Political allegiance of Sri Lankan Muslims - Part
III:
UNP's honeymoon with LTTE in 5-Star comfort
A.A.M. Nizam
Continued from
January 2
List of Muslims massacred by Tiger Terrorists from March 6, 1988 to
October 15, 1992
Killed 16 Muslims at Sittaru, Kantalai on March 5.1988.
Killed 10 Muslims at Saindamarudu, on March 31, 1988.
Killed nine Muslims in Sittaru, Kantalai on May 1, 1988.
Murdered eight Muslims at Veeracholai in Batticaloa on July 30, 1990.
Shot dead 14 Muslims at Akkaraipattu Town on July 30, 1990.
Brutally murdered 103 Muslims and injured another 71 while on praying in
two mosques at Kattankudy on August 3.1990.
Killed 17 Muslim farmers at Muliyankadu, Ampara on August 5, 1990.
Killed 33 Muslim farmers while working in paddy field in Ampara on
August 6, 1990.
Killed nine Muslims at Awarantalawa, Vavuniya on August 13, 1990.
Murdered nine Muslims at Arugambay, Ampara on October 11,1990.
Killed nine Muslims by bomb explosion at Akkaraipattu Fish Market on
March 24, 1991.
Murdered nine Muslims at Malwatta, Ampara on May 20, 1991.
Killed 16 Muslims at Pudur, Polonnaruwa on July 6, 1991.
Killed 13 Muslims at Palliyagodella, Polonaruwa on September 19, 1991
Killed 56 Muslims and injured another 16 at Alinchipotana, Polonnaruwa
on April 29, 1992.
Killed 19 Muslims at Kirankulam, Batticaloa on July 15, 1992.
Killed seven Muslims at Parangiyamadu on July 21, 1992.
Killed 22 Muslims at Saindamarudu on September 1, 1992.
Massacred 171 Muslims and injured another 83 at Palliyagodella on
October 15, 1992.
Under the UNP Governments from 1977 to 1994, Muslims faced many
hardships and the UNP Ministers and MPs numbering 11 persons were
utterly powerless to do anything to help the Muslims. If it was not for
the Middle-East employment avenue opened up by Mrs Bandaranaike the
pathetic situation Sri Lankan Muslims would have faced is horrific even
to imagine it.
When J. R. Jayawardene, obliging the Americans allowed Israel to
re-establish diplomatic relations, Muslim Ministers and MPs of his
government went in a delegation led by Speaker Bakeer Markar to meet him
and object this move they were warned that they could resign from the
government if they cannot agree with his policies.
Atrocities
In the Eastern Province, when the atrocities of Terrorist elements
against the Muslims, particularly by the LTTE continued to increase and
when more than 500 houses were set on fire by the LTTE in Kalmunai,
Sainthamaruthu and Maruthamunai areas within two or three days and the
Muslim leaders in the then ruling party failed to press the J. R.
Jayewardene Government to act, in order to bring peace to the area, Mr.
Ashraff converted the SLMC, a voluntary social organization based in the
Eastern Province into a political party in November 1986, only to use it
as a tool to fight against the terrorist atrocities and against the UNP
Government's complete neglect of Muslims.
President Mahinda Rajapaksa (then Minister of Fisheries and Aquatic
Resources) writing a highly commendable appreciation on Ashraff to Daily
News on September 24, 2000 praised Ashraff for saving the Muslim youth
from terrorist conscriptions and preventing the spread of war to our
doorstep.
When Rajiv-JR agreement was signed in 1987, following the Parippu
invasion, interests of the Muslims in the North and East were totally
ignored and they were left to the mercy of the Indian Peace Keeping
Force who desecrated Muslim mosques and shrines by entering these holy
places wearing boots and also taking dogs into the premises.
The terrorist LTTE who wanted to chase the Muslims out of the
Northern and Eastern Provinces, and make the areas a mono-ethnic
territory, started massacring Muslims in the Eastern Province. These
massacres which started in the latter part of the J.R. Jayewardene
Government increased to a horrendous level during the Premadasa
administration.
