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| Sunday, 3 November 2002 |
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Features |  |
| News Business Features Editorial
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The LTTE's regime - Peace in Jaffna: the darker side The latest issue of 'Tamil Times' news magazine, published from London, give two starkly contradictory views of the recent incident of student unrest in Hartley College, Pt. Pedro, excerpts of which we publish today.
The background to this attack is related to the demonstration that was organised on 2 September in an attempt to storm the Sri Lanka Army's 524 Brigade Headquarters in Point Pedro. On 1 September, the TamilNet, generally perceived as a website projecting the LTTE's standpoint, reported: "The Vadamaradchi People's Movement (VPM) Sunday announced that a mass picketing campaign blocking three supply routes to The Sri Lanka Army's 524 Brigade Headquarters in Point Pedro town would be launched Monday demanding the withdrawal of armed forces from areas encompassing court house, post office, schools, rest house, places of worship and several civilian homes... Students and teachers attend classes with fear going through the army checkpoints located around Hartley College and Vadamaradchi Methodist Girls College, the sources said. The presence of the army has become a stumbling block for the restoration of normalcy in Point Pedro area, residents have complained to the Vadamaradchi People's Movement. Hence the VPM has organised a picketing campaign to exert pressure on the army to withdraw from the area, a spokesman for the organisation said." On 2 September, TamilNet reporting under the heading, 'Jaffna students storm SLA positions' described an account of the demonstration that took place on that day: "Over two thousand protesting Tamil students Monday forced their way into Sri Lanka Army positions and camps in Point Pedro in the northern Jaffna peninsula, destroying barriers, sentry points and checkpoints. Students demanding the withdrawal of troops from public places also blocked the main entrance of the SLA's 524 Brigade headquarters. Troops fired tear gas and live rounds and assaulted students, journalists and local officials of the Liberation Tigers' political wing who intervened. The demonstration by thousands of students had been organised in protest against the Sri Lanka military's closure of several roads which lead to schools and public offices in Point Pedro town. Vehicular traffic and public movement commenced immediately Monday through all roads reopened by students, sources said... According to the TamilNet correspondent at the demonstration, more than two thousand students marched through Sivankoviladi area on the Jaffna-Point Pedro road around 10.30 and blocked the main entrance of 524 Brigade headquarters for about fifteen minutes. Thereafter they went in procession through Oodai veethi to College road, which leads to Hartley College and Methodist Girls College forcibly breaking all road barriers, sentries, camps and checkpoints of the SLA. VTHR (Jaffna) Report Soldiers manning those points withdrew on seeing the enraged students who advanced towards their positions. Later students were seen setting fire to destroyed road barriers, sentries, checkpoints and camps of the SLA. Students were demolishing civilian buildings occupied by soldiers. At that stage school principals came to scene and took steps to pacify students from advancing further to towards army camps. But students did not respond to their advice. Thereafter students started throwing stones at soldiers who were seen remaining in their positions. SLA soldiers then fired with automatic weapons and also fired tear gas to disperse angry students before assaulting some demonstrators. Two officials of the Liberation Tigers' political wing, Mr. Illakian and Mr. Dennie, rushed to the scene on hearing of the clashes. The soldiers also assaulted the LTTE activists when they attempted to intervene to control the situation. Students thereafter started withdrawing from the scene." The following is an abridged account from Report No. 15 of the University Teachers for Human Rights (Jaffna) relating to the assault on the Principal on 22 September: Army Brigade 524 was originally occupying a section of Hartley College. Under the terms of the MoU the Army had to vacate the school premises, while the LTTE was applying pressure on the Army to move out of Pt. Pedro altogether. The Army relocated in several houses and disused government buildings alongside the school and kept the old sentry points for its security. These were manned casually. A short stretch of the coast road was blocked. Students and staff of the school were allowed free movement along College Road. But parents and visitors had to surrender their identity cards at the checkpoint and enter their names in the visitors' book. The attack on the morning of 2nd September was '100%' organised by the LTTE according to local sources. Associations of transporters were ordered to send given numbers of vehicles to various schools in Vadamaradchy to transport the students