Somasunderam
Nadesan Q.C.
On Sri Lankan Army's Attack on Peaceful Satyagrahis, April
1961
Speech delivered during the course of the debate on
The State of Emergency in the Second Senate on 2 May 1961
[see also On Sri Lankan Army's
Attack on Peaceful Satyagrahis, 9 May 1961]
"...The voice of the representatives of the
Tamil people has been virtually silenced. The military have been let loose
on the Northern and Eastern Provinces and from all accounts are behaving -
at any rate so far as the Jaffna Peninsula is concerned - as if they were a
conquering army in occupation of enemy territory....(In) the early hours of
the 18th (of April) the military, without any warning and without informing
the satyagrahis assembled at the Jaffna Kachcheri that an emergency had been
declared, assaulted the men satyagrahis mercilessly, bundled the women
satyagrahis into trucks and transported them. The military also vented their
wrath on a large number of push bicycles and even on some motor cars parked
at the Kachcheri gates. If the reports are true, the army seems to have
displayed considerable courage and valour in their attacks on unarmed
'satyagrahis and on inanimate objects like push bicycles! Certain Government
quarters, I am told, believe that the Ceylon Army had covered itself with
glory when, under the cover of darkness and armed with modern weapons, it
routed a band of unarmed satyagrahis in what will go down in history as the
"Battle of Jaffna"!... Immediately the "Battle of Jaffna" was over, the army
proceeded to waylay and hit all and sundry on t he roads of Jaffna on the
ground that they were breaking a curfew order, of which most of them were
unaware."
"...why was the Army let loose on
the entire population of the Northern and Eastern provinces,
particularly those of the Jaffna Peninsula? Why was a curfew
imposed? Even if it was thought necessary to have a curfew at
the outset, why is it being continued even today? Why have the
military on their own imposed a curfew even in villages in
respect of which a curfew has not been proclaimed? Why are the
farmers of Jaffna who ordinarily go to their fields in these hot
days at 4 o'clock in the morning prevented from doing so till
well after 6 a.m.? Why have the military been beating and
thrashing innocent passers-by on the streets of Jaffna? Why have
some of them been helping themselves to goods and articles in
shops and asking the owners to send the bills to the F.P.
leader? Why have cars been commandeered as if a great military
campaign was afoot? Why has petrol been issued on permits in
Jaffna, when there is enough petrol for everybody? Why have car
owners been made to queue up for permits for petrol at the
Kachcheri and subjected to humiliating remarks by army sentries?
Why have the military prevented people from having their lights
on at night? Because they have been asked not to 'shoot, why
have they indulged in the pastime of throwing stones at houses?
Why have they set fire to fences and madams. and put the blame
on the people? Are these acts of organised terrorism and
lawlessness the result of any orders given to the army to strike
terror into the inhabitants of Jaffna so that they might give up
their agitation for their language rights.
Today, there is greater
lawlessness in the Northern and Eastern Provinces and
particularly in the Jaffna Peninsula than there has ever been at
any time in its recent history - lawlessness by the guardians of
law! The army have by their terrorist tactics provoked
retaliation in a number of cases, but that is no reason why the
army should continue to be let loose on the peaceful people of
Jaffna when the only legitimate purpose for which it could have
been used was to clear the entrances to the Government offices
and keep those entrances clear for public use..." |
Mr. President, it is more than a week
since the emergency has been declared. Normal democratic
rights - at any rate so far as the Northern and Eastern
Provinces are concerned � have been curtailed. A rigid
censorship has been imposed. All the elected
Representatives of the Tamil people, excepting two, are
under detention. The Mayor of Jaffna, Sir Kanthiah
Vaithianathan, who was once a distinguished public
servant and later a Minister of State, Mr. M.
Thiruchelvam, Queen's Counsel and a former
Solicitor-General, and several other Tamil leaders have
been arrested and detained without trial. The voice of
the representatives of the Tamil people has been
virtually silenced. The military have been let loose on
the Northern and Eastern Provinces and from all accounts
are behaving - at any rate so far as the Jaffna
Peninsula is concerned - as if they were a conquering
army in occupation of enemy territory.
