Source
Tamil MP is killed in Sri Lanka, BBC, 6 March 2008

Sources
Sri Lankan Tamil MP assassinated in temple, AFP, 1 January 2008
Leading Sri Lanka Tamil MP killed, BBC, 1 January 2008

On the same day, a bomb exploded near the entrance to a popular department store in a Nugegoda, a busy suburb of Colombo. At least 21 people were reported killed and over 40 injured by the blast, blamed by the Sri Lankan military on the Tamil Tigers.

In July, the LTTE celebrated 20 years of suicide bombings.

Sources
Colombo suicide bomber on videotape, The Hindu,  2 December 2007; Minister targeted in Sri Lanka suicide attack, The Guardian,  28 November 2007;  Government minister escapes suicide attack in Sri Lanka, International Herald Tribune, 28 November 2007; LTTE admits using 61 suicide bombers last year, The Hindu, 5 July 2007; LTTE staged 49 suicide attacks since July 2006, Hindustan Times, 5 July 2007; Sources
Security clampdown in Sri Lanka capital after deadly blasts: police, AFP, 28 November 2007; Twin blasts kill 17 in Sri Lanka, rebels blamed, Reuters, 28 November 2008; TNA condemns Colombo blasts, BBC Sinhala, 28 November 2007.

Quotations

“I was just about 25 to 30 feet from the suicide bomber and I am used to such attempts being made on me,” Douglas Devananda, Social Welfare Minister.

“Both attacks were by the LTTE.” Brigadier Udaya Nanayakkara.

“I myself would have been caught had I was there at the time of the blast…As a politician I can’t say straight away who carried out the attacks. I strongly condemn them whoever did it.” Chandrakanth Chandranehru,Tamil National Alliance (TNA) parliamentarian.

“The LTTE must stop any direct or indiscriminate attacks on civilians. They are forbidden under international humanitarian law and are never acceptable.” Irene Khan, Amnesty International Secretary General.

“The callous attacks have no political justification and serve only to add to the suffering and grief of ordinary Sri Lankans.” European Union statement.

Related events

“A prominent Tamil politician died in hospital after he was shot near his home in the Sri Lankan capital early Friday, a party member and a hospital official said. One of his guards was also killed. Nadaraja Raviraj, of the Tamil National Alliance was shot as he left his house in Colombo, said K. Sivajilingam, a fellow member of Parliament. Sivajilingam said that Raviraj also worked as a lawyer and was going to the court … when some people came and fired at him.” From: Tamil member of Parliament killed in Sri Lankan capital, International Herald Tribune, 10 November 2006.

Sources
Sri Lankan MP killed in Colombo, BBC, 10 November 2006; Prominent Tamil politician assassinated, Associated Press, 10 November 2006.

Nadarajah Raviraj: Assassination of an activist
In the spirit of citizen’s journalism, unionblackcolombo remembers his friend Raviraj.

Quotations

“Both sides, while talking peace, are engaged in other activities. The Sri Lankan government is involved in such activities. The LTTE is also acquiring arms and strengthening themselves. This is natural and is anticipated. The issue is how can we curtail it? If we are sincere in finding a solution to the ethnic problem by way of talks, we must sit together and thrash out the matter. After all this is a small country. The Tamil people and majority of the Sinhalese people know each other and are not communal minded. I am a person who is very close to the Sinhala people. I go for TV interviews with my broken Sinhalese not to gain political mileage – none of the Tamils watch those – but I go because I need to build an understanding with the Sinhalese and to tell them the plight of the Tamil people. If we work with a peace agenda we can definitely achieve peace,” Nadarajah Raviraj, from Begin talks without conditions, Sunday Leader, 24 September 2006.

“As a parliamentarian he worked tirelessly for the Tamil nation…He shattered the false propaganda of the Sinhala state infusing his arguments with his legal expertise. He stood firm and fought injustice in the face of threats from paramilitary violence. Mr Nadaraja Raviraj is a great man. He possessed rare characteristics. He is not the one to be pushed and pulled around for personal gains. He had a deep affection for the Tamil homeland and its people. He is an exceptional politician. He understood law and justice in its true sense. He possessed a progressive spirit and a desire to follow novel approaches. He was brave and he possessed a purity of heart. His youthful energy with all of the above stole the hearts of all who came in contact with him,” Vellupillai Prabhakaran, Leader LTTE.

“[The assassination] is one more reprehensible act by those opposed to dissent and political pluralism in a democratic society,” Mahinda Rajapakse, President of Sri Lanka

“It is government forces or forces aligned to the government, there can be no question. This is an attempt to stifle… and silence those who can justifiably espouse the Tamil cause,” R. Sampanthan, leader of the Tamil National Alliance (TNA).