to Pt. Pedro. Army acts with restraint What happened at Hartley College itself reveals important aspects of the organisation behind the event. Many students were unaware of what was going on. During the third period they saw students filing out of classrooms and followed in confusion. They noticed a number of outsiders in the school premises wearing school uniforms. Under the direction of these outsiders the school prefects marched the students on to the road and then past the sentry point to join the main body of demonstrators. The organisers ensured that no student remained in school. Students who attempted to leave with their bags and bicycles were made to leave them behind. The youngest students from Hartley forced to join the 'demonstration' were 11 years old, from grade six, the lowest class in school. The role of the school authorities and staff appears to have been passive. The Principal of Hartley College told the Sunday Island (8.9.02) that they had allowed the students to leave the premises for the demonstration as they had done before, not knowing that it would turn violent this time. He also said that he had kept back at home that day his daughter at Methodist Girls' School nearby. This suggests that he knew in advance and had no choice. The LTTE had also compelled members of the fishermen's and traders' associations to be at hand. Some agent provocateurs had also come with cans of fuel. The action started half an hour after the students at Hartley were brought out. While a section of the crowd threw stones at the Army, the school children who were wedged into the crowd were carried along as it surged forward. The soldiers left the sentry points and withdrew without firing back. These sheds were set on fire by those coming behind. The identity cards were carefully spared. Along College Road, the mob entered the house of former MP Jeyakody that was used by the Army and smashed belongings, including a television set. It was when the mob got too threateningly close that the Army reacted by firing into the air and also launching canisters of tear gas. A girl from Methodist Girls' School who collapsed with breathing difficulties due to tear gas was evacuated by ambulance. Hartley lay within the Army's security zone and when the Army began firing into the air, the children ran into the school in panic. Finding soldiers also in the school they scattered wherever there was some prospect of getting into the neighbouring houses. Finding their way blocked by bladed wire defences installed earlier by the Army, they looked for places to climb a pole and jump over. (Those who went later to collect their belongings found army sentries around). Many of the children broke down crying when they met their parents who rushed there on hearing the shooting. Sivajilingam, MP, was seen cautiously pleading with the organisers to go easy and also trying to calm the security forces. Shoes and slippers left behind by the fleeing crowd were later collected and piled in neighbouring houses. After things eased off, 'fierce looking' army commandos with black scarves were seen guarding the approaches. The next day boards came up in Tamil with the warning that those entering without permission will be shot. Had not the Army acted with restraint, a march on an army camp of this nature could hardly have ended with zero casualties. The demonstration fizzled out for two reasons. One was that there was no bloodshed. The other is that the LTTE's 'Director of Student Affairs,' Ilakkian, was prominently seen at the 'people's protest.' In fact Ilakkian was photographed by reporters covering the demonstration and his picture appeared in the next day's Valampuri. The LTTE also called a hartal in Pt. Pedro the next day as a result of Ilakkian supposedly having sustained an injury in a brush with the Army. According to well-placed sources in Jaffna, the LTTE leadership was angry and embarrassed when Ilakkian was pictorially shown exercising his office as 'Director of Student Affairs' on the infamous occasion that was supposedly a spontaneous people's protest. He was, we reliably understand, given a scolding for his tactlessness and asked to call it off... The truth is that far from being supportive, the people in Jaffna were horrified with the way the LTTE used their children. Also when a meeting of old boys, parents and teachers of Hartley was called to discuss the reopening, several parents were afraid to go. They feared that in the heat of the moment they might be moved to express themselves frankly on the LTTE's conduct! Attack on the Principal Traditionally the Principal of Hartley College, Pt. Pedro has been among the leading citizens of Jaffna and a commanding figure in the Principals' Association. About April, after the LTTE returned to Jaffna, some LTTE men tried to remove the video cassette from a rival group that was filming a school function at Hartley. The Principal intervened and ordered the cassette to be returned asking, "Who is conducting this function, you or the school?" Sripathy also resisted the LTTE taking children out as they pleased and insisted on letters of consent from