An insurrection that went awry

by Isuri Kaviratne

In a bid to overthrow the government of the day and to seize power, an insurrection led by the Janatha Vimukthi Peramuna(JVP) was initiated on April 5, 1971. Part of this initiation was to secure the release of Rohana Wijeweera, the founder of the JVP, who was kept in the Jaffna Prison, after being arrested on March 12, 1971.

Bradman Weerakoon

We spoke to K. Kumara who was a 'brother-in-arms' and came to Jaffna to get Wijeweera out, but got caught and spent two years at the Hammenhiel Prison. Reminiscing the past, Kumara described how he and others from Moratuwa, Colombo and Jayewardenapura Universities hopped on to the Jaffna train while their counterparts in the hill country, the Peradeniya University undergraduates hired a bus, to set off to Jaffna.

The plan as laid out by the seniors was for one group to attack the prison in the Jaffna Fort and the other was to attack the Jaffna police- both attacks were to take place simultaneously. Kumara had been part of the group which attacked the Jaffna police. This attacks coincided with other attacks on police stations islandwide. Nearly 93 police stations out of the 273 fell into the hands of the insurgents.

"The attack was poorly planned,'Kumara recalled. He said the bombs they used were substandard and broke into two, without exploding and they had no choice but to return to base which was the Sinhala School in Jaffna. The police pursued and arrested everyone gathered at the School. The other Sinhalese who were also present in the vicinity were arrested.

Insurgency

Kumara and others were detained at the Kankesanthurai (KKS) police for three days; SP Sundaralingam of the KKS Police gave explicit orders not to kill anyone, hence, a group of 60 insurgents were held in the Jaffna prison for two weeks and then taken to Fort Hammenhiel.

Bradman Weerakoon had just taken up office as the GA in Ampara, when the JVP insurgency broke out in 1971, and was the first to be informed that Rohana Wijeweera was arrested by the Ampara Police.

"It was in March, 1971 when the OIC of Ampara police, SP Lucky de Silva asked me to come to the police station. I was sent to meet a man who looked at me and asked 'Do you know who I am?' I said 'No, I don't', after which he took out a pair of spectacles from his pocket, put it on and then asked, 'How about now?'," he recollected "That's when I said, 'Oh my god you look very much like Rohana Wijeweera'."

Fort Hammenhiel Pix by Saman Sri Wedage

Former Prime Minister Dudley Senanayake was aware of the leftist youth movement that was collecting weapons to rebel against the government, as the CID had informed him of the details from 1968-1970. "We were told that these young men had weapons and explosives such as hand-made bombs and hand guns known as Galkatas'," he said.

The JVP had sent notes to Weerakoon, he mused, when they hijacked lorries full of rice gunnys, being transported to the hill country from Akkaraipattu. The notes were written by someone who called himself 'Castro', who wrote to 'Mr. Weerakoon' to say the rice, which belonged to people, was taken to be distributed and the driver of the lorry had nothing to do with their cause.

"I kept one such note for a very long time," he said. The emotional attachment Weerakoon had with the JVP was when he witnessed the first dead JVP cadre at the Ampara police. "He was a boy, who was part of the 'crew' that came to attack the Ampara police on April 5. He wore a blue shirt,"he said.

However, Fort Hammenhiel, named by the Dutch for its shape - the heel of a Ham, consists of 12 dark dungeons with iron gates. The strong coral fort, built by the Dutch in 1658 makes the prison impenetrable, from the inside or out.

It is during this time, as some claim, Wijeweera was transferred to Fort Hammenhiel. However, Kumara said "The dungeons were uncomfortable, dark and warm, filled with stale air, but Wijeweera was not an inmate at Hammenhiel."

"Wijeweera was not incarcerated with us, at Hammenhiel. If he was ever imprisoned there, it has to be in the two weeks that we were kept in the Jaffna prison," he said and added that when he was transferred to a prison in the Jaffna Fort, after nearly two years in Hammenhiel, he met Wijeweera who's cell was next to Kumara's.

Hammenhiel prison cells, now grouped as individual and group cells, currently consist of stone blocks instead of beds. This was a 'luxury' not available when Kumara was an inmate. "They were just fixing the iron gates of the cells when we were brought in," and 20-30 inmates were huddled into one cell all day, as initially they were allowed only 15 minutes in the yard.

Graffiti

The walls of these cave-cells were covered with graffiti, both Sinhala and Tamil. It is one such graffiti that made many believe that Wijeweera was kept at the island prison. The right wall of this cell was accessorized with the image of Wijeweera carved, below which was written 'Brother Wijeweera' in clear handwriting which, many assume, belonged to Wijeweera. However, Kumara recalls a colleague in prison who was an ardent follower of the movement and was a good artist who sketched Wijeweera's face on the wall of his cell.

Gradually, more JVP detainees were brought into Hammenhiel, increasing their number to 150, and consequently, the cells got more crowded. One night they planned and broke all the cell gates in protest against poor living conditions. Kumara said later they were allowed to sleep outside the cells, on the corridors and pavements of the prison. "But the prison guards didn't enter the yard for some time, not even to give us food. They just lowered food into the yard for us to share among ourselves," he recalled. Hammenhiel is now converted into a resort and is maintained by the Sri Lanka Navy since the early 1980s. Assistant Manager, Lieutenant R.K. Athukorala said there wasn't any document regarding the imprisonment in 1971, hence the detention of Wijeweera at Hammenhiel was only hearsay. Lieit. Athukorala was also told Hammenhiel housed around 150 prisoners in 1971.

There were too many prisoners to be confined to cells, prisoners were allowed to sleep on corridors, and pavements, may be in the yard too. "The prisoners were confined to the small yard in the centre and the few cells surrounding it, and above the cells were rooms used by prison officials, which are now converted into guest rooms of the resort," he said. Athukorala said there was no risk of prisoner escapes.

*Kumara: Name has been changed to protect identity*