Midweek Review

Playing politics with LTTE dead

Published

3 years ago

2023/12/6

British Tamils display the LTTE flag at Maaveerar commemoration in London. (Pix courtesy Tamil Guardian)

Adele

The London Maaveear commemoration would have been complete if the organizers invited Adele Balasingham, the Australian wife of LTTE theoretician, the late Anton Balasingham, one-time employee of the British HC in Colombo. Balasingham was laid to rest in Dec 2006 in the UK. Adele became notorious as a white woman guardian tying cyanide capsules around the necks of young Tiger female cadres as a passing out ritual. She is believed to be living scot free in the UK despite consigning so many, possibly underage Tamil girls to a certain horrible death. Such are the hypocritical standards the British continue to set around the world, while mouthing for human rights in countries that the West dislikes and horrors of Palestine precipitated and perpetuated by London is no exception.

By Shamindra Ferdinando

The recently concluded Maaveerar Naal (Great Heroes’ Day)/Maaveerar Vaaram (Great Heroes Week) commemorations underscored the continuing deep divisions within the Tamil community over the conduct of the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE) during the war.

The organizers of the main commemoration at Nallur, Jaffna, left out the name of the late LTTE leader Velupillai Prabhakaran’s one-time Deputy the late Gopalswamy Mahendraraja aka Mahattaya out of the heroes’ list displayed therein. Prabhakaran was 54 at the time of his death on May 19, 2009 whereas Mahattaya was 38, when he was ordered to be executed by the LTTE leader on Dec 28, 1994.

In fact, Mahattaya, who had been arrested in Aug 1993, interrogated over a period of 16 months and then executed and buried at an undisclosed location in the north never received such tributes bestowed on other members. Mahattaya wasn’t the only one to be dealt with that way. According to Maaveerar Naal organizers, the total number of LTTE dead at the end of the conflict stood at 24,379 (Nov 27, 1982 to May 19, 2009). And Mahattaya hadn’t been among those listed personnel.

Having conducted the first Maaveerar Naal commemoration in the Mullaithivu jungles on Nov 27, 1989, the LTTE expanded the event in 1991 to cover a period of seven days (Nov 20-27). Until Prabhakaran’s elimination on May 19, 2009, his speech delivered at the conclusion of the week remained the highlight of the whole ‘show.’ The Island dealt with the issue and related matters last week (Eelam conflict: In memory of fallen combatants, Nov 29, 2023 edition)

Remains of first LTTEer killed buried in Madurai

A little known fact is that the remains of the first LTTE cadre killed in combat, Sathiyanathan alias Shankar, a native of Kambarmalai near Valvettithurai, had been cremated at the Keeraththurai crematorium in Madurai. Perhaps India should disclose the details as to how many Sri Lankan terrorists (Except for EROS, who were more like the Tigers, none of the other groups resorted to things like suicide bombings) killed in various incidents had been buried there.

It would be pertinent to mention that Shankar, who had received gunshot wounds during a confrontation with the Army in the Jaffna peninsula was moved across the Palk Strait to Tamil Nadu where he succumbed to his injuries. Shankar died on Nov 27, 1982 in the presence of Prabhakaran, who was living there at the time under Indian protection.

Mahattaya’s alleged crime was conspiring with premier Indian intelligence service Research and Analysis Wing (RAW) to eliminate Prabhakaran who ordered former Indian Prime Minister Rajiv Gandhi’s assassination. The LTTE assassinated Gandhi on the evening of May 21, 1991, at Sriperumbudur, Tamil Nadu.

Maaveerar organizers also left out suicide bomber Dhanu alias Anbu alias Kalaivani who blasted Gandhi at Sriperumbudur soon after the Congress leader arrived there for a public meeting. Gandhi was campaigning for the general election. Another person who hadn’t been included in the Heroes’ list was Sivarajan alias Packiachandaran alias Raghuvaran aka One-Eyed Jack as referred to by some Indian media because of a glass prosthesis he wore in place of an eye he lost in a battle, who masterminded Sriperumbudur assassination.

Packiachandaran, and another, committed suicide on Aug 19/20, 1991, at Konanakunte, near Bangalore, when Indian security forces surrounded their hideout. However, a section of the Indian media, at that time, reported several other LTTE operatives, who also took their own lives at Konanakunte, near Bangalore. At least a dozen LTTE operatives died in the Indian crackdown. They were buried there.