This state
of affairs, naturally, cannot be permitted to continue
without grave and irreparable injury to the relations
between the two main nationalities inhabiting this
country, as well as to the country's economy. We are
passing through a period of grave crisis. At such a time
as this, it is essential that hone Members of this House
should express their views with candour so that the
Government may be left in no doubt with regard to such
views, and I propose to take the opportunity afforded by
the adjournment motion to express my views on the
present situation and to pose certain questions for the
consideration of the Government.
At the outset, I
desire to emphasize that the first and most important
task for any civilised administration is the maintenance
of law and order. A government which fails to maintain
law and order renders itself incapable of affording to
its citizens that protection to which they are entitled.
Maintenance of law and order by government is thus the
first essential of organised social and political life.
This is a basic principle on which I think all of us are
agreed. If one examines the happenings in the Northern
and Eastern Provinces since the 20th of February, 1961,
in the light of this principle, one will find that
Government has signally failed to discharge its primary
duty of maintaining law and order.
Mr President,
the Federal Party, finding that the Government was
unyielding in the matter of what the party conceived to
be the legitimate rights of the Tamil-speaking people,
embarked on what has been called a satyagraha campaign
for the purpose of winning those rights. Due credit
must, of course, be given to this Government which, by
its intransigent policy on the language question, drove
the F.P. to direct action. Now this satyagraha campaign
took the form of a large number of unarmed and mainly
peaceful men and women blocking the entrances to the
Kachcheri and certain other offices in the Northern and
Eastern Provinces with a view to preventing public
officers entering those premises and transacting
business.
The Government spokesman has said that
there was a certain amount of intimidation also
practised by the satyagrahis. This is quite likely, as
where large numbers are concerned it is impossible that
everyone would have adopted a high standard of behavior
expected of a true satyagrahi.
Apart from the
blocking of the Kachcheri entrances by these unarmed and
peaceful people - who, incidentally, spent a good
portion of their time in singing religious and
devotional songs - the rest of the Tamil-speaking
population in the Northern and Eastern provinces went
about their work peacefully.
The F.P. leaders
themselves exhorted the people to be peaceful and
non-violent and practise ahimsa even under provocation.
It must be said that the population generally responded
to these exhortations. There were, of course, occasional
meetings and processions in which the people
participated demanding their language rights. It is
quite likely that sometimes unseemly remarks were made -
particularly by the younger elements among. these
processionists - at the military or the police, but
generally it is agreed on all hands that it was a
peaceful and nonviolent agitation. Even the Government
Agent of the Northern Province was constrained to refer
to the satyagrahis as great gentlemen.
It is also
significant that the Sinhalese residents in these two
provinces carried on their normal trade and business
without any hindrance. There was no boycott of their
shops and social relations between the two communities
in the two provinces went on as if nothing untoward had
happened. No racial cry of any kind was raised and no
anti-Sinhalese feeling was roused. The agitation was
directed solely against the Government. But whatever may
be the moral justification for this campaign, the fact
remains that obstruction by large numbers of people of
access to Government offices, thereby bringing the
administration to a standstill, is an offence under the
Penal Code.
The persons participating in such obstruction, apart
from making themselves liable to punishment under
Sections 332, 343 and 344 of the Ceylon Penal Code, were
also guilty of the offence of participating in an
unlawful assembly under Section 140 of the same Code.
These offences, which in ordinary life would have been
considered serious, were particularly so when one
remembers that the Governmental machinery was unable to
function as a- result of these unlawful actions. The
word 'satyagraha' cannot disguise the obvious fact that
those who participated in it were guilty of grave
offences. These participants must have been aware of it
and possibly were prepared to face the consequences.
As a result of the Kachcheri being blocked the people of
Jaffna were deprived of their rations and public
servants and pensioners of their salaries and pensions.
