Chronology of LTTE terror- Part 7

From the Daily News Archives:

Arantalawa butchery like never before

WIJITHA NAKKAWITA

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When the euphoria of victory dies down, and together with it the media hype ceases, when the guns do not rattle and boom anymore, and the sky, the land and the sea become calm and serene, when tranquillity reigns through it is natural to live in the present moment and forget the past.

But one cannot live in the present without a past. Nor can one envision the future discarding the experience of the preceding events. Hence the Daily News is serialising the Chronicle of LTTE Terror taken from our own archives which would remind our readers how it all began.

An awareness of the chronology of terror would help us prevent the recurrence of such terror and frustrate any attempts by misguided elements to repeat history to suit their evil designs. It was not simple terror.

Nor was terror sporadic. It was all pre-planned, pre-determined, well-calculated terror. The victims were innocent people. Though it is too many innumerate we would like to recall the major episodes in the Chronology of Terror.

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Terrorists have no reasoning, morals or principles - all these are simply trampled under their foot, human life is not worth even half a cent - and for their killing sprees done in the most heinous fashion no social, moral or other distinctions were ever present.

In the remote Ampara District the people, mostly backward villagers, who eked out a living in the Mahaoya area usually were among the most harmless and for generations they faced odds amidst jungles and they cultivated their land sometimes threatened by wild animals yet they were hardworking men and women.

Among them was a Buddhist prelate the Chief Sanghanayake for the Ampara and Batticaloa district Ven Hegoda Indasara Nayake Thera who lived and worked among the people, a pious monk who had spent his life working to uplift the Sasana and serve the people of these two districts with dedication.

Living the life that a monk should, the prelate not only performed religious rites but also moved among the laymen, dayakas seeing to their welfare and taking an interest in helping them to better their lives.

On October 2,1987 he had organized a pilgrimage for the Samanera monks of his Privena the Mahavapi Viharaya, Ampara to enable the monks to worship the Kelaniya Raja Maha Viharaya and later the Kalutara Bodhi Viharaya.

They would stop at Kalutara and join the pilgrimage on foot to Kataragama from there over 150 miles to attend the unveiling function of the statue of the national heroine Queen Viharamaha Devi. The Prelate who was famous for his piety usually walked to meet most of his people and used a vehicle only when it was urgent.

They took off from the temple at dawn that day and were on the Mahaoya-Ampara road when suddenly on a deserted patch of road lined on either side with jungle cover, at Arantalawa a group of armed terrorists suddenly appeared while a log was placed across the road. The group in commando type uniforms were aiming their automatic rifles at the bus. The frightened bus driver halted the bus.

The terrorists surrounded the bus and first thing they did was to ask the driver to turn the bus to a side road turning into the jungle. There were 40 monks and 3 laymen in the bus including the driver. They were all gunned down by the LTTE terrorists.

Giving evidence at the inquest held into the deaths of the monks and the laymen Samanera Monk Ven Pallaoya Revatha Thera who among a few others who had escaped death miraculously said the terrorists who gunned down the conductor and the driver, next came to the Prelate and said something to him in Tamil.

He offered them all the money and told them they could kill him but they should spare the junior monks. The terrorists took the money.

Continuing his evidence the monk said they had left the temple at dawn on their pilgrimage in a hired CTB bus. When the bus reached Arantalawa he saw the group of men in commando type uniforms armed with guns, swords and katty knives on the road and a log placed across it. When the bus stopped two of them got into the bus.

They threatened the driver and told him to turn it to a road turning into the jungle and the driver did likewise. When he had gone about 30 metres they asked him to stop the bus. Once the bus was stopped they shot the conductor and the driver. They fell dead.

Next they came the Prelate and said something to him in Tamil. The prelate then gave them all the money he had and told them that they could kill him but he pleaded with them not to kill the other monks.

They took the money and removed the wrist watches of the driver and conductor and got off the bus. After they handed over the cash and the watches they boarded the bus again. They came to the Prelate and shot him 8 times at point blank range. After that they started firing at all the others spraying bullets on everyone.

After the shooting they took swords and katty knives they had and started hacking everyone that had fallen down. After the carnage was complete the terrorists went away. I and a few other novice monks hid under the seats of the bus when the terrorist started shooting.

When I came out of my hiding place I heard voices. They said if there was anyone who was alive to get up and not to fear. They were the police.

But when I saw the Prelate lying dead on a pool of blood I lost my consciousness. Later on the police had taken the still living among us including me to the hospital, the novice monk said in his evidence before the acting Magistrate A. C. Jabbar.

That was the largest number of Buddhist monks killed in the known history of the country and Prabhakaran and his killers were showing their real face to the country and the international community that strangely did not take note of the continuing human rights violation especially with the hatred the LTTE and other terrorist groups and their apologists demonstrated for the Buddhist clergy.

The Arantalawa massacre of 32 Buddhist monks and three civilians came as the greatest shock to the nation especially to the Buddhists. Though condemnation from local political and religious leaders followed the massacre the international busybodies on human rights seemed not to have noticed the incident.

The year 1987 witnessed political upheavals as well as repercussion of the diplomatic blunders committed by a government just ten years back when elected with four fifth majority became heady with its power.

The leader President J. R. Jayewardene had boasted the only thing his parliament could not do was to make a man a woman or a woman a man. Yet stalking J.R., and the other mediocre politicians of that government was the most ruthless terrorist outfit LTTE and the Indian Gandhi-Nehru dynasty who had Jayewardene on their palm had by that time brought the Indian Peace Keeping Force to the country at the time the massacre of Buddhist monks took place.

Whether they were able to keep peace or otherwise was a controversial issue at that time with several opinions expressed on it then and now. The Indo-Sri Lanka Accord was also signed by Gandhi and Jayewardene during that year but even as it was signed the political upheavals in the country had cast a doubt whether it would serve any useful purpose.

Even if the two leaders had signed the accord that included clauses like disarming the terrorists and holding provincial council election, the LTTE terrorists nor the other Eelamists had changed their agendas even by a single coma.

They continued their killing spree continuing to kill unarmed civilians as well as the IPKF members whom the Tamils of the north welcomed with eagerness calling them ‘Sondakaren’, meaning kinsfolk.

The year was to see the results of the political blunders committed by President Jayewardene and his successors in the UNP who somehow made worst blunders political and diplomatic, while the terrorists unhampered continued the killing fields costing thousands of lives of our people.

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Tigers kill 29 Bhikkhus near Arantalawa

The separatist terrorists yesterday massacred 32 people, including 29 Bhikkhus travelling from the Ampara district to an upasampada ceremony in Kandy, the government said.

National Security Minister Lalith Athulathmudali told the Daily News that 32 persons including the Bhikkhus, had been shot dead and Bhikkhus and five others wounded in the brutal attack.

“The attackers have been identified as LTTE leaders from Batticaloa,” the minister said.

This is the worst attack on any religious community since the terrorist violence began, which has cost over six thousand lives in the last four years. The shooting took place near Arantalawa, the scene of previous terrorist massacres, in the eastern Ampara district.

A later police report placed the death toll at 31 Bhikkhus and three laymen killed, and 14 Bhikkhus and one layman injured.

Police said the location of the outrage was Nuwaragalatenna, close to Arantalawa, on the Ampara-Maha Oya road.

Two of the injured Bhikkhus were flown to the Kandy General hospital where one of them succumbed to his injuries.

Yesterday: Carnage at Habarana