Perhaps, those who had been relentlessly demanding full disclosure of the circumstances Sri Lanka brought the war to a successful conclusion in May 2009 should also seek to establish whether RAW engaged Mahattaya in a conspiracy to assassinate Prabhakaran. Did Mahattaya cooperate with RAW? Did Mahattaya switch his allegiance to RAW in the wake of Gandhi’s assassination or the treachery as alleged by the LTTE happened years before?

It would be pertinent to mention that RAW had been accused of using members of various Tamil groups to carry out clandestine operations. No less a person than incumbent Member of Parliament Dharmalingham Siddharthan is on record as having said TELO (Tamil Eelam Liberation Organization) assassinated his father V. Dharmalingam and M. Alalasundaram, both Jaffna district MPs, at the behest of RAW.

Dharmalingham told the writer in the 90s that TELO cadres abducted the two lawmakers on the night of Sept 2, 1985 and killed them. According to Dhamalingham, that had been the Indian strategy meant to influence Tamil politicians in line with New Delhi’s overall plan vis-a-vis Sri Lanka.

The Tamil community here and Diaspora seemed to be quite unable and unprepared to come to terms with ground realities. Can Mahattaya be forgotten just because the LTTE called him a traitor? Can those accusations be proved? Some believe Mahattaya got into trouble after India charge-sheeted 41 persons in the Rajiv Gandhi assassination case. That group excluded Mahattaya. Of the 41 persons, Prabhakaran, Intelligence Chief Pottu Amman alias Shanmughanathan Sivasankaran and Deputy Chief of the LTTE Women’s Intelligence Wing Akila were not tried as they could not be apprehended. Twelve LTTE operatives died (some committed suicide. Others killed by Indian security forces) and the charges against them abated and the remaining 26 stood trial at Poonamallee court near Chennai.

Judge V. Navaneetham on January 28, 1998 declared all 26 guilty under Section 120-B (conspiracy) of the Indian Penal Code read with Section 302 (murder) of the IPC and provisions of the Terrorist and Disruptive Activities (Prevention) Act. By then Mahattaya was dead.

Another London Maaveerar commemoration

The British flag is raised at the onset of the event.

British Tamils commemorated Maaveerar Naal/Maaveerar Vaaram at ExCel convention centre in London on Nov 27, 2023. They declared the event 36th Maaveerar commemoration. The organizers played Prabhakaran’s 2008 Maaveerar speech to the crowd. Six months after that speech, Prabhakaran was killed on the banks of the Nanthikadal lagoon where the LTTE’s conventional fighting capability was brought to an end.

The British Parliament was represented at the event by several members, including Elliot Colburn, MP for Carshalton and Wellington and Chair of the All Party Parliamentary Group on Tamils (APPGT).

The Tamil Guardian in a report headlined ‘British Tamils commemorate Maaveerar Naal’ posted on Nov 27, 2023, quoted Colburn as having said that he would continue to “push for peace, justice, truth and accountability for war crimes.” The MP added that the APPGT would work to join the USA and Canada in sanctioning those responsible for war crimes and who are still in positions of power today.

Both Colburn and another invitee Bob Blackman, the MP for Harrow East, appreciated the appointment of former Premier David Cameron as UK’s Foreign Secretary. (Cameron was recently in Dubai to promote China’s flagship project Colombo Port City. Controversy surrounds his role in the China project with questions being asked whether he was paid by those promoting Colombo Port City. That issue should be dealt with separately).

Maybe we should ask the world to try Britain for war crimes, beginning with, for example, for what they did here in the aftermath of the Wellassa rebellion, especially for putting to death all males above the age of 12, torching everything the people of that region had. And what about the divide and rule policy of theirs here that clearly led to the present day disharmony. Then what about being the main cause of the calamity in Palestine? Let us also not forget what they did in places like Libya, Iraq, etc., in the recent past. The world also cannot forget how they conquered the west and even Australia, where aborigine numbers dropped from millions, when they arrived there, to less than 200,000 now. Mind you they did all that carrying the Bible and the cross. Someone might say look at the wonderful system of schools they left behind in Sri Lanka, it was certainly not for the love of dark Lankans. Some say it was because they just could not abandon or hide so many children they fathered here to local women. So no wonder they also accommodated many of them later in Australia.