Whilst a number of people who suffered may have been
sympathisers of the F.P. yet it cannot be denied that
there were several persons opposed to the F.P. who were
deprived of their rations and other services. It is well
known that the Commimist Party and its supporters, most
of whom came from a section of the working classes,
while in agreement with the demand for language rights,
were opposed to the satyagraha campaign. It was a moral
and legal duty of the Government to distribute rations
and render the necessary services to its citizens
During the first two weeks of the satyagraha campaign in
Jaffna, the Government ensured the distribution of
rations by adopting the simple device of having the
issue orders delivered at. the various co-operatives but
this practice was stopped, with the result that the
supporters and opponents of the satyagraha campaign
alike had to go without their rations in Jaffna as they
were unable to buy them. Consequently, Government
administration was paralysed partly by the unlawful
activities of the satyagrahis and partly by the refusal
of Government to adopt alternative methods of carrying
on the administration.
In this state of affairs
what was the obvious duty of the Government? Its obvious
duty was to enforce the law of the land .to clear the
passages to the kachcheries and other government offices
by dispersing the satyagrahis by all lawful means so
that Government administration may be carried on. The
ordinary laws of the land gave the Government ample
powers to achieve these results. It is absurd to imagine
that in any civilised country, whether it is Ceylon or
elsewhere, the ordinary laws can be insufficient to
prevent the administration from collapse merely because
a large number of unarmed people, singing devotional
songs, blocked the entrances to Government offices. The
first step that the Government should have taken was to
have arrested, at any rate, the leaders of this movement
and brought them to task. If need be, a special
magistrate could have been gazetted for the expeditious
disposal of these cases. In addition to this, the
Government could have utilised the provisions of the
Criminal Procedure Code for the purpose of clearing the
entrances to these Government offices.
I might
just read out the relevant sections from the Criminal
Procedure Code so that hone Senators may know what
powers this Government had for the purpose of dispersing
these persons participating in this unlawful assembly,
who have been described as satyagrahis, by the F.P. This
is what Section 99 says:
�Any Police Magistrate
and ,any peace officer not below the rank of Inspector,
Koral a, Muhandiram, or Udaiyar may command any unlawful
assembly or any assembly of five or more persons likely
to cause a disturbance of the public peace to disperse,
and it shall thereupon be the duty of the members of
such assembly to disperse accordingly.�
Section
100 says:
"If upon being so commanded any such assembly does
not disperse or if without being so commanded it
conducts itself in such a manner as to show a
determination not to disperse, any Police Magistrate or
any such peace officer as in the last preceding section
mentioned may proceed to disperse such assembly by force
and may require the assistance of any male person (not
being an officer of soldier of the Defence Force duly
enrolled under the provisions of any law and acting as
such) for the purpose of dispersing such assembly and if
necessary arresting and confining the persons who form
part of it in order to disperse such assembly or that
they may be punished according to law.�4.
Section
101 says:
"If any such assembly cannot be
otherwise dispersed and if it is necessary for the
public security that it should be dispersed, the,
Government Agent of the Province or any Police
Magistrate having jurisidction who is present or the
Inspector-General of Police may cause it to be dispersed
by military force."
Section 102 says:
"When the Government Agent, Police Magistrate, or the
Inspector General of Police determines to disperse any
such assembly by military force he may require any
commissioned or non-commissioned officer in command of
any soldiers in Her Majesty's Army or (if the Governor
so direct in writing) of any soldiers of the Defence
Force duly enrolled under the provisions of any law to
disperse such assembly by military force and to arrest
and confine such persons forming part of it as the
Government Agent, Police Magistrate, or
Inspector-General of Police may direct or as it may be
necessary to arrest and confine in order to disperse the
assembly or to have them punished according to law. .
Every such officer shall obey such requisition in such
manner as he thinks fit, but in so doing he shall use as
little force and do as little injury to person and
property as may be consistent with dispersing the
assembly and arresting and detaining such persons."
So that, you will see that Section 99 of the Criminal
Procedure Code provides for any magistrate or any peace
officer not below the rank of inspector to command any
unlawful assembly to disperse and it shall then be the
duty of the members of the assembly to disperse Section
100 of the Criminal Procedure Code provides that if such
an assembly does not disperse on being so commanded, any
magistrate or peace officer referred to in Section 99
may proceed to disperse the assembly by resort to civil
force, which means the police.
