|
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 9 May 1961
[see also On Sri Lankan Army's
Attack on Peaceful Satyagrahis, 2 May 1961]
"...I also desire to say that this particular
message from the Hon. Prime Minister with regard to 'Operation Showdown� has
been put up in a number of places and I daresay there must also have been
translations of this in Sinhala, which may have been misunderstood.
Certainly, in my view, this message appears to have been misunderstood by
the army who are keeping up the tempo of operations at a high level and who
are still hoping for the successful outcome of their operations. One really
does not know what this operation is for and what the successful outcome is
expected to be. Certain people feel that this is an operation of terrorism,
an operation intended to strike terror into the hearts of people until they
are subdued. Others feel that it is not so.
It will be a good thing
if the Hon. Prime Minister clarifies the position and informs these army
personnel what really is meant by this message. Having despatched her
grateful thanks to the service and police officers on efficiently carrying
out this immense task she says, "We must see this thing through to the end".
The task had already been carried out. Having said that, what did she mean
by saying, "We must see this thing through to the end and I call on every
officer and man to give of his best and keep the tempo of the operation at a
high level for I have complete confidence in the successful outcome of the
operations. No one must relax for a moment until the task is over"? What was
the outstanding task, after 19th April, 1961, which the military had not
accomplished? That is what I desire to know from the Hon. Prime Minister..."
On the last occasion when I referred to the question
of the emergency, I believe it was my good Friend Senator
Amarasutiya, who wanted to know from me whether I had been to the
Northern Province and. found out for myself the state of affairs
there before I made my remarks, and I had to admit that I went on
reliable correspondence in respectof the statements that I made. But
since then I have taken the trouble to go to the Northern Province
and find out for myself the conditions existing there. I now wish to
place before the Hon. Prime Minister and her Government certain
aspects of this problem as a result of my personal investigations
which show me, if anything, that the statements I made on the last
occasion on the floor of the House were really under-statements with
regard to the state of affairs there. I cannot speak of the Eastern
Province but I certainly can speak of the state of affairs in the
Northern Province.
You might remember that the reason for the
declaration of this emergency and the military being asked to
undertake certain operations in the Northern and Eastern Provinces
was to ensure that the civil administration of Government was
carried on without any difficulty or impediment caused by the
satyagrahis. That was the idea, because the Government found that as
a result of the satyagrahis - I do not know. whether it was
physically - offering physical obstruction to Government officers,
it was found impossible to carryon the Government administration in
a number of departments. So the military were asked to clear the
obstruction and to see to it that there was no impediment from the
satyagrahis in the various Government offices.
As I mentioned
to you on the last occasion, within about 15 or 20 minutes of the
beginning of the operations on the 17th night - Monday night - the
entire area was cleared of the satyagrahis. I also mentioned that
more than 100 push bicycles were beaten up and damaged. I might
mention that I have confirmation now of the fact that that statement
was correct because these push bicycles damaged by the military were
transported to the police station, and from the police station they
have been sent to the Magistrate's Court for disposal because the
bicycles were damaged there.
Then, I stated that the people
in Jaffna generally were not aware of the fact that a curfew was in
force at that time. So, having commenced the campaign of thrashing I
referred to earlier, they diverted their attention on people who
really did not know that there was an emergency and a curfew on at
the time. This sort of thing has been going on and is still going
on.
So far as food supplies to Jaffna are concerned, I am glad to
say that within a day-or two the necessary arrangements were made by
Government through the various Government officers working there for
the distribution of rations to the people who were deprived of their
rations as a result of this so-called satyagraha campaign. That has
been very satisfactory. But as regards the supply of other
provisions to the Jaffna Peninsula the position is not the same. In
fact, the supply of other essential provisions has been seriously
interfered with in this way.
The military, for some reason
which is not apparent, has undertaken the task of inspecting at the
Elephant Pass barrier every single lorry which oes from Colombo to
Jaffna. They do this inspection
in a peculiar way. Every single
bundle or package is taken down from the lorry and put back into it.