“Raviraj functioned as a bridge to North and South. His murder is a challenge to people who voice for peace. Raviraj who also addressed the problems faced by the people of South, participated in many demonstrations organized on their interests. He had many Sinhala friends. He joined us in advocating the release of S.B. Disanayake. We see his loss as the same as late Vijaya Kumarathunghe,” Rajitha Senaratne, United National Party MP, Kalutura district.

Related events
5 January 2000
25 December 2005
12 August 2006
6 November 2006
6 March 2008

This event was the subject of a feature: Assassination of an activist.

Sources
Security forces, LTTE trade blame, The Hindu, 26 December 200; LTTE: MP killed by military intelligence, BBC Sinhala, 25 December 2005.

Quotations

“This well-planned murder proves that the long hand of the chauvinistic forces such as the Jathika Hela Urumaya is working through the Sri Lankan military intelligence wing.” LTTE statement, 25 December 2005.

“The government condemns this cowardly act in the strongest possible terms. … [The] assassination has been carried out to serve a specific agenda” to create an environment to “further escalate the cycle of violence perpetuated by the LTTE.” Statement issued by the Presidential Secretariat.

Related events
September 1985
13 July 1989
5 January 2000
25 December 2005
10 November 2006

Sources
Tamil politician shot dead, BBC, 5 January 2000; The Scent of Danger, UTHR (J), 30 January 2000;

Extracts from UTHR (J) report
“To see Kumar Ponnambalam merely as an individual is to miss the point. Seeing his political career as simply opportunistic is also to miss the wood for the trees. If one goes into the past of individuals uncompromisingly backing the LTTE, one would very likely find elements which the LTTE in theory finds far from congenial – others have been killed for much less. Kumar Ponnambalam had been a part of that social ferment within the Tamil elite that spawned and sustained the politics of the LTTE. Its ultimate purpose – to unreasonably vilify, provoke and bring out the worst in the Sinhalese. This is done by harping on the very real suffering of the Tamils – often through the sheer callousness of the State – but, refusing to acknowledge the instrumentality of the LTTE in this or the role played by a segment in the Sinhalese polity which is also challenging the status quo. This is then used to argue that nothing good will come out of the Sinhalese. …

“Kumar Ponnambalam well understood the LTTE, which had given a clear message that he should keep out of politics in Jaffna. Five years later, prior to the August 1994 general elections, in an address to the Rotary Club in Trincomalee he took a frankly pro-LTTE separatist line and denounced the other Tamil parties as traitors. This was the prelude to his contesting parliamentary elections from Colombo in which he was unsuccessful. From this time, he was a vocal and insensitive advocate of the LTTE. His advocacy was blind to Tamil history and offensive to many Sinhalese and Tamils alike.” The Scent of Danger, UTHR (J), 30 January 2000.

Quotations

“I appreciate Kumar Ponnambalam’s contribution to the protection of the human and political rights of Tamil people, throughout his career. Mr. Ponnambalam was a tireless advocate of free speech, advocating the legitimate cause of Tamils in Sri Lanka,” Bill Pascrell (Jr), US House of Representatives, January 2000.

“The CIJL recalled that Mr. Ponnambalam was a prominent defence lawyer. He represented clients in many human rights cases. The CIJL is concerned that he was assassinated because of his effective defence of his clients. Mr. Ponnambalam also spoke out his mind on various issues. The views he expressed did not always please the government. In fact, the CIJL intervened in December 1998, on behalf of Mr. Ponnambalam when arrest threats were made against him following a television interview he gave on 17 November 1998.” Jurists Call on the Government to Institute a Thorough Inquiry into the Murder of Lawyer Kumar Ponnambalam, 13 January 2000.

Related events
November 1948
September 1985
13 July 1989
5 January 2000
25 December 2005
10 November 2006

Dr. Tiruchelvam and the TULF advocated a negotiated settlement to the ethnic conflict in Sri Lanka. He played an important part in putting together the government’s devolution package. But in one of his last speeches on the need for a “new deal” for Sri Lanka, Mr Tiruchelvam warned that even constitutional reform was not enough – instead, politics itself would need to be, in his words, “re-imagined”, away from the prevailing adversarial culture. Tiruchelvam was a regular critic of the Tamil Tigers for their repeated violations of human rights and reluctance to enter into serious negotiations. Because of this, the LTTE is believed to have been behind his assassination.

Sources
Tamil politician assassinated, BBC, 16 July 1999; A leading Sri Lankan moderate is killed, New York Times, 30 July 1999.