Section 101
provides that if the unlawful assembly cannot be
dispersed by resort to civil force, the government agent
of the province or the magistrate having jurisdiction in
the area may cause the unlawful assembly to be dispersed
by military force and Section 102 provides that when the
Government Agent or the Magistrate or the
Inspector-General of Police decides to disperse any such
assembly by military force, he may require any
commissioned or non-commissioned officer in command of
soldiers of Her Majesty's Army or of any soldiers of the
Defence Force to disperse such assembly by military
force and to arrest and confine in order to disperse the
unlawful assembly or to have them punished according to
law. The section goes on to provide that the military
officers shall carry out the direction, but in doing so
shall use as little force and do as little injury to
person and property as may be consistent with dispersing
the assembly and arresting and detaining such persons.
Surely, action could easily have been taken under the
above provisions of the Criminal Procedure Code to clear
the passages to the various Government offices in the
Northern and Eastern Provinces by resort, if need be, to
military force. The military, who were let loose in the
early hours of the morning of 18th April under cover of
an emergency and who performed their task of clearing
the approaches to the Jaffna Kachcheri in a matter of
minutes, could easily have been employed in terms of the
Criminal Procedure Code, under the ordinary laws of the
land and in the immediate presence of a Magistrate, to
clear these passages and to arrest and confine persons
for the purpose of clearing the obstruction. Why did not
the Government use these powers? Why did it sit supinely
for weeks and allow the continued obstruction of public
offices and the consequent inconvenience to the public?
Why did it not enforce the law and send all offenders,
more particularly the leaders of this unlawful campaign,
to jail? Why did the Government not do so if it was
determined to maintain law and order in the country?
The Government has stated that it was being patient and
tolerant and did not wish to interfere in what it
considered was an agitation for language rights.
Tolerant of what? Lawlessness! Patient with what?
Lawlessness! What a sorry confession to make. No, Mr
President, let not the Government imagine that people
are so naive as to believe these stories. The Government
could easily have enforced the law and cleared the paths
to the kachcheries and Government offices with the aid
of its armed forces, if need be, in accordance with the
ordinary laws of the land and subject to the scrutiny of
the law.
. But instead of acting as any normal
civilised administration should, it resorted to what may
be described as a counter satyagraha. It decided to
permit the satyagrahis to break the law of the land with
impunity so that the unfortunate people who were
deprived of their rice rations, their salaries, pensions
and other services may force the F.P. in course of time
to call off the satyagraha.
Some of the
Ministers of Government even said that time was on their
side. They thought that it was proper for the Government
not to enforce the law and permit lawlessness to prevail
until time came to their rescue. Naturally the situation
did not improve.
This regrettable inactivity of
the Government served as propaganda for the F.P. and
created in the minds of ordinary humble people the
feeling that this Government was not prepared to enforce
law-and order. One cannot blame the people for thinking
so, for here was a Government which admitted that it was
unable to distribute rice rations in Jaffna because a
number of unarmed people blocked the entrances to the
Jaffna Kachcheri.
The Government did not appear
to have the physical resources to have these entrances
cleared by resort to the normal laws of the land and
allow the Kachcheri to operate; or the mental resources
to devise some alternative method of catering to the
needs of the people pending the clearing of the
entrances to the Kachcheri. Or was it that the
Government wanted to penalise a whole popu1tion on
account of the law-breaking activities of the
satyagrahis and their leaders, instead of dispersing the
lawbreakers, if need be, by resort to armed force and
prosecuting the leaders?
However that may be,
this Government, which in its Address of Thanks to the
Throne Speech proudly proclaimed its determination to
enforce law and order says, for some mysterious reason,
that it had been tolerating the law-breakers and
exercising patience. If a Government tolerates
lawbreaking, what does it expect the law-breakers to do?
Give up law-breaking or to obtain more arid more
recruits to the campaign of law-breaking which has been
called satyagraha? Is it not obvious that if the
Government had acted in accordance with the ordinary
laws of the land, the situation could have been brought
under control long ago and there would have been no
necessity to declare an emergency and deprive people of
their democratic right&? In any event, such an invasion
on the liberties of people is permissible only after
resort is had to the ordinary law and when it has been
proved that the situation cannot be controlled under
such law.