A great deal of time is spent in doing this. It is not understood
why search is being conducted in this manner, especially when it is
known that these lorries are transporting essential foodstuffs to
the Jaffna Peninsula. I do not know what the military are searching
in these food lorries. This looks like a systematic campaign. The
result is that traders find it is not worth their while sending any
commodities to Jaffna.
The position now is that there is a great scarcity of essential
foodstuffs and articles. There is sufficient rice and flour in
Jaffna but there is an alarming shortage of other essential
foodstuffs on account of the activities of the Military at Elephant
Pass. The effect of this vigorous inspection at the Elephant Pass
barrier of all vehicles carrying foodstuffs is a great scarcity of
essential articles for the use of the people. As a matter of fact,
ordinary farmers who take even straw into the Jaffna Peninsula have
to bring down the straw and load it again after the military have
completed their inspection.
One does not know what the reason
is for this sort of inspection unless of course it is for the
purpose of causing the maximum inconvenience to the people because I
do not think it has been suggested by anybody that this should be
done. Apart from obstruction to Government officers caused to them
by satyagrahis there was nothing else going on in the Jaffna
Peninsula. Once the military cleared the entrances to the various
Government offices, the normal day-to-day work was carried on and
there was a peacef'ul population.
Even today people are travelling to Jaffna by train but
there is no inconvenience caused to them. But if you travel by car
and you happen to pass this check-point at the Elephant Pass
barrier, every: single package must be taken out and given over to
themilitary for inspection. One cannot understand why this
harassment is going on at Elephant Pass, unless it is for the
purpose of teaching the people of Jaffna a lesson; otherwise, one
cannot see the reason for all this. The purpose of this search and
inspection in this way is not clear.
By this time the
military had cleared all the entrances to the various Government
offices and it was possible for them to function in the normal
manner. There was no possibility of any satyagrahis
gaining
access to these places. At the same time that the emergency was
declared, a curfew was also enforced. It must be readily accepted
that villagers in Jaffna, or for that matter in other parts of the
country, do not wear wrist-watches or carry with them watches to
enable them to know the exact time when they should return from
their places of work and remain indoors before a certain time. It is
also to be expected that not every single soldier will have a
wrist-watch to enable him to know the exact time when the curfew
would be enforced. I suppose this is the position all over the
world.
Anyway, I happened to investigate some of the steps
taken to enforce the curfew in my own village and elsewhere. The
position is this. By 5 o'clock the soldiers begin enforcing the
curfew so that they can be sure that the people are indoors by 6
o'clock. In other words, the thrashing begins by 5 o'clock! Some
poor villager who has gone to his farm and is returning home � it is
likely he is out after the specified time - is thrashed even though
he has not really broken the curfew.
I really do not know
why this curfew should be imposed at all. It may be that some poor
farmer may be fifteen minutes late, but instead of asking him to get
home quickly he is thrashed. This is what has been going on. The
thrashing starts well before time. After all, these poor villages
have no wrist-watches to guide them, nor have all these soldiers
wrist-watches to .enable them to do their job. That may be the
reason why they start earlier than the proper time so that they may
not be found fault with by their officers. These are some of the
points I wish to bring to the notice of the Hon. Prime Minister in
regard to the manner in which the curfew is being enforced.
One knows that during the enforcement of a curfew, normal business
cannot be transacted. In 1958 when the late Prime Minister declared
a curfew, those of us who were living in Colombo knew that in order
to get about our work after hours one had to get a curfew pass. For
instance, if I as a lawyer wanted to have a consultation with
another lawyer friend at 7 p.m. I had to get a pass from the police.
There was no difficulty about that. If I called at the nearest
police station and explained the position, automatically a curfew
pass was issued to me, because they never suspected that any
looting, arson or anything like that would be committed. They gave
me a pass for the mere asking.
But here people in remote
villages of Jaffna have to go to the A.S.P. Jaffna, for the purpose
of obtaining a curfew pass, which is not given except in the case of
doctors and people of certain categories. There was a really sad
case in one village where a lady who was giving birth to a child was
actually bleeding. She had to be rushed to the hospital. The people
attending on this poor lady were helpless. Fortunately, a priest who
came to their rescue, broke the curfew and took the lady to
hospital. Why all this? Surely, the people of .Jaffna during the
satyagraha campaign were not setting fire to any huts or were guilty
of looting, arson or anything like that. That is another aspect of
the matter.
