Terrorism whacked Sri Lanka for 30 years. Yet, as a nation, we are hardly aware of the genesis that crippled our country for three decades. The popular consensus is that this began with the 1983 Sinhala-Tamil riots, where Tamils were persecuted, whilst the government’s silent blessings. Tamil youth thus in defense and retaliation, organized themselves into the armed group to fight for their own homeland. This belief belies a number of vital facts.

Often, the events that transpired during and before the riots, is conveniently ignored. Taking into account the events during the riots, it is important to note that this was not a one day matter, but lasted for a week. In that week, Sarvananda Commission established that 355 Tamils were killed.

Judge Suppiah Sarvananda – himself a Tamil, headed the Sarvananda Commission. He was the Chief Justice from 1984-88 and thereafter till 1994 the first Western Province Governor. In 2001, under Chandrika Kumaratunga administration, he was appointed the Chairman of the Presidential Truth Commission on ethnic violence between the period of 1981 and 1984.

This number of deaths established is not insignificant. Given the facts of the case however, it is incredible that the deaths were contained at 355. The facts are,
1. The riots lasted for a week
2. It spread throughout the country
3. Voter lists found its way to the marauders’ hands, enabling them to single out Tamils
4. The then government failed to stop the rioters or protect the Tamils
5. According to national census in 1981, Sinhalese comprised 73.95 percent of the population whilst Tamils comprised 12.71

Thus, it is logical to expect a much higher number of deaths. The unacknowledged fact is that many Sinhalese stepped forward, at great risk to their own lives, to protect their Tamil friend and neighbor.

The events proceeding the riots also contain a number of unacknowledged facts. The prelude to the riots was the attack on an army patrol. It was blasted with a remote control detonator and all 15 occupants were killed. While this is never denied, it is largely ignored.

Narayan Swamy in his ‘Inside an Elusive Mind Prabhakaran’ details this carefully planned execution. It was not a random or impulsive act of crime. The Sri Lankan security forces were already conscious of certain underworld figures engaged in various nefarious activities. One such figure was Seelan. When he was about to be overcome and captured, his accomplices, apparently on his request, killed him. Though he was killed by his accomplices and not by the soldiers – who were simply executing their duties, Prabhakaran vowed to avenge the death of his “confidant and close friend.”

After days of scouting, Thinnaveli – a crossroads near the Jaffna University – was carefully vetted and selected to ambush a military patrol with a land mine. On that night, 12 men arrived at the destination in a “spacious” van. As they got down to work, residents in the area peeped out, curious over the unusual disturbances, though muffled, they heard that night. Expecting this, two men “barked out orders in Sinhala”, giving the impression that the Army was at work. The unsuspecting residents thus went back to sleep.

While some lay the explosives, others kept reconnoissance, communicating via walki-talkies. At the expected moment, a detachment from the Ceylon Light Infantry made its routine patrol and ran straight into the ambush.

The plan was to target the truck and kill the occupants through the blast, making it easier to target the few survivors in the jeep. However, due to miscalculation, the land mine caught the jeep and not the truck, resulting with “almost everyone in the truck alive and firing away…two of them in Prabhakaran’s direction.” The guerrillas, “adapt at firing a range of weapons…opened up instantly with their weapons.” While one blew up the headlights, another lobbed grenades. Soldiers as they tried to escape were chased and shot.

This account alone exposes number of unacknowledged facts. First, it discredits the belief that the 1983 riots was the beginning of the armed struggle. Second, it establishes the aggressor was not the Sri Lankan military, but an underworld movement. Third, this underworld movement was well organized, trained – both in planning and execution (even when the events deviate from original plan), equipped logistically and with weaponry.

It is a well established, but again a muted fact, that the Indian military secret service, Research and Analysis Wing, funded, trained and equipped this underworld movement. Even JN Dixit, the high commissioner to Sri Lanka from 1985-1989, openly acknowledged this fact.

It is however believed that India was thus engaged with this underworld movement, after the new government of JR Jayewardena was formed in 1977. Apparently, his over tilt to the West, particularly to the U.S., caused security concerns to India who were strong allies with Russia. When JR refused to heed the Indian concerns, India decided to support this underworld movement, whose call was separatism.

This justification erroneously gives the impression that this underworld movement came into being after JR administration was established. Incredibly, though it was India that engaged in criminal and hostile acts against Sri Lanka, it is JR’s government that is held responsible for the diplomatic breakdown between the two countries. Apparently, India’s security and stability is a more important factor and as Sri Lanka is small, it must not do anything that might threaten India.

While that may or may not be the case, this armed movement for separatism existed long before 1983. Prior to the 1983 ambush, two soldiers were killed in 1981. Since then until 1983, nearly 35 security personnel had been killed. Furthermore, civil life was disturbed with burning of CTB buses and other criminal acts including bank robberies. These incidents are largely forgotten. However, the assassination of the Jaffna Mayor Alfred Duraiappah still has some recollection.

Interestingly, he was assassinated in 1975 – eight years before the 1983 riots and two years before JR administration ascended to power. Before JR administration, it was the Sirima Bandaranaike administration that was in power. The two ladies, Bandaranaike and her Indian counterpart Indira Gandhi, were said to be firm friends. Hence, this underworld movement existed long before the relationship between the two countries soured.