The law-breakers at the Jaffna
Kachcheri went on merrily with their campaign for weeks
when the F.P. decided to intensify the satyagraha and to
embark on what they now described as their civil
disobedience movement by extending their law-breaking
campaign.
For some reason they decided to
commence this evil disobedience campaign by selling
postage stamps and running a postal service, thereby
committing an offence under the Post Office Ordinance.
No one in Jaffna, not even the members of the F.P. took
this postal service seriously so as to entrust any
letters of consequence to be distributed by it, but
several persons bought these postage stamps with a view
to increasing the funds 6f the F.P. The postal peons
were recruited from among Members of Parliament
themselves, and people knew that these postal peons
would go on strike within a couple of days, lest they
should get afflicted .with heart trouble!
After
the usual trumpeting and the attendant ceremonies, the
leader of the F.P. in the presence of the army and the
police force of the lawful Government of Sri Lanka,
proceeded ceremoniously to sell the stamps and to
inaugurate this service; and the first letters were
delivered by these M.P. postal peons to the Government
Agent and the Superintendent of Police. It is doubtful
if any other letters were delivered, as people would not
have taken any risk with their correspondence.
What was the obvious duty of a Government determined to
maintain law and order? Surely its obvious duty, as soon
as the first stamp was sold and the postal service
inaugurated, was to have arrested the F.P. leaders,
seize the stamps, produce the leaders before a
Magistrate and have them sent to jailor otherwise
punished. Why was this not done?
As it was, the
postal service collapsed even before the emergency was
declared because they had run out of stamps. They also
found that, though people purchased stamps, they were
not prepared to entrust their letters to them. Besides,
the postal peons were otherwise busy and the "Post
Master General" was at a loose end, because he had not
planned to carry on a postal service for more than one
week. The postal service was merely meant to afford an
opportunity to members of the F.P. who were so disposed,
to embark on a law breaking spree. They expected, and
everybody expected, that the Government would enforce
the law, but these actions of the F.P. which had as its
object the breaking of further laws, were also tolerated
by the Government. Why?
Why were not the stamps
and implements of this "post office" seized on the first
day itself? Why were not the "Post Master General" and
his "peons" prosecuted and sent to jail? Even at that
stage why were the provisions of the Criminal Procedure
Code not utilized and action taken to clear the
entrances to the kachcheries? Is it pretended for a
moment that if a few people start opening a postal
service it is beyond the resources of the State to stop
such service by resort to the ordinary laws of the land?
In any event, why was not the law first enforced to see
the results before this extraordinary step of calling an
emergency was taken?
Instead, this Government -
which for nearly 50 days condoned a flagrant violation
of our laws resulting in a paralysis of its
administration in certain kachcheries suddenly saw, or
pretended to see in this breach of the Post Office
Ordinance, evidence that the F.P. under the guise of
asking for language rights, was really wanting a
separate State. The Finance Minister only the other day
patted himself on the back and said how wise he was for
having seen through this little game of the F.P. at the
time the Language of the Courts Bill was debated in
Parliament and opposing the inclusion of "Tamil" in that
Bill.
This action of the F.P. of breaking the
provisions of the Post Office Ordinance has been
utilised for the purpose of whipping up the feelings of
the Sinhalese masses against the Tamils.
After all, the ordinary man
cannot understand that the ultimate basis on which
any State can be founded in the modern world is the
basis of physical force. Separate States cannot be
founded by selling postage stamps or by
Parliamentarians tbandoning their work in Parliament
and becoming postal peons, by unarmed people
fasting, praying and blocking the pathways to
Kachcheries and Government. offices, by the holding
of land kachcheries or by the practice of ahimsa or
non-violence!
Besides, the F.P.�s constitution and its
mandate were always in respect of the establishment of ,
a federal State. It has never made any secret of its
policy. The attitude of the F.P. that its solution of
the language problem involved a creation of a federal
State is implicit in the very name of the party and is
not something of which people became aware only when the
party commenced to sell its own postage stamps.
The F.P. has up to date not abandoned its demand for a
federal constitution. It fought the elections on this
basis and is wedded to this policy. There is nothing
criminal or sinister in this. As a matter of fact, the
first person to suggest a federal constitution for
Ceylon was the late Mr Bandaranaike himself shortly
after his return to this Island after his English
education.