For some reason, only in Jaffna is Lt. Col.
Udugama Co-ordinating Officer, while both in Batticaloa and
Trincomalee the Government Agents, people who know_ civil
administration, are the Co-ordinating Officers. This military
officer was only asked to clear the passage to the Kachcheri so as
to enable people to go to the offices for their work. That work of
the military was accomplished within half an hour. But what else did
the military do? Here I am speaking of something
which I myself
saw when I went round Jaffna. Apart from the assaults which the
military personnel had indulged in, I saw a number of houses which
had been stoned by them. Valuable neon signs had been broken. I
actually saw glass frontages smashed with stones and a number of
fences broken down.
As a matter of fact, it would appear that recently the blame was
put on the police by the military, with the result that the military
and the police in Jaffna .came to a certain arrangement. The police
said, "We will see to the patrolling of the Jaffna town within the
municipality. Let no military vehicles come here in the night." But
. after that, a house in which a certain lady resided upstairs and
Mr. Rajasuriya, a Member of the Municipal Council of Jaffna, resided
down stairs, was shot at by the military. I actually saw the glass
broken there.
When complaint was made, the police officers
took the trouble of going into the municipality area to see whether
any military vehicle was there. Lo and behold! They found two
military jeeps which had no business to be there according to the
arrangement which had been arrived at. That was not the only house
shot at. These military boys are trigger-happy. The whole point is
that they have nothing to do. Their job was done on the 17th within
15 minutes and they had no more work to do. They were just let loose
in Jaffna and they did not know what to do.
That is not all.
When stones were thrown at a house one night, a complaint was
immediately made by the owner of the house to the police. As a
result of that complaint, the very next day the military went in
full force and broke up the entire frontage of that house. I myself
saw the damage that had been done. People are frightened to make
complaints, because the moment they make a complaint the situation
becomes worse.
I must say that, although at the very outset
there were some police excesses as a result of certain
circumstances, today in Jaffna the police are the only force who
are, to some extent, protecting the population against the excesses
of the military. In a number of instances the police have intervened
to protect the people against the excesses of the military.
There are a number of instances where people have been set upon
and assaulted because they made complaints to the police stationed
in Jaffna. In some cases the police themselves, for fear of falling
foul with the military; have discouraged people from making
complaints. I was informed that a number of wristlet watches,
fountain pens, purses and hand-bags had been removed by the military
from passersby. For no rhyme or reason motorcars have been stopped
and searched.
It appears that sometimes when the persons were
cheeky or something like that; the military punctured the tyres with
their bayonets. Bicycles have been smashed for no rhyme or reason.
That was the state of affairs in Jaffna after the military had
resorted law and order! So far as the inhabitants of .Jaffna were
concerned, there was no need for a curfew by the night of the 17th.
.
One can just imagine the difficulties of the people as a result
of the 48_hour curfew on the 18th and 19th. But let us overlook
that. After that date, what was the position in Jaffna? The
Government office were functioning and things were normal. Under
those conditions, there was absolutely no reason why there should
have been any curfew.
Lt. Col. Udugama. apparently
interpreted the regulation which stated that the Co-ordinating
Authority may impose petrol rationing to mean that it was compulsory
to enforce petrol rationing in Jaffna. There was no reason at all
for this. After all, there were only a few army vehicles there and
the petrol stations had enough petrol to supply all their
requirements. Notwithstanding this, a system of permits for the
issue of petrol was introduced. As a result, the people were not
only inconvenienced by having to queue up for petrol but had also to
listen to the insulting remarks made by the military. In addition,
it gave a good opportunity to the military to trade in petrol. As a
matter of fact, military petrol was being sold to lorry drivers at
2.50 per gallon Super Shell, when. the price was very much higher in
Jaffna. What is more, sentries were stationed at petrol depots to
see that no more petrol was allowed to be pumped into vehicles than
the quantity shown on the permits.