Again, Duraiappah’s assassination exposes many hidden facts. It is important to understand the motive behind this killing and who benefitted most from his elimination. Dr. Rajan Hoole discusses this episode in detail in his ‘Sri Lanka: Arrogance of Power – Myth, Decadence and Murder’.

Duraiappah, writes Dr. Hoole, did not represent any great or ideal political principle. “He knew his constituents individually and tried to make everyone feel that he was part of their family. He greeted people on the road and inquired about their studies and personal matters. He catered to the needs of people for the normal business life to go on. He dealt in jobs, transfers, market buildings, public lavatories and streetlights.”

Janaka Perera writes in Asian Tribune “his term of office also saw the general prosperity of Jaffna farmers as the price of onions, chilies and other local produce skyrocketed due to the SLFP regime’s closed economic policy that prevented the import of these items.”

As he had a significant vote bank in the business, Sinhala and Muslim communities as well, he posed a significant threat to the Federal Party.

“In all elections for the Jaffna seat,” notes Dr. Hoole, “the votes were equally divided between him [Duraiappah], Tamil Congress and FP.”

This is evidenced from the 1970 results of the seventh parliamentary elections where CX Martyn from FP got 8,848 votes, Duraiappah as independent candidate got 8,792 and GG Ponnambalam from All Ceylon Tamil Congress got 7,222 votes. Thus, the difference between Duraiappah and FP was only 56.

His popularity, observes Dr. Hoole, exposed that people were not interested in an exclusive purist homeland. Thus, since 1972, FP “launched vicious attacks on Duraiappah calling him a traitor worthy of death…who should not die a natural death, but the nature of death to be determined by the younger generations.”

The unfortunate events that transpired at the International Tamil Research Conference in 1974, gave a momentum and a false legitimacy to this call. The police was extremely helpful at the beginning, redirecting traffic so as not to disturb the audience that had spilled into the roads. Then at a later point, to the surprise of all, police moved in with riot gear to disperse the crowds. In the resulting pandemonium, an electric wire was damaged, electrocuting to death seven people. Though, Duraiappah was nowhere in the vicinity, nor had any hand in the disaster, FP made him the scapegoat.

In fact, it is interesting to note that though FP publicly articulated Duraiappah’s assassination since 1972, the first attempt to assassinate Duraiappah was in early 1971. A youth named Sivakumaran, who according to tamilnation.org was “influenced by his parents’ pro-FP views,” placed a homemade bomb under Duraiappah’s car. The blast damaged the vehicle extensively. Fortunately though, there were no occupants and so no one was injured.

When the assassins were finally successful in 1975, Duraiappah was claimed to be Prabhakaran’s first victim. He had foundered Tamil New Tigers (TNT) in 1972, which later became Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam. However, Perera who covered the incident for Ceylon Observer throws more light into the speculations through anecdotal evidence.

“I recall,” he writes, “very well a Lake House Tamil journalist saying that there was no proof of the existence of a Tiger movement and expressed the possibility that the murder could be the handiwork of the ruling party or someone linked to it.”

Even the mayor’s teenage daughter and his mother-in-law as well as the PM and other government ministers believed it to be a political assassination. Unfortunately, the doubt was cast on Duraiappah’s immediate rival, the then Posts and Telecommunications Minister Chelliah Kumarasuriae. The two, though of the same ruling party – SLFP, were at logger heads and “fighting for supremacy in SLFP Tamil politics.”

Due to this kind of misguided thinking, notes Perera, the earlier assassination attempt by an FP loyalist was not given its due consideration. Until the ’80s, Prabhakaran remained loyal to Amirthalingam – the very man, who instigated the youth to kill Duraiappah.

These events thus clearly map that Duraiappah was killed simply because he was a political opponent, especially to the FP. He served his people well. His assassination hence had absolutely nothing to do with the grievances separatists purport to portray.

FP politicians like Amirthalingam were viewed as moderate and not extremists despite their calls for separatism. Though they outwardly professed their desire for a political solution, tamilnation.org states that they thought Gandhism had no place in their struggle. Gandhi succeeded in India as he was leading a majority against a minority. In Sri Lanka, Tamils were moving as a minority against a majority. Therefore, they agreed to “form an underground group to fight for a separate state.”

This group was formed in late 1961 and named Pulip Padai – Army of Tigers. This source claims the failure in the 1961 satyagraha precipitated this movement.

Joint Opposition live wire Udaya Gammanpila disagrees. He maps the origins to the armed movement in Tamil Nadu to form Dravidastan – homeland for Tamils. This was brutally suppressed by Neru in 1961. That year, World Tamil Organization met in London to discuss their next step. FP leader, SJV Chelvanayakam ailing from Parkinson’s Disease was also in London at the time seeking treatment. He too joined this conference and had stated that a Tamil exclusive homeland in India will remain a dream as India is too powerful a force to fight. However, Sri Lanka on the other hand, he had proposed, is a much more feasible location.

By 1961, the Official Language Act had come into effect and Sinhala replaced English in civil service. Yet, other so-called grievances such as standardization of schools came a decade after FP formed Pulip Padai. Just as in Duraiappah’s case, justification for violence was actually a secondary matter for the separatists. Again, as in Duraiappah’s case, terrorism was justified for 30 years, when there hardly is any relation between the separatists’ real agenda and their propaganda.