However, even conceding that Government first became
aware that the F.P. wanted a federal State or a separate
State when it proceeded to run an inefficient postal
service - which no one trusted, and which had no post
offices except at one place, and that on Government
property opposite the Jaffna Kachcheri - was it beyond
the resources of the 'Government to enforce, even at
that stage, law and order by resorting to its powers
under the ordinary law? That is the question which
Government has to answer.
The Government was not called upon to face an armed
rebellion or extensive looting or killing or burning of
human beings, as happened in 1958, when the declaration
of an emergency and a curfew were necessary to prevent
loss of life or property. As a result of the satyagraha
campaign there was at no stage any threat to human life
or property. There was no danger of any communal strife
in the Northern and Eastern Provinces. The Sinhalese in
those areas lived in an atmosphere of security, carrying
on their normal avocations and living in terms of amity
and friendship with Tamils.
The satyagrahis
themselves were wedded to a policy of ahimsa. They were
unarmed. They devoted themselves to singing religious
songs and prayers. Non-violence was the creed of the
F.P. Though there might have been stray cases in which
the spirit of non-violence was not observed, the entire
population remained calm and peaceful. The ordinary law
was never enforced and found wanting. .
In such a
situation, even at the stage when Government was roused
into activity by what it says was the threat of a
separate State, why were not the ordinary laws rigidly
enforced? Instead, an emergency has been declared for
the flimsiest of reasons. These emergency laws are found
in most countries of the world, but in no civilized
country of the world has an emergency been declared to
meet a situation created by unarmed people blocking
entrances to Government offices, running a farcical
postal service and declaring an intention to hold land
kachcheries. The obvious step taken in other countries
to meet similar situations has been to enforce the
ordinary laws of the land which were always found
adequate for the purpose.
Mr President, I would be failing in my duty if I do
not categorically state that in my view the Government
had no moral or legal justification for the declaration
of a state of emergency, particularly when it had not
even attempted to use its normal powers for the
enforcement of law and order. The emergency was declared
on 17th April, 1961. A number of regulations under the
Public Security Ordinance, No. 25 of 1947, and orders
under the Emergency (Miscellaneous Provisions and
Powers) Regulations, 1961, were also made on the same
day. Some of these orders apply exclusively to the
Northern and Eastern Provinces and the full impact of
.this emergency has been felt only by the Tamil-speaking
people inhabiting these two provinces, particularly
those resident in the Jaffna Peninsula.
The first
point that I wish to make regarding these emergency
regulations and orders is that it was the elementary
duty of this Government to have made known these
regulations to the Tamil-speaking people. This
Government is quite conversant with how to bring matters
to the notice of the Tamil-speaking people.
For
instance, when it wanted to carry on its propaganda on
the language question in the Tamil-speaking areas it did
not hesitate to spend large sums of money in getting Mr
N. E. Weerasooriya�s article to the "Observer"
translated and circulated in the Tamil language. But
curiously enough every one of these regulations and
orders, affecting as it does the ordinary lives of
humble Tamil-speaking people, has been published in the
"Government Gazette" in Sinhala and English only - as it
it was a matter of indifference to the Government that
the Tamil people should be made aware of the regulations
and orders which they had to obey during the emergency!
Very few of the Tamil-speaking people know Sinhala and
only 8 per cent know English. What about the rest of the
population?
The British rulers of this country
promulgated their regulations in English but they took
the trouble of explaining to people important
announcements by beat of tom-tom or permitted the lapse
of sufficient time for persons to learn the contents of
these regulations through newspapers or radio
broadcasts. With freedom we were told that regulations
will appear in all three languages in the "Gazette", but
unfortunately there appears to be a reversion to the
ways of imperialism without even the safeguard that
British imperialism provided. It is hardly necessary to
state that acts such as these are not likely to inspire
confidence in the bona fides of this Government.