In this connection, I
suggest that a strict audit should straightway be conducted into the
mileage done by the army vehicles, and the quantity of petrol issued
to them during their period of stay in Jaffna. If that is done,
there will be a revealing story, because the army personnel have
been abusing these permits and disposing of the petrol. That is one
advantage the military have gained as a result of the rationing of
petrol in the Jaffna Peninsula.
I now come to another aspect
of the matter. From the 19th onwards, the military had nothing to do
in Jaffna except enforce this curfew. I do not know why this curfew
should have been enforced at all. Unfortunately, they started
enforcing it in the villages one hour earlier, and thrashed the
villagers who innocently passed by. When this was going on, a
message from the Hon. Prime Minister was received by the Army
Commander on 22nd April, 1961. This was a circular to all the
members of the army. This is what the message says:
"OP
Showdown � Message from the Honourable Prime Minister�
,
"OP" means "Operation Showdown". That is the term applied by the
army for what they have been doing in Jaffna. You will remember .
"Operation Ganja", Mr. President. Usually, in respect of these
operations, the military do not give the real name. A name is 'given
to hide what they are doing. They say, for instance, "Operation
Pluto" or something like that to disguise the real nature of the
transaction. But in this case, they express precisely what is being
done in Jaffna. This is the name given for the operation in Jaffna
"Operation Showdown". Let me read the note issued by Lt. Col.
Udugama:
�Reproduced below is a personal message from the Honourable
Prime Minister. Sufficient copies of which are forwarded herewith
for distribution in your depots and for display on Notice Boards.
The message is reproduced in English, a Sinhala translation may be
read to the men if it is possible.�
It would be interesting to know how it was translated into
Sinhala and read, because while the men must have misunderstood the
English they would have misunderstood the Sinhala translation more.
That is by the way. The note is signed by A. R. Udugama, Lt. Col.,
M.B.E., C.L.I., Co-ordinating Officer, Administrative District of
Jaffna. The message of the Hon. Prime Minister is as follows:
"Personal from Prime Minister. To be read to all troops and police.
When I ordered OP Showdown I said that the mandate was to
ensure that Government Civil Administration is carried out in your
district without impediment from satyagrahis. You had good plans and
they have been executed with meticulous care. This is a very fine
performance and I congratulate you all for responding to the call
and rallying to the task. I want now to despatch my grateful thanks
to the service and police officers and men under your control who
have
carried out the immense task that was given them�
Apparently, the Government had been informed that this was a
tremendous operation. The military had been given the task of doing
this and they had done it. That is the impression given,
and
shared by the Government. However, I do not quarrel about that. But
let me stress this sentence:
"I want now to despatch my
grateful thanks to the service and police officers and men under
your control who have carried out the immense task that was given
them"
It is an admitted fact that the task had been carried
out
"We must see this thing through to the end "
This is what has led to a good deal of misunderstanding. Having
done their task, the military did not know what other thing they had
to do 'in order to "see this thing through to the end". They had
finished their task, the Government offices and the Kachcheri in
Jaffna were opened and the people were able to go there and transact
their normal business. The message goes on to say:
" and I
call on every officer and man to give out his best and keep the temp
of the operation at a high level for I have complete confidence in
the successful outcome of the operation. No one must relax for a
moment until the task is over. Good luck to you all".
It is
not clear to me what the Hon. Prime Minister had been informed and
what she had in mind when she sent this message on 22nd April 1961.
I do not want to interpret the words of the Prime Minister's
message. But one thing is clear. This shows that the Hon. Prime
Minister was aware of the fact that the task had been carried out,
because she congratulates the officers and men on carrying out the
"immense task" that was given them namely of restoring the civil
administration without any impediment to the satyagrahis. That had
been accomplished by the 22nd. After that date, one does not know
what sort of thing the officers and men were called upon to "see
through to the end" and asked to "give of their best and keep the
tempo of the operation at a high level".,
There were a number
of people who received this. It was obviously translated into
Sinhala and delivered to them. They were conscious of only one
operation that they were performing, and that was thrashing people,
getting hold of people's wristlets - of which the ,Hon. Prime
Minister was completely unaware - breaking windows, making
roadblocks, and so on.