In spite of the LTTE remaining on the British list of proscribed organizations, the Maaveerar organizers displayed the LTTE’s flag and some participants were seen dressed like LTTE women cadres. The commemoration resembled a military-type event with the participants saluting in LTTE style.

The British obviously continue to promote the despicable separatist agenda here though the Sri Lankan military finally eradicated the LTTE completely. Unless, of course, the present government does something utterly foolish on the advice of their friends in the West like the way they blindly signed the Ceasefire Agreement prepared by the Norwegians, with the LTTE secretly, without any whetting. A proper background check on those who had been shedding crocodile tears for the LTTE in the UK and elsewhere would reveal the vast majority of them brazenly exploited the war here to secure political asylum in the UK.

Actually, those who really believed in Eelam never sought refuge in the West. That is the bitter truth the Tamil Diaspora do not want to accept under any circumstances. The situation in other countries is very much similar with organized Tamil groups taking advantage of political party systems to encourage further migration of their brethren to those countries.

At the ExCel convention centre event, a lamp was lit by Prabhananthan, the son of the late LTTE senior commander, ‘Brigadier’ Sornam, in memory of LTTE cadres killed. The senior commander was among those killed during the final phase of the ground operations on the Vanni east front. Sornam, as the LTTE Commander in Trincomalee, ordered the closure of the Mavilaru sluice gates in mid-2006. Sornam believed that he could successfully deploy artillery pieces in the East but the battle for supremacy, in Trincomalee, ended with the LTTE experiencing a debilitating setback.

It would be interesting to establish altogether how many Tamils reached the UK since the conclusion of the war and the number of new British Tamils of Sri Lankan origin.

Among the LTTE dead were hundreds of cadres killed in combat with the Indian Army during its deployment in Northern and Eastern provinces in Sri Lanka (July 1987-March 1990) as well as those perished in fighting with other Tamil groups. It would also be necessary to ascertain how many died in internecine fighting among different separatist groups over the years, particularly during 1982-1990 period when Tamil groups, other than the LTTE, joined the political mainstream.

Asked to comment on the continuing controversy over Maaveerar Naal commemoration, the Executive Director of the National Peace Council Dr. Jehan Perera said: “The government’s refusal to permit the commemoration of the LTTE dead is seen as suppression by the Tamil people. They continue to feel that they are not treated justly by the Sri Lankan state. The tolerance shown by the government for the JVP’s commemoration of their dead has not been shown for the commemoration of the LTTE dead. This is due to the concern that the latter will be a rallying point for a renewed struggle. Sri Lanka needs a political settlement accepted by the Tamil people, so that the commemoration of the LTTE dead will not be seen as posing a danger to the unity of the country.”

Dr. Paikiasothy Saravanamuttu, the founder Executive Director of the Centre for Policy Alternatives (CPA), asserted that Maaveerar commemoration could be allowed like the JVP but not to celebrate death.

Thaminili on RAW conspiracy

‘Thiyunu Asipathaka Sevana Yata’ (In the Shadow of a Sharp Sword), Sinhala translation of ‘Oru Koorvaalin Nizhalil’, life story of high ranking LTTE cadre, the late Subramaniam Sivakamy alias ‘Col’ Thamilini dealt with several contentious issues.

The book launch took place at the Sri Lanka Foundation (SLF) on May 13, 2016. ‘Oru Koorvaalin Nizhalil’ was launched on March 19, 2016, in Kilinochchi, a one-time LTTE bastion.

Her husband, Jeyakumaran Mahadevan, British national of Sri Lankan Tamil origin, earned the wrath of an influential section of Tamil politicians, as well as the Tamil Diaspora, for facilitating the releasing of the book. Thamilini passed away at the Maharagama cancer hospital in October 2017.

Thamilini who had served the LTTE for nearly 20 years compared the disappearance of Mahattaya in1993 after being accused of working for the RAW and the rift between Prabhakaran and battlefield commander, Karuna, credited with spearheading successful conventional fighting units in the Vanni region.