The second point that I wish to make is that even the
English-educated would become aware that an emergency
has been declared and of the regulations and orders only
when the newspapers or the "Gazette" reaches them. Those
in possession of radios may hear the news over the
radio. It takes time for such news to spread. If the
Government was really interested in the restoration of
law and order it should have utilized at least one day
for the purpose of informing the people of the fact that
an emergency had been declared and of the regulations
and orders promulgated. Nothing would have been lost if
Government gave a warning to the people regarding the
consequences of contravening the law after the
declaration of the emergency. It was the duty of
Government, by beat of tom-tom, distribtuion of
handbills, or other methods of publicity, to have
informed the villagers in the Northern and Eastern
Provinces of the fact of the emergency and of the
regulations and orders which they had to obey.
As
a matter of fact, the Government Agent at Trincomalee
informed the satyagrahis at the Kachcheri that an
emergency had been declared and appealed to t hem to
leave the Kachcheri premises. All of them peacefully
left the place by 10 a.m. on the 18th, and it did not
become necessary to use any force for the purpose of
dispersing the satyagrahis at Trincomalee and clearing
the entrances to the Kachcheri. The Government Agent at
Batticaloa adopted the same course of action, similar
results. But, for some mysterious reason, the Government
in Jaffna did not adopt this sensible course of action.
Instead, the early hours of the 18th the military,
without any warning and without informing the
satyagrahis assembled at the Jaffna Kachcheri that an
emergency had been declared, assaulted the men
satyagrahis mercilessly, bundled the women satyagrahis
into trucks and transported them. The military also
vented their wrath on a large number of push bicycles
and even on some motor cars parked at the Kachcheri
gates. If the reports are true, the army seems to have
displayed considerable courage and valour in their
attacks on unarmed 'satyagrahis and on inanimate objects
like push bicycles! Certain Government quarters, I am
told, believe that the Ceylon Army had covered itself
with glory when, under the cover of darkness and armed
with modern weapons, it routed a band of unarmed
satyagrahis in what will go down in history as the
"Battle of Jaffna"!
But people cannot help
contrasting this exploit of the Ceylon Army with the
one-man victory of the Government Agents at Trincomalee
and with Agent in Batticaloa who were able to win their
battles by resorting to patient persuasion.
Immediately the "Battle of Jaffna" was over, the army
proceeded to waylay and hit all and sundry on t he roads
of Jaffna on the ground that they were breaking a curfew
order, of which most of them were unaware. It is not
necessary for me to go into the details of the exploits
of the Ceylon Army in Jaffna Peninsula in the course of
this debate. Once the emergency is lifted, it will be
time enough to investigate these matters.
The
question that arises with regard to the attitude of the
military in the Jaffna Peninsula is an important one for
the Government to consider. By the time the emergency
was declared the F.P.�s postal service had ceased to
exist as a result of lack of stamps, complete absence of
post offices, lack of custom and the postal peons
attending to serious work instead of participating in a
farce, the only merit of which - according to the F.P. -
was that they were braking the laws of the land. The
only unlawful activity therefore in which any section of
the people of the Northern and Eastern Provinces were
engaged was the obstruction of Government offices.
As I said earlier, the military forces of this country,
under the able command of Colonel Udugama, surprised the
non-violent satyagrahis about 200 in number - at the
Jaffna kachcheri by a skilful manoeuvre. Without
resorting to any shooting, but by a deft application of
belts, batons, rifle-butts and legs, they routed the
enemy and covered themselves with glory.
Now, the
only thing that remained to be done was to keep the
entrances to the various Government offices open so that
the public could transact. their business. This would
have been easily done by posting armed patrols at all
approaches to the Kachcheri and other Government offices
to see that crowds did not collect and by permitting
only person with legitimate business to go to those
offices. So far as the population outside these areas
were concerned, they were peaceful, non-violent and
attending to their normal work.
Instead of this being done, why was the
Army let loose on the entire population of the Northern
and Eastern provinces, particularly those of the Jaffna
Peninsula? Why was a curfew imposed? Even if it was
thought necessary to have a curfew at the outset, why is
it being continued even today? Why have the military on
their own imposed a curfew even in villages in respect
of which a curfew has not been proclaimed?
Why are the farmers of Jaffna who
ordinarily go to their fields in these hot days at 4
o'clock in the morning prevented from doing so till well
after 6 a.m.? Why have the military been beating and
thrashing innocent passers-by on the streets of Jaffna?