Quotations

“Neelan knew that he was working against tremendous odds, and he was quite aware of the risks, but he always believed one has to take risks and work toward broader goals,” Jayadeva Uyangoda, professor of political science at the University of Colombo.

”He believed in those things enough to take those risks. I don’t think he would be angry about what has happened. He would be sad,” Mithran Tiruchelvam.

Extracts from A Sharp Mind and Full of Convictions, obituary published in The Times, London
“Neelan Tiruchelvam was a tireless activist in the sphere of human rights and on behalf of ethnic minorities, not least in his native Sri Lanka. …

Highly regarded around the world both as a legal scholar and as an advocate for a peaceful resolution to inter-ethnic strife, in his native country Tiruchelvam represented the moderate Tamil United Liberation Front (TULF) as a ‘national list’ Member of Parliament. He was dedicated to peaceful change and to seeking a solution to his country’s ethnic conflict that would accommodate both communities, and he was much involved at the time of his death with the Sri Lankan Government on plans to introduce a significant measure of constitutional reform and devolution.

Neelan Tiruchelvam was the son of a TULF politician and former Local Government Minister. Educated at the University of Ceylon and at Harvard Law School, he was a Fulbright Fellow in 1969-71 and went on to hold academic appointments in Sri Lanka and at the University of Harvard and Yale.

He soon built an international reputation both as a scholar and as a campaigner for social justice.

As a result he was invited to join missions of experts and observers sent in the 1980s and 1990s to Pakistan, Chile, Kazakhastan, Ethiopia, South Africa and Nigeria.

He performed similar work in Sri Lanka as a member of the Presidential Law Commission and the Presidential Commission on Democratic Decentralisation and Devolution, and held a number of other legal and constitutional appointments.

When Sri Lanka’s first woman President, Chandrika Bandaranaike Kumaratunga, came to power with her People’s Alliance Government in 1994, there were hopes that the island’s protracted and bloody inter-ethnic hostilities might be settled by negotiation and compromise. Working with Tiruchelvam, President Kumaratunga devised a plan to transform Sri Lanka into a federation of eight regions.

Although the proposals for reform and devolution were supported by Tiruchelvam and other Tamil parliamentarians when they were presented in 1995, inter-party negotiations were impeded by renewed and intensified violence. Nevertheless, several chapters of the proposed new constitution were released after two years, and the political debate continued, even though it proved difficult to attract the support of the necessary two-thirds of Parliamentarians for these far-reaching proposals. The measures were due to be presented to Parliament over the next two months.

The most dangerous opposition came from outside Parliament, however. The Tamil Tigers – who have been waging a war for a separate homeland for the mostly Hindu Tamils against the Buddhist Sinhalese since 1983 – rejected the proposed compromises and continued to wage a guerilla war against the Government for total independence. Atrocities were continuing and a climate of violence remained the norm in parts of Sri Lanka.

Tiruchelvam was a senior partner in the law firm Tiruchelvam Associates and director of the highly respected, non-governmental International Centre for Ethnic Studies in Colombo. He was also closely associated with the Law and Society Trust.

In 1994 he found a new outlet for his commitment when he became a member of the International Council of the London-based human rights organisation, Minority Rights Group International. When the group published its report on the Sri Lankan conflict in 1996, it was Tiruchelvam who presented the report’s recommendation to the Sri Lankan Parliament. In April this year he succeeded Sir John Thomson as chairman of MRO’s council.

Slight and unassuming in appearance, with a quiet, thoughtful manner, Tiruchelvam had sharp and firm convictions. His commitment to reconciliation and to radical but peaceful change set him at odds with those whose positions were more entrenched.

He was in constant personal danger in his own country, and had for some years been under police protection after repeated threats from the Tamil Tigers.

Tiruchelvam had close links with the Faculty of Law at Cambridge University, and had shared experiences and insights on conflict resolution with scholars and practitioners from Northern Ireland. He had a deep affection for Britain, where his sons completed their university education. At the time of his death he had recently taken up a one-month Rockefeller fellowship in Bellaggio, Italy, and was looking forward to a visiting professorship at Harvard. He is survived by his wife Sithie, herself an attorney, and his two sons.”

Related events
17 May 1998
3 August 1995
12 August 2006

This event was the subject of a feature: Assassination of an activist.

Source
Sri Lanka polls: Fear keeps away potential candidates, The Hindu, 29 August 2000.

Source
Sri Lanka polls: Fear keeps away potential candidates, The Hindu, 29 August 2000; Peaceful Options Must Continue to be Sought, National Peace Council, 20 May 1998.

