KAMALIKA PIERIS

K.W Devanayagam held a second press conference on 16^th September, 1983 and announced that the situation was worsening. He said the Tamils of the Batticaloa district were getting agitated and a confrontational situation was developing. [1]

 He told the press that a massive attempt was on by Sinhala farmers, led by the Dimbulagala priest, to encroach on the portion of land reserved for the Tamil people under the Maduru Oya Scheme.  He added that the land in question was within the traditional areas inhabited by the Tamils.  If the Sinhalese insist on invading this territory, a clash between the Tamils and the Sinhalese is inevitable. I have told that to the President, Devanayagam said.

Mahaweli Ministry was helping, said Devanayagam. He produced photographs to prove this.  The photographs showed lorries and other vehicles belonging to the Mahaweli Ministry transporting men and material.  They showed Mahaweli Authority officials, contractors and workers in action.

The Mahaweli Authority had done everything openly. Its fleet of lorries transported the peasants from the Dimbulagala temple to the settlement site.  It ferried poles, tin sheets, cadjan and other materials needed to put up sheds to house the settlers.  It carried stocks of cement and provisions needed for the settlers.  The Mahaweli Authority’s tractors and bulldozers cleared the land needed to put up the sheds.

The matter was taken up by the press.[2] Controversy raged. There were accusations and counter accusations. Press statements were made not only by Devanayagam but also by Gamini Dissanayake and Dimbulagala Hamuduruwo, recalled Malinga Gunaratne. [3]

A highly worked-up Devanayagam issued two warnings during the second press briefing. He said, if a Sinhala- Tamil clash is to be avoided, the squatters should be sent away.  If this was not done he would  resign from the Cabinet.

JR Jayewardene took serious note of this settlement matter because India was objecting. India has been alerted by the Tamil Separatist Movement. Indian High Commissioner S.J.Chatwal was instructed to meet JR and convey to him India’s displeasure over the Maduru Oya matter.

JR asked Ranil Wickremesinghe to go to the site and give him a firsthand report on ‘what the Dimbulagala priest is doing out there.’  Ranil Wickremesinghe reported back. President Jayewardene decided he wanted the new Sinhala settlement completely dismantled. Mahaweli Authority officials seemed reluctant to do so and JR  turned to UNP Minister Paul Perera, the invisible leader of the Gampaha underworld”.[4]

Paul Perera was made Additional District Minister of Polonnaruwa and authorized to evict the settlers using force if necessary.  Col. Benedict Silva of the Volunteer Force was appointed his assistant.

  Paul Perera gave journalist T. Sabaratnam a special, in my opinion heavily sanitized, interview on the matter. He told Sabaratnam that   he had appealed to the settlers to get back to their villages.  He told them that  private individuals have no authority to allocate state land. And he subtly indicated that, if the settlers fail to respond to his appeal, he would be compelled to use force to evict them.

He used the police and the army to evict the squatters.  He went to Polonnaruwa and met police and army officers.  He told them to act with tact.   Don’t harm them,” was his strict order.  The squatters were all chased out, wrote Sabaratnam.  Dimbulagala priest was also sent away.  When the priest resisted the police told him that they were carrying out President Jayewardene’s orders.

Others had a different story. Paul Perera came and the smell of blood was everywhere”, said Malinga Gunaratne. Malinga went silent at this point in his book, saying he did not like to besmirch his narrative with the methods they used .He should have done so. That information would have far more been useful than some of the trivia included in the book.

 But Malinga does say atrocities were committed. There are living but lame witnesses in Nikawewa at Padaviya who will bear testimony to the atrocities committed. They were chased out with butt stroke and jackboot. Their houses  were burnt.  The people who did the chasing were Sinhala, observed Malinga.  They were chased away by  Sinhalese,  he said.

Medhananda corroborated. The settlers were    assaulted and chased away, on JR’s orders, by Paul Perera, said Medhananda . [5]  The houses of the settlers were set on fire. The settlers  took refuge in Dimbulagala pasala. They were later sent to Dollar and Kent farms  where they were  killed,  concluded   Medhananda.

The Dimbulagala led Maduru oya settlement venture was completely crushed. Maduru Oya Sinhala settlers were all  chased away. But the matter did not end there. The government   took the view that this episode was actually some kind of    conspiracy  .The police were asked  to investigate. Cyril Mathew’s name was  mentioned.[6] But Mathew had nothing to do  with the matter.