I forgot to mention the making of road
blocks" "that was another feature of their "operation". If a
commission is appointed to go into all this a lot of distinguished
people who have already made complaints in respect of this matter
would no doubt come forward and give evidence. These road blocks, of
which we hear so much, are really put up by the military. They carry
a log and place it across a road. Then they get down there merely
for the purpose of thrashing , all the people round about and try to
justify their action by saying that the people put the road blocks
there! Whatever that may be the position is this. Of course, why
should anybody believe that when a lorry goes to a particular area
the military themselves put up a road block merely to enable them to
get through the thrashing process!
Anyway, what I wish to
point out is that this message sent by the Hon. Prime Minister,
namely, that they should carryon, keep up the temp of their
operation at a very high level has been interpreted by them to mean
that they should continue with the thrashings, that they should
continue to rob, continue to loot, continue to go into the shops and
ask people
... I have been told by people that after 22nd
April, after this message was delivered, as a result of a complete
misunderstanding of this message, all this happened. The Hon. Prime
Minister was no doubt unaware that there had been thrashings and
robbings going on. The Hon. Prime Minister did not know what was
happening out there. I do not know what the Hon. Prime Minister had
in mind when she sent this message. I am not taking it upon myself
to say what the Prime Minister had in mind. I refuse to believe that
a Prime Minister of a country would have addressed such a message
had she been aware of the fact that the only operation in which the
military participated after 19th April was the operation of getting
hold of people who did not obey the curfew and thrashing them, of
robbing people of their wristlets, of walking into shops and helping
themselves to goods and asking the owners to send the bill to Mr.
Chelvanayakam. If the Hon. Prime Minister
knew that these were
the activities that were going on, possibly she may have made the
position clear.
This message was sent. It was read and posted
up. It was interpreted into Sinhala. I wonder what the Sinhala
interpretation for "Operation Showdown" was; what the Sinhala would
have been for "keeping up the tempo at a very high level"; what
"keeping up the tempo" after 19th April meant. In view of these
matters I shall not say anything at all.
But what happened
after 22nd April? These assaults and thrashings which I referred to
continued. I do not desire to take the time of this House by giving
details of the incidents, but I want to give an example of what
happened after April 22nd. I will now refer to an incident that
occurred on Friday the 28th. Just after 6 a.m. a number of soldiers
at Tellipallai came to the public highway and started assaulting all
cyclists and pedestrians who passed that way. Scores of innocent men
were ruthlessly beaten up. Cycles were broken or damaged by them and
the people were compelled to carry their damaged bicycles, injured
as they were, and go to more peaceful areas. This went on till late
in the afternoon, and in the height of their frenzy these soldiers
set fire to a fence that screened the bungalow of the principal of
Mahajana College, which happens to be situated just opposite the
spot where these people ran amok. When they were setting fire to
this place the "Daily Telegraph" correspondent, an European
gentleman, happened to come there, and on seeing a white face these.
shamefaced "school boys" abandoned their pastime of setting fire to
premises and ran away. Yes, when they saw a white face they ran
away, - these "warriors" even did that!
There is another matter I should like to refer to. This is what
happened after the 28th. This is a sample of things happening in
Jaffna. I do not propose to give any names; I propose to hand over
to the Hon. Prime Minister particular name, the number of the jeep
and other particulars so that she may cause immediate inquiries to
be made in respect of this matter.
I have got with me here
all the particulars. I wish only to refer to this fact. On
Wednesday, 3rd May, during the noon interval some teachers of a
college - I will not mentioned the name of the College but I will
furnish the Hon. Prime Minister with the particulars - were
returning to the college. There was an army patrol at the junction.
The soldiers asked them where they were going and these teachers
said they were going to school. Then the soldiers drew their
attention to some tar smeared on the Sinhala letters on a signboard
nearby - somebody had apparently done that in 1958; even in Colombo
you still come across signboards smeared over with tar, Tamil
letters smeared over with tar, "legacies!! left as a result of the
trouble in 1958 - and those teachers, who were returning after an
interval were asked by the military to wipe off the smears of tar.