Quotation

“The assassination of the Mayor of Jaffna provides further tragic evidence of the downward spiral of violence and war in Sri Lankan society. Individual political assassinations from whichever sources require the most severe condemnation because they remove the space for the democratic resolution of conflict.” National Peace Council, 20 May 1998.

Related events
September 1985
13 July 1989
5 January 2000
25 December 2005
10 November 2006

Sources
Human Rights Watch World Report: Sri Lanka, 1998; Assassination is a blow to Democratic Solution, Snapshots of Peacebuilding, Commentaries on War and Peace in Sri Lanka 1995-2007, National Peace Council 2007; Tamils afraid to blame LTTE for murder, New Indian Express, 8 July 1997.

Quotations

“The crime is especially deplorable in that is took place at a school event at which several hundred school children were present. When considered along with the large numbers of casualties, both combatants and civilians, the Thangathurai killing is a stark reminder of the costs of the war. ” National Peace Council, 10 July 1997.

“Almost the entire Tamil community, including newspapers and even the Tamil United Liberation Front (TULF), has steadfastly avoided blaming the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam for the killing of senior TULF politician and parliamentarian, Arunachalam Thangathurai, in Trincomalee last week…Thangathurai and five others were killed when a grenade was thrown at him outside a school in the heart of the city on July 5, observed by the LTTE as Black Tigers’ Day. Police have said that it was the work of the Tigers.” Tamils afraid to blame LTTE for murder, New Indian Express, 8 July 1997.

“In July, the LTTE was implicated in the assassinations of two popular politicians, both in Trincomalee district. On July 5, Arunasalam Thangathurai, Tamil United Liberation Front (TULF) MP for Trincomalee District, and five others were killed in a grenade attack as Thangathurai left the premises of a school where he had addressed a public meeting. Thangathurai was known to be critical of both government and LTTE abuses in his constituency.” Human Rights Watch World Report: Sri Lanka, 1998.

Related events
September 1985
17 May 1998
September 1998
5 January 2000
25 December 2005
10 November 2006
1 January 2008

Sources
Chronicle of murders, Frontline Magazine, Volume 16 – Issue 17, Aug 14 – 27, 1999; Official website commemorating A. Amirthalingam life.

Quotations

“Mr. Amirthalingam will be long remembered by all the people of Sri Lanka for the important role he played in our history as a man who championed a cause he passionately believed in, through non-violent means. Moderation and the approach of logical argument and persuasion were his principal weapons. Parliament was his battleground. He used the forensic skills honed by the formidable encounters he daily faced in the law – courts to sharpen his debate for equality of treatment for the Tamil people. In this sense and setting we can locate him as a historical symbol of epic proportions,” Ranil Wickremasinghe, former Sri Lankan Prime Minister.

“Those who perpetrated this dastardly act stand condemned before the world. In a meeting with Mr. Amirthalingam in a recent year, I was impressed by his faith in democratic traditions and processes and by his commitment to the welfare of the Tamils in Sri Lanka. In his passing away, the Tamil people of Sri Lanka have lost an outstanding leader and the people of India a sincere friend. Please accept my heartfelt condolences,” late Rajiv Gandhi, former Indian Prime Minister.

Q: A large number of your contemporaries in Tamil politics such as Amirthalingam, Dr. Neelan Tiruchelvam and Yogeswaran were brutally assassinated by the LTTE. For some time you were in the forefront to condemn the LTTE. How come you have changed your mind and remain a so-called proxy of the LTTE?

A: Killing of Amirthalingam, Yogeswaran and Tiruchelvam cannot ever be justified. They were wrong and they should have never been killed. That is my view that day and that is my view even today. That will always be my view. There is no question about it. But I cannot be looking at the past. I have to look at the future. If I live in the past the problem will never be solved.

The past is past. Because of lapses on the part of the successive governments the LTTE has intensified its struggle.

I have not changed and I am still the same and I am only doing what the time demands,” Rajavarothayam Sampanthan, Tamil National Alliance, All three communities must put heads together, Federalidea.

Related events
September 1985
17 May 1998
September 1998
5 January 2000
25 December 2005
10 November 2006
1 January 2008

Quotation

Q: Did the LTTE kill the two TULF ex-MP’s? The Indian intelligence agencies are positive that you were responsible.