the parents when he could. Following the recent incident above, Sripathy was quoted in the media praising the restraint shown by the Army and made a transparently implied criticism of the LTTE at the school assembly. He criticised the Press for reporting what happened on the occasion as a demonstration by the students, adding that they should check their facts correctly. He also said that there are proper ways of protesting for what is right, but endangering the lives of children by getting them to invade an army camp is utterly irresponsible. In these sentiments the parents were fully behind the Principal. Sripathy's house was in a lane off a cross-road linking VM Road and College Road, terminating to the north at the boundary of his school, where there was an army guard point less than 75 yards from his home. On the evening of Friday, 20th September, a youth unknown in those parts came close to Sripathy's home and inquired for the Principal's house from some masons working nearby. On being shown the 'Hartley' Principal's house, he went away. About 9.30 p.m. the next day, a group of 15 to 20 young men came to his place in a van and a motor cycle and called him out. There was then in the house his nephew with five other young men on holiday. Sripathy went out with one young man. It was a day after full moon and quite bright. The newcomers started attacking Sripathy and the young man ran into the next house. Scarred face of internal terror Sripathy received four severe blows on his head with wooden objects, and his lip cracked when he was struck on the face with a hand. The newcomers seemed taken aback when blood started pouring out of his nose and drenched his white verti. Sripathy ran into his house and barred the door. Unable to break down a good old fashioned door, two of the thugs made their way in through the roof, and opened the door. Four others then came into take Sripathy out. Sripathy went out without resistance and signalled the males in his house not to resist. Sripathy was clumsily blindfolded, and just two persons took him with them on the motor cycle along VM Road, Thambasiddy Road and Jaffna Road to a cemetery a quarter of a mile past Manthkai Hospital. The van did not follow them. It may be noted that the fifteen or so thugs spent a little under two hours at Sripathy's house, during which time those at home, including his wife and daughter, were screaming. The Army that was nearby said later that they were aware of the commotion, but had no orders to leave the premises at that late hour. Nor had they evidently alerted the Police. The thugs had taken Sripathy two miles south to Manthikai, again without any fear of being checked. The thugs who had shown themselves were certainly not persons of that area. Their brief was evidently to cause hurt and to terrorise, but not to kill. At the cemetery, the thugs forced Sripathy into the pit and beat him quite harmlessly below the head with branches from erukkalai bushes found at such places. They warned him not to go to the school and to quit the area in a week. Sripathy then walked to the hospital. It was here that Sripathy encountered the first clear signs of the new order being ushered in by 'peace.' A society conditioned by fear was reacting instinctively to the scarred face of internal terror. The MO Dr. Sivarajah and the medical staff knew Sripathy extremely well. But the sight of a bruised and bleeding Sripathy soaked in blood made them behave as though he were a total stranger. No one offered to take him home or arrange for someone to drop him by bicycle. Pt. Pedro's leading citizen had in an instant become a social leper. He walked home without delaying to relieve his family's anxiety. Some friends later had him warded at Valvettithurai Hospital. The SLMM and the Police called on him. The LTTE too commiserated with him and promised to find the culprits! Slowly the society gained its equipoise and a stream of people began calling on Sripathy. Starting with Pt. Pedro Hospital, the initial reactions made it clear that the people had no doubts about who was behind the attack. Again at Hartley College, several of the teachers decided that the least they could do was to boycott classes on Tuesday. In conformity with the logic of internal terror some other teachers maintained that the issue was one man's personal problem! (Protests and motions of condemnation poured in subsequently, helped by the fact that the LTTE denied involvement). On the Jaffna Road in Pt. Pedro, where the night traffic had been heavy and lively in recent times, the road became silent and lifeless as though an invisible hand had imposed night curfew. |
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| Editorial | Security Produced by Lake House |
On September 21, the Principal of Hartley College, Point Pedro in the
northern Jaffna peninsula, was beaten by a gang that abducted him from his
home in a jeep and dumped him at a nearby cemetery. The Principal was
hospitalised for treatment of the injuries he suffered. The incident had
been brought to the notice of the Sri Lanka Monitoring Mission to probe if
there was any LTTE involvement.