The teachers protested and said they had nothing to do with the
matter. They said they were not responsible for the smearing and
they did not propose to do anything of the kind. What happened, Mr.
President? These teachers were compelled, at the point of the
bayonet, to wipe
off that tar.
Yes, that is the way "law
and order" is being maintained! Well, the teachers being prudent
people and not being satyagrahis, being ordinary, humble people,
thought to themselves, "It is no use; here is a bully with a gun,
what is the use of resisting that". It was not a question of a brave
soldier; if you take away his gun he is like anybody else. Well
anyway they said to themselves, "He has a gun; therefore the best
thing to do is to remove the tar. But they took the trouble, or
rather made the mistake of complaining to the police about this
incident.
That was on 3rd of May. But what happened? Because
they complained to the police, on the same day, the very same jeep
with the very same lieutenant - as I said I have the number and the
name but I shall refer to him as Lieutenant "N� - went to this
college at 8 p.m. in the night and dragged out two teachers who were
in the hostel and two watchers who were inside, on to the road and
commenced to thrash them mercilessly. Fortunately for these teachers
there is a girls school opposite and the principal of that school,
alarmed by the fact that the military had earlier focussed their
torches inside the girls' school premises, phoned up the
Valvettiturai Police. Than a police inspector arrived on the scene.
He immediately recognised this Lieutenant "N" who
was responsible
for conducting the whole thing and he asked, �Mr N. what is the
meaning of all this? Why are you assaulting these teachers?" Well
there were words between the police on the one hand and the military
on the other hand. The military, I suppose, gave the usual excuse
that their victims were breaking the curfew and they were taken to
the police station and bailed out - that is to say, so far as the
teachers were concerned. There the matter ended on that date, on
Wednesday. Thursday went by and on Friday what happened? .Just after
dark, some army men get hold of a large number of coral stones, put
them in an army vehicle, dropped them at the junction and went off.
I am making this statement with a due sense of responsibility. I
will give Madame Prime Minister all the particulars. This
information will also be available in the police station records.
On Friday, after dark, they did this and went away.
Then they jumped over the walls of the college, went inside
it, dragged out the two watchers who were there, told them that they
had put the coral stones on the road and insisted, at that time of
the night, that they should remove everyone of the stones.
Accordingly the stones were removed and the military went away.
Again, on Saturday they performed a baila at the junction, invaded
the premises of the girls' school, frightened the orphans, ran into
the boys' school, and started banging the tables and chairs. They
performed a dance making a nuisance of themselves. I do not wish to
go into more details. All I wish to say is wee are told that during
the satyagraha campaign remarks had been made by a number of
satyagrahis and others at the army officers, calling them dogs and
things like that.
The army had been referred to as dogs by
satyagrahis and other people, by students in processions. It was
said that they had made remarks at the army and therefore the army
had been very angry with these people. I am not surprised; it is
quite likely. I personally do not doubt for one moment that a thing
like that happened because a satyagraha is a very difficult matter;
it is difficult for people to be really so passive, non-resistant
and forbearing as not to use violence or hard words. It is an almost
impossible thing. Even Mahatma Gandhi, in respect of his satyagraha
campaign, more than once failed because people could not rise to the
occasion. It is quite likely that this has happened and the members
of the army possibly had a sort of grievance against the people.
But that is no reason why a disciplined army should utilise an
emergency for the purpose of having its o...m private feuds with the
population settled. A disciplined army must behave like a
disciplined army. It is one of those things. Either this army is
following instructions given from above in carrying out this
terrorist campaign... in which event it is a disciplined army; it
is-only carrying out orders - or, if the position is that the army
is not carrying out any such orders but is really embarking on a
campaign of retaliation or terrorising people on its own then it is
undisciplined. If an officer says that he is unable to maintain
discipline in his force; if he has to tell the army that they should
carry out his orders, then there is something wrong.
