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Selected Writings -
S. Makenthiran
The Rape of Manal Aru
29 December 2007 [also
in Word Format]
 In
the annals of war crimes committed by the Sinhalese government, leaders and
mobs, on the indigenous Tamils of Northeast, the rape of Manal Aru is an example
of the brutality with which it was being perpetrated. This vast expanse of
agricultural land is near Nedunkerni in the Mullaitivu district in the Tamil
heartland. The Tamils of Manal Aru were happy and prosperous. Their fields were
lush and green. There were the indigenous Tamils of the North and Tamil refugees
from the Upcountry, driven out of the estates by the Sinhalese mobs in the
series of massacres after independence.
Manal Aru is a Tamil word meaning sand river. The Tamils were cultivating large
farms such as Kent, Dollar, Navalar, Railway Group, Postmaster group, Ceylon
Theatres farms etc. The Tamil farmers were owners or held them on long lease.
The Upcountry Tamil labourers were hard working and their welfare was looked
after by the Gandhiam Movement managed by Dr. Rajasundaram and Architect David.
After the post independence riots against the Tamils, and the discrimination
against them in language, employment and higher education by the Sinhala
dominated government, the Tamils had taken to farming successfully.
The Sinhalese armed forces arrested Dr. Rajasundaram and Architect Davis to
destroy the Gandhiam Movement. During the massacre of the Tamils in 1983, Dr.
Rajasundaram was killed in Welikade jail. David, who was also there escaped by
chance.. In 1984, The Sinhalese politicians, mooted a plan to break up the
traditional homeland of the Tamils. They drew up a sinister plan to plant
Sinahalese criminal colonists in the Tamil region connecting the Northern and
Eastern provinces.
They sought the expertise of Israeli Mossad , who had brutally and successfully
uprooted millions of Palestininas and grabbed their ancestral land to settle
Jews from all over the world. The plan was to uproot the Tamils and settle
200,000 Sinhalese farmers and fishermen to isolate North from the East. The
objective was to weaken the Tamils in their ancestral homeland and convert their
regions into a Sinhalese majority.
One of the Tamil areas that created a predatory avarice among the Sinhalese
politicians and officials was the successful Tamil Manal Aru settlement. This
crime was plotted and master minded by racially motivated extremist Sinhalese
such as Prime Minister J.R. Jayawardena, his son Ravi, Ministers Athulathmudali,
Gamini Dissanayake, Cyril Mathew, Vavuniya Police Superintendent Arthur Herath,
Mahaweli Authority Chairman Panditharatne, ex-navy chief Asoka de Silva,
ex-G.A., Banadaragoda, S.L.Gunasekera of Sinhala Urumaya and other officials. It
was a formidable Sinhalese gang out to destroy the unarmed helpless Tamils and
their Homeland.
Last but not the least, was Major Janaka Perera who did the job of uprooting the
Tamils and replacing them by Sinhala convicts, ruthlessly. The Tamil name of
Manal Aru was changed to a Sinhlaese name Weli Oya. One settlement was named
Janakapura honouring Major Janaka Perera, another was named Kalyanpura after his
wife, and Samanthapura after his son. He was rewarded by promotion as Major
General and sent as Ambassador to Australia, despite accusations against him for
war crimes by Tamils and Human Rights Groups. Janaka Perera was accused not only
of war crimes in Manal Aru, but also the mass graves in Chemmani and other
brutalities against Tamils.
Athulathmudali established a special organisation called Joint Services
Operation (JOSSOP) to destroy the Tamil settlement and implement the notorious
Israeli MOSSAD�s plans. Thousand of Tamil farmers were forced to leave by the
army and police by systematic threats, harassments, killings, robbery, rape, and
whatever possible means. Hundreds of Tamils families of Upcountry origin living
in Manal Aru, were mercilessly assaulted, forced and herded into buses like
cattle and dumped on the road in the hill country. Their leader Thondaman was
furious, but his protests to Jayawardena, Athulathmudali, Cyril Mathew and other
Sinhalese leaders was totally ignored. Police SP Arthur Herath was instigating
the Northeast Tamils against the Upcountry Tamils, following the divide and rule
policy. Tamil MP, R. Sampanthan�s protests also were of no avail. It was not
surprising, as these Sinhalese were the architects of the vicious plot
Thousands of Sinhalese convicts were settled in Manal Aru in open air prisons,
some of them with their families. The Sinhalese settlers were armed and formed
militarized Sinhala settlements. Army camps and police stations were established
to oppress the Tamils. Sinhalese criminals were recruited as homeguards to
further harass them.
The Sinhalese were given plots developed by the Tamils, their houses and the
standing crops. It was a windfall to the Sinhalese criminals at the expense of
the hardworking Tamils, and on top of it they were given financial assistance.
The Tamils were left destitute as refugees and moved out of the Region. As the
saying in Tamil goes, this was like the snake creeping into the ant hole
laboriously built by the ants.
In pursuance of the wicked schemes of Israeli MOSSAD, adjoining Tamil villages
were laid waste by destroying their crops, preventing cultivation and bulldozing
houses to break up the base of Tamil Eelam. The administration of Manal Aru
region was tranfered to the Sinhalese dominated Anradhapura, which was further
away. Tamils sought refuge in Mullaituvu. This type of vandalism was carried out
in the Tamil districts of Mannar, Mullaitivu, Vavuniya, Trincomalee, Batticaloa
and Amparai by the army, police, Sinhalese mobs and criminals and Budhist
priests.
These unwanted provocations of the Tamils by the high handed policies of the
Sinhalese resulted in many Tamil youth joining the militants. They had no other
alternative. On November 30, 1984, came the unexpected shock. The LTTE attacked
the Sinhalese intruders in Kent and Dollar farms killing about 82 men. Women and
children were spared. This was the first attack on Sinhalese civilians after 35
years of repeated Sinhalese killings of Tamils after independence. On December
1, 1984 LTTE cadres also killed 59 fishermen in costal villages. The army tried
to go to the assistance of the Sinhalese settlers, but was ambushed by the LTTE.
Up to that time, the Sinhalese never realized that the Tamils can retaliate if
pushed too far. There is a saying in Tamil: �a man who continues to keep
knocking a weaker man is a fool; and a man who keeps bending to a man continuing
to keep knocking is also a fool�.
The remaining Sinhalese colonists fled to the settlement to the South in
Padaviya. The Soldiers and Sinhalese thugs drove away Tamils from adjoining
villages. The army retaliated in revenge, killing 30 Tamil civilians, but
claimed to have killed terrorists.
Readers can come to their own conclusion about the wisdom of the treatment of
the minority Tamils by the majority Sinhalese. No one will object to the
spontaneous movement of people within the country. However, no community would
tolerate being uprooted from their land to force colonization by intruders. What
alternative did the Sinhalese leave to the uprooted Tamils.
If for example, USA and UK use their might to force the Sinhalese to give up the
Southern Province to settle millions of Jews, as they did in Palestine, the
Sinhalese are not going to take it lying down. They will be forced to revolt
like the Palestinians, as there is no other way. What is sauce for the goose is
sauce for the gander.
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