Why have some of them been helping themselves to goods
and articles in shops and asking the owners to send the
bills to the F.P. leader? Why have cars been
commandeered as if a great military campaign was afoot?
Why has petrol been issued on permits in Jaffna, when
there is enough petrol for everybody? Why have car
owners been made to queue up for permits for petrol at
the Kachcheri and subjected to humiliating remarks by
army sentries? Why have the military prevented people
from having their lights on at night? Because they have
been asked not to 'shoot, why have they indulged in the
pastime of throwing stones at houses? Why have they set
fire to fences and madams. and put the blame on the
people? Are these acts of organised terrorism and
lawlessness the result of any orders given to the army
to strike terror into the inhabitants of Jaffna so that
they might give up their agitation for their language
rights
Today, there is greater lawlessness in
the Northern and Eastern Provinces and particularly in
the Jaffna Peninsula than there has ever been at any
time in its recent history - lawlessness by the
guardians of law! The army have by their terrorist
tactics provoked retaliation in a number of cases, but
that is no reason why the army should continue to be let
loose on the peaceful people of Jaffna when the only
legitimate purpose for which it could have been used was
to clear the entrances to the Government offices and
keep those entrances clear for public use.
Nor is
this all. The Government has even attempted to interfere
in the administration of justice by transferring cases
pending in the courts of Jaffna to courts in Colombo,
thereby preventing witnesses from appearing in cases in
which army personnel or the people are accused. If the
Government for any reason thought that the judges in
Jaffna could not be trusted to do justice in those
cases, the obvious step was to have appointed other
judges to take their place - not to baulk inquiry and
investigation by transferring cases 250 mils away from
the place where the alleged offences had been committed.
. If history teaches us anything, it teaches us that
national movements thrive on terrorism and repression;
and the Ceylon Army have by their conduct in the Jaffna
Peninsula given an added impetus for the movement of a
national minority to win its language rights. It must
also be noted that the true solution to the problem
facing Ceylon today cannot be found by resort to armed
force. There has to be a political solution of the
language problem if Ceylon is to go forward.
Now,
the question arise: in what manner is one to find a
political solution to this language problem? I intended
to address this House at some length on this problem,
but in view of the fact that there are a number of hon.
Senators who wish to raise certain questions themselves,
I do not propose to trouble this House by going into all
the aspects of the matter. I only wish to say that, so
far as the late Mr Bandaranike was concerned, he was
always of the view that this problem should, if
possible, be disposed of in a calm atmosphere, an
atmosphere in which there was no tension and, if need
be, at a round-table conference. As a matter of fact,
there is some misunderstanding in certain Government
quarters as to the advisability or otherwise of
disposing of these matters at a roundtable conference.
But the late Mr Bandaranike himself was the person who
suggested on more than one occasion that these problems
should be thrashed out at a round-table conference and
some solution of the language problem should be arrived
at.
I do not propose to embark on a discussion of
the solution suggested by the late Mr Bandaranaike, nor
do I want to enter into a controversy with the Members
of the Government with regard to what the policies of Mr
Bandaranaike were in respect of the language question.
But I only wish to say that no solution is possible in
respect of this problem if the majority nationality
imagines, because it is in a majority, it can easily
impose its will on the minorities. Neither is such
solution possible within the ambit of the Official
Language Act, the Tamil Language (Special Provisions)
Act and the Language of the Courts Act - as some. of the
Government Members imagine it is possible
It will
indeed be desirable if this problem can be rescued from
being the plaything of party politics and solved at a
national level at a round-table conference of all
parties. If that is not possible, I wish to suggest to
the Hon. Prime Miinister even now that it is not too
late to appoint an expert committee or commission in
which she has confidence for the purpose of reporting on
this question so that the Government may have before it
some basis on which it may proceed to decide what
,should be done in accordance with the policies of the
late Mr Bandaranaike to solve the language problem. But
I venture to submit with great respect that the ordinary
laws of the land are ample for the purpose of restoring
and maintaining law and order in this country, and there
is absolutely no reason why this emergency should. be
continued for one day longer. I thank you. |