What we
should try to do is to build up a disciplined army which is not
concerned with politics or political considerations, which is not
concerned with communities, but is determined to carry out orders
given to it, and nothing more. That is what we should endeavour to
build up.
But if an army is behaving in this way, or if a
commanding officer can say, "I do not know what is happening, then
there is something wrong. A favourite question Colonel Udugama asked
the men who complained to him that the army men had damaged their
neon signs or broken their windows was, "Can you give the number of
the jeep?" Well, there was a curfew on and everybody was indoors. Of
course, the army was outside. So these people had to say, "Sorry."
Then his reply was "Well, what can I do; how can we trace the
people?" That is his difficulty. But that is not an excuse. Either
you have discipline in the army or you do not have it. It is most
heart-rending to find that the infant army of Ceylon, if they are
carrying out instructions, should behave in a highly undisciplined
way. After all, the army is a brave force. They cannot behave like
thugs and hooligans because they have guns in their hands. They
cannot get hold of innocent people and thrash them or set fire to
their fences. That is not the way in which any brave army, any army
worthy of its name will behave. After all, we should see to it that
an army is brought up in proper traditions, and sufficient has
happened in Jaffna for the matter' to be looked into very closely
from the point of view of improving the army itself, its morale and
discipline.
I forgot to mention to you that not content with
these things the army has also been indulging in things like this.
At Karaiyur, a fishing village, they went into a place where some
fisher folk had captured a number of turtles. This is their means of
livelihood; they catch these turtles and sell them. The army went in
there at night and released the turtles.
And when a complaint
was made to Lt. Col. Udugama he said they were practising maithriya!
But a very funny thing happened the very next day. This same army,
which practiced maithriya on the previous day, carried away ten
goats! The appropriate complaint has been made to the police, but so
far no one knows anything about the whereabouts of the goats.
The suffering of the Tamil people in this way, undergoing certain
inconvenience and discomfort, being thrashed, being threatened and
terrorised, their foodstuffs not even reaching them; in the normal
way as a result of the military activities at Elephant Pass; all
these things would mean nothing in the history of a country or
nation. After all, what is it that these people have suffered when
compared with what so many minorities in Eastern Europe or the
Polish people and many others have suffered right down the
centuries? These are not things about which people need be unduly
alarmed. These are not things that will break the morale of a
people. If they do, they do not deserve to live. These terrorist
tactics will not have the slightest effect on their morale and their
determination to win their legitimate rights for their language. But
I am only concerned about these happenings as one who is interested
in the welfare of our country.
I am bringing these things to
the notice of the Hon. Prime Minister and this House for the purpose
of seeing to it that we have an army which is disciplined, brave and
courageous. The army is there, in a situation such as this, to
protect the people. We must not have under the guise of an army a
set of armed thugs and hooligans who, because they have guns, are
prepared to inflict their power on poor unarmed people who cannot
fight back. It is for that reason that I thought these things should
be brought to the notice of the Hon. Prime Minister.
I also
desire to say that this particular message from the Hon. Prime
Minister with regard to 'Operation Showdown� has been put up in a
number of places and I daresay there must also have been
translations of this in Sinhala, which may have been misunderstood.
Certainly, in my view, this message appears to have been
misunderstood by the army who are keeping up the tempo of operations
at a high level and who are still hoping for the successful outcome
of their operations. One really does not know what this operation is
for and what the successful outcome is expected to be. Certain
people feel that this is an operation of terrorism, an operation
intended to strike terror into the hearts of people until they are
subdued. Others feel that it is not so.
It will be a good
thing if the Hon. Prime Minister clarifies the position and informs
these army personnel what really is meant by this message. Having
despatched her grateful thanks to the service and police officers on
efficiently carrying out this immense task she says, "We must see
this thing through to the end". The task had already been carried
out. Having said that, what did she mean by saying, "We must see
this thing through to the end and I call on every officer and man to
give of his best and keep the tempo of the operation at a high level
for I have complete confidence in the successful outcome of the
operations. No one must relax for a moment until the task is over"?
What was the outstanding task, after 19th April, 1961, which the
military had not accomplished? That is what I desire to know from
the Hon. Prime Minister. |