The police therefore focused on Malinga Gunaratne as the prime suspect. Malinga had blabbed about the settlement at a dinner party at his home on October 10^th. This was conveyed to   the President  by  two of the guests who had attended Malinda’s party. On the 17^th the police contacted Malinga   and the investigation began.

Malinga underwent a   protracted ordeal. He was put in a police cell and interrogated. He was also summoned to the 5^th floor of the CID  where  questioning went on for 15 hours nonstop.   He was  kept under house arrest.    He was asked to make a confession   as he was to be charged in courts for funding  the Maduru oya settlement. Malinga  fiercely resisted all this.

Malinga was saved through the intervention of several influential persons including Ranil Wickremesinghe and Arumugam Thondaman. JR wanted a written statement from Malinga, which Malinga provided. JR  interviewed Malinga at  his   Ward Place residence in  May 1985 and ‘settled’ the case. The full story can be read in Malinda’s book For a sovereign state”. This ended the Maduru oya settlement saga.

However, this aborted settlement project should not be forgotten. It has many implications for Sinhalisation. Firstly, thanks to this operation, it was confirmed that there were Tamil settlements in Maduru oya. These were revealed.

Devanayagam admitted at the press conference that there were Tamil settlements at Maduru Oya. He  referred to a letter GA Batticaloa had sent on 4 September to the Ministry of Home Affairs, copied to him as  MP for Batticaloa .

 The letter said that Kalladichchenai   ( Mutur area) and Uthuchchenai( Vadamuni area)[7] were the ancient Tamil villages of the area .  They were purana villages.  An irrigation scheme had been drawn up in 1958 to open up 685 acres of paddy land and highland around these villages for settlement under the village expansion scheme. [8]

 Then In 1974 ten Tamil families of Indian origin were allocated land in Wadamunai under an agreement Devanayagam had reached with the Irrigation Ministry.[9] After the 1977 riots, 48 Indian Tamil families were allocated land under another agreement  with Gamini Dissanayake. Residents of the two traditional villages were allocated the remaining land. [10]

A further 200 Sri Lankan Tamil families from these villages had encroached on 600 acres of the land earmarked for development under the Maduru Oya Right Bank Development Scheme, admitted Devanayagam. They have not been regularized but these encroachments are long standing said Devanayagam.  [11]  Under the scheme of regularization of encroachments of state land implemented by Gamini Dissanayake in 1979, these families were entitled to those lands.[12]

Dimbulagala also gave information on Tamil encroachments in Batticaloa area. . He drew attention to the large areas of barren land there, which have been encroached on by illegal settlers.   Nearly 15,000 acres have been colonized in this manner with Tamils from estates, he said. These areas include Pullimalai, Unnicchai, Rugama and Punnakuda. [13]

Dimbulagala also recalled that In 1971 K.W Devanayagam brought estate Tamils to Kalkudah and settled them in the area. [14] I opposed this. Tamil in Batticaloa carried out a smear campaign against me. I wrote to   Prime Minister Sirimavo Bandaranaike.  Prime Minister summoned a meeting in which I participated. I explained the position and Prime Minister agreed to send officials to look into the matter.

 There was an inquiry and it was decided to remove the squatters but Devanayagam intervened and asked for time for the arrivals to reap the harvest. They were given three months but instead of leaving, the encroachers went into the jungle and hid. Later they got land in Vadumunai area and   assistance from Sarvodaya, World Food Programme and Gandhian Movement.  ( Continued)

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[1] www.sangam.org/articles/view2/?uid=626 T Sabaratnam

[2] I  have not  looked at this newspaper discussion

[3]  Malinga Gunaratne. For a sovereign state

[4] Dharman Wickremaratne, http://www.lankaweb.com/news/items/2015/08/15/how-the-unp-gave-birth-to-underworld-rapist-gonawala-sunil-dies-under-a-hail-of-bullets/

[5]  Lakshman Kahatapitiya. Ellawela Medhananda hamuduruwo. P    314

[6]   Malinga Gunaratne For a sovereign state p 181

[7]  Text says  Kallichenai and Oothuchenai 

[8] www.sangam.org/articles/view2/?uid=626 T Sabaratnam

[9]  Malinga Gunaratne. For a sovereign state p 95

[10] www.sangam.org/articles/view2/?uid=626 T Sabaratnam

[11]  Malinga Gunaratne. For a sovereign state p 96

[12] www.sangam.org/articles/view2/?uid=626 T Sabaratnam

[13]  Malinga Gunaratne. For a sovereign state  p130

[14] Malinga Gunaratne For a sovereign state. P  132