmudali, who was later assassinated by an LTTE gunman.

Reminding that the first lawmaker killed by the JVP, after the signing of the Indo-Lanka accord, was Tangalle MP Jinadasa Weerasinghe, MP Rahuman said that the Parliament having to debate Batalanda in the very Parliament where JVPer Ajith Kumara threw two hand grenades at the UNP parliamentary group meeting was nothing but a twist of fate.

The majority of the JVP-led National People’s Power (NPP) may not know that the JVP later recognised the grenade attacker by accommodating him in their decision-making politburo. At the 1999 Provincial Council election, the JVP fielded Ajith Kumara as their chief ministerial candidate, the SJBer said.

Referring to the seven MoUs/Agreements signed by Sri Lanka and India recently, MP Rahuman said that the JVP declared a ban on Indian goods at the onset of its second insurrection. The JVP found fault with the then Chairperson of State Pharmaceutical Corporation (SPC), Dr. Mrs. Gladys Jayawardena, for importing medicine from India. The JVP assassinated her in early September, 1989, at the height of the insurgency, lawmaker Rahuman said. Having killed people to enforce the boycott of Indian goods ordered by them, President Dissanayake last week entered into a slew of agreements with India, the Opposition lawmaker said.

The MoU on medicine may compel Sri Lanka to procure as much as 80 percent of supplies from Modi’s India, MP Rahuman said.

The MoU on Defence Cooperation may cause catastrophe and place the country in an extremely risky situation, MP Rahuman added.

The Colombo District MP said that the breakaway faction of the UNP would have to take the responsibility of defending the party as it was not represented in the current Parliament.

During that period, the government adopted counter-insurgency strategies. The armed forces and police acted on the orders of the political leadership, he said, challenging the NPP government to reveal the exact number of persons detained under JRJ’s Prevention of Terrorism Act (PTA) of 1979. “We believe at least 15 people have been taken into custody since the last presidential election. If I’m wrong, the Public Security Ministry can set the record straight. Recently a youth was detained under PTA for pasting a sticker against Israel,” MP Rahuman said.

Rahuman mentioned that the JVP killed several thousand people and destroyed may be billions worth of public property. “We intend to ask the relevant authorities to disclose the total number of law enforcement and armed forces officers and men killed by the JVP during that period,” Rahuman said. Those who felt the debate could be used to tarnish the image of the UNP may end up with egg on their face, Rahuman said.

The MP said that Batalanda had never been an issue for the JVP. Had that been an issue, how could they have joined the UNP at the time I was with that party to support retired General Sarath Fonseka’s candidature at the 2010 presidential election, MP Rahuman asked.

By Shamindra Ferdinando