Performing
In the Kattankudy massacre carried out on August 3, 1990, Muslims who
were performing Isha Prayers were sprayed with bullets and 103 Muslims
got killed on the spot and 71 were injured. Premadasa Government which
was having a honeymoon with the Tiger terrorists feasting them at Hilton
Hotel, Colombo did not take any action against these massacre or provide
adequate protection to the Muslims.
Even the families and the widows of the dead were not compensated.
Over 550 Muslims were killed in this manner between the period from
March 5, 1988 to October 15, 1992 the next major massacre being the
murder of 171 persons and injuring 83 persons in Palliyagodella on
October 15, 1992.
These massacres ceased only after the defeat of the UNP and steps
taken by Col. Anuruddha Ratwatte to provide security cover to border
villages. (See the list of Muslim massacres carried out by the terrorist
LTTE in the Ampara, Batticaloa, Tricomalee and Polonnaruwa Districts,
without any hindrance from the UNP Governments).
In October 1990, Muslims of all the five districts of the Northern
Province, Mannar, Vavuniya, Jaffna, Kilinochchi and Mullaitivu, were
given notice by the LTTE ordering them to leave the Northern Province
within 24 hours.
The UNP Government of President Premadasa did not take any preventive
action to protect these Muslims amounting to nearly 100,000 persons.
Ultimately the LTTE forcibly chased them out from their traditional
habitats where they used to live for centuries. In this world's worst
ethnic cleansing episode, the victimised Muslims were not allowed to
take any of their belongings except for whatever the dress they were
wearing at that time.
Even the ear-rings worn by women and children were forcibly removed.
A father who had a child of less than one year explaining the ordeal
they underwent told a newspaper that the Tiger terrorists did not even
allow him to take the partly used milk food packet he was carrying to
feed his baby.
Victimised
The UNP Government of President Premadasa, in which the anti-Muslim
UNP leader Ranil Wickremesinghe was a top ranking Minister, did not care
to provide some decent shelters to these victimised Muslims.
They were forced to put up their own shelters in the coconut lands in
places like Ismail Puram, Kalpitty, Palavi, Madurankuliya etc, in the
Puttalam District, and several other areas in Kurunegala and
Anuradhapura Districts, and languish as refugees in their own country
living in cadjan huts without any basic amenity for almost two decades.
Only now after the defeat of the terrorist maniacs they are being
resettled in their original habitats, rightly fulfilling a pledge given
in the Mahinda Chinthana.
In the midst of his busy programs President Mahinda Rajapaksa was so
magnanimous recently in meeting the ladies of these refugees who were
returning to resettle in Mannar and look into the problems they face and
wish them every success and happiness in their new lives.
The continuous and brutal murder of Iraqi population by the United
States and its allies are known even to a Muslim child in this country
and need no elaboration.
The whole world sans Western countries condemned these massacres. It
is indeed shame not only for Sri Lankan Muslims but for Sri Lankans as a
whole to have a person to lead the main Opposition party who went to the
United Nations and justified the massacres of Iraqis by the Bush
administration.
Muslims in the Eastern Province experienced the worst atrocities from
the Tiger terrorists during the Ranil Wickremesinghe Government from
2001 to 2003.
The infamous agreement signed by Ranil Wickremesinghe with the
megalomaniac terrorist leader Prabhakaran without any concern for the
majority population of Muslims in the Eastern Province, and handing over
a vast extent of land areas of the Eastern Province and the Northern
Province including the districts of Kilinochchi and Mullaitivu, made
life of Muslims in the Eastern Province nightmarish.
Transfer
The complete transfer of Government powers to Tiger terrorists under
this wicked agreement forced Muslims to become slavish to terrorist
diktats. Cultivable lands of Muslims were forcibly taken over, rich
Muslims were forced to pay huge amounts as extortions, to pay taxes on
all earnings, to provide huge portions of their produce or fish and many
other intolerable conditions were imposed on Muslims forcing many of
them to sell whatever the property or wealth they had and flee to places
like Dehiwala, Mt. Lavinia and other parts of the country.
To be continued
(The writer is a former Vice President of SLFP
Central Committee, Matara electorate.)
|