According to Thamilini, both occurrences severely disturbed the organization and caused irreparable damage. Prabhakaran accused Mahattaya of conspiring with RAW to assassinate him at the opening of a memorial hall built at Kodikamam, in memory of those who had perished during the 1991 assault on the strategic Elephant Pass Army base.

The LTTE claimed that RAW planned to use a Tiger working for the Indian spy network to kill Mahattaya immediately after he shot Prabhakaran, thereby paving the way for an Indian plant to take over the Tiger leadership. The operative was identified as Kiruban.

Having declared that she had been present at Irupalai political school when charges were read out before those accused of the conspiracy, Thamilini claimed that RAW planned to do away with both Prabhakaran and Mahattaya, simultaneously, thereby facilitating Kiruban taking over the LTTE leadership. Kiruban had been freed by RAW to execute the operation while the agency propagated that he escaped from their custody.

The LTTE Intelligence, according to Thamilini, executed scores of cadres, including those holding senior command positions, for being allegedly involved in the conspiracy. The executed included a Susilan, who had driven away a tank, captured during the LTTE attack on the Pooneryn Army base, in early Nov. 1993, to the LTTE-held area.

Thamilini declared that the way the organization had moved against Karuna reminded her of the Mahattaya episode and the circumstances under which the LTTE wiped out rival Tamil organizations. Thamilini questioned the validity of accusations, including conspiracy against the leader, misappropriation of funds and sexual misconduct directed at various personnel, over the years. One of the major charges directed at Mahattaya had been that he was lenient towards those under him and sought to use them against the leader.

What Thamilini didn’t say was that Prabhakaran in 2003 made an abortive bid to take Karuna into custody by requesting the then government to fly the dissident Tiger to Kilinochchi. Karuna declined to get onboard though the SLAF sent a helicopter to pick him from somewhere in Batticaloa.

Political background

At the time Prabhakaran took Mahattaya into custody in August 1993, D.B. Wijetunga served as the President in the wake of a Tiger assassin blowing up President Ranasinghe Premadasa in Colombo on May Day of the same year. The country was heading towards national elections – parliamentary and presidential polls in Aug and Nov 1994, respectively. (The writer had an opportunity to meet Mahattaya on January 08, 1990 along with several Colombo-based Indian journalists and veteran local journalist, the late Rita Sebastian, at Koliyakulam, a farming village a little distance away from Omanthai. Mahattaya was assisted by Yogi, the then public face of the LTTE. The writer undertook a perilous motorcycle ride with an LTTE cadre through a jungle path as the Indian Army patrolled the main roads.). The Island reported the conversation (‘LTTE pledges to eliminate pro-Indian Tamil groups’, January 10, 1990 and ‘In Tiger country’, January 14, 1990)

The possibility of Prabhakaran suspecting President Premadasa making an attempt to convince Mahattaya to sue for genuine peace, too, cannot be ruled out. Regardless of tough measures and precautions taken by Prabhakaran to avert any such eventuality, the possibility of the President making a bid to end senseless bloodshed cannot be ruled out. Did such suspicions influence Prabhakaran’s decision to eliminate President Premadasa in an attack very much similar to that of Gandhi assassination? The whole scenario should be examined against the backdrop of Mahattaya having an opportunity to meet President Premadasa in Colombo as the leader of the PFLT (People’s Front of Liberation Tigers) political wing of the LTTE during direct talks between the two parties (May 1989-June 1990).

The execution of Mahattaya took place close on the heels of Chandrika Bandaranaike Kumaratunga’s victory at the Nov 1994 presidential election. By then, the LTTE had taken control of the Vanni region though there were few isolated military bases in coastal areas. The Kandy-Jaffna A9 road north of Omanthai had been brought under LTTE control right up to Kilinochchi and it remained in their hands till the first week of January, 2009, when the then Lt. Gen. Sarath Fonseka’s Army routed the LTTE and finally killed him on the banks of Nanthikadal lagoon with his last band of trusted carders accompanying him nearly, five months later on May 19.

The LTTE never raised its ugly head again. Even a thousand Maaveerar commemorations will not make any difference. However, the public will have to be wary of efforts to grant what Eelamists couldn’t win through military means.

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Midweek Review

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

Published

5 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

5 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.