Prabhakaran: “We are not responsible for the killing. What can we do if Indian intelligence agencies make such claims? If we had done it, we would have claimed responsibility, giving our reasons for doing it. We undertake an operation only on the basis of our conviction. So, if we had done it we would not have gone about hiding the fact. When we shot Alalasundaram [Alalasundaram had earlier been shot in the leg by the LTTE] we claimed we had done it. We did not kill him because we thought it was unnecessary. We punished him for his anti-social activities: he had a hand in the cooperative fraud. We produced evidence of his embezzlement. Incidentally, a lot of the documents exposing his nefarious activities were set ablaze on the cooperative premises. We also claimed responsibility when we shot Anandarajah [principal of St. John's School in Jaffna]. … Anandarajah was planning to hold a cricket match with the armed forces at a time when they were killing our people, arresting young Tamil boys indiscriminately, burning Tamil property and raping Tamil women. We had to do away with him because the government was using the impending cricket match as propaganda to give the impression to the world that the Tamil civilians have very cordial relations with the Sri Lanka armed forces and that the ethnic problem is something created by a handful of militants.

Q: Could not the ex-TULF MPs have been killed by some rebel LTTE members?

Prabhakaran: “Absolutely not. Nothing happens in the LTTE without my permission. About the killing I want to say something. I met TULF leaders and assured them that we had not done this killing and that they need not worry about facing such consequences from us. I told them that just because we had shot Alalasundaram some time ago, it did not mean that we were against the TULF. However, I pointed out to them that the gap between them and the younger generation was widening most alarmingly. The younger generation look upon them as betrayers who have given up the struggle for Eelam. The gap is widening all the more because they are not in Eelam facing the people. They have been completely isolated from the realities in Eelam. So, as long as they remain isolated from the Tamil people, they are likely to face such drastic action from the younger generation. The reality is that if I were to give up the Eelam struggle I would face similar action from them.” Source: Extracts from interview with Velupillai Prabhakaran, leader of the LTTE, published in the Sunday Magazine, India 29 September – 5 October 1985.

Extract from The Broken Palmyrah, 1990
“Although there was formal unity in the ENLF in response to popular demand, they made no attempt to work together. It was well known that Prabhakaran, the LTTE leader, and Sri Sabaratnam, the TELO leader hated each other. The assassination of TULF MPs Mr. Dharmalingam and Mr. Alalasunderam of 2 August, 1985, is an example of the methods by which one militant group tried to score over the others. Mr. Dharmalingam and Mr. Aalalasunderam were amongst the TULF MPs who continued to reside in Jaffna. On the basis of testimonies given by several persons who had talked to TELO exiles in India, it is believed that this is how it happened: The LTTE leader Prabhakaran reportedly made a strong threatening speech against the TULF Sri Sabaratnam the TELO leader then gave secret instructions to his men to assassinate the two MPs expecting that Prabhakaran would get the blame and the discredit. As expected the LTTE was largely blamed. In an independent testimony, a PLOTE sentry near Mr. Dharmalingam’s residence identified a vehicle in which the assassins came as belonging to the TELO.”

Related events
27 July 1975
13 July 1989
2 March 1991
1 May 1993
17 May 1998

Source
Jain Commission Report, August 1997, published in India Today.

Extracts from the Jain Commission Report, August 1997
“The LTTE was founded on May 5th 1976 as a successor to Tamil New Tigers (TNT). The TNT was started by V. Pirabhakaran on 22nd May, 1972, soon after the promulgation of the Republican Constitution. …

“The first major strike of the TNT was the assassination of the Mayor of Jaffna. On July 27, 1975 Alfred Duriappah, the Tamil Mayor of Jaffna and chief organiser of the SLFP in the region, went to the Varadaraja Perumal temple at Ponnalai in Jaffna. Four young men waiting for him at the temple attacked him as soon as he got out of his car. One of them opened fire from point blank range. The mayor tried to escape but collapsed in a pool of blood. The assailants jumped into Duriappah’s car and sped away. …

“On April 25, 1978 the LTTE came out into the open for the first time accepting responsibility for the murders of Mayor Duriappah, an alleged Police agent called N.Nadaraja and 9 policemen including Bastian Pillai. The claim was made in a LTTE letter head marked “to whom it may concern” inscribed in the now famous insignia of the roaring Tiger. This claim was published in the Tamil daily Veerkesari, and with this, the LTTE’s existence came to be known publicly.”

Extracts from ‘Antecedents of July 1983 and the Foundations of Impunity’, The Murder of Alfred Duraiappah, University Teachers for Human Rights (UTHR)
“Alfred Duraiappah who was Jaffna’s independent MP from 1960-65 and several times mayor was a popular figure. Although this is denied by many Tamil nationalists, the fact is that in all elections for the Jaffna seat, the votes were equally split between him, the Tamil Congress and the Federal Party. His appeal had nothing to do with his representing any great ideal or principle in politics. He knew his constituents individually and tried to make everyone feel that he was part of their family. He greeted people on the road and inquired about their studies and personal matters. He catered to the needs of people for the normal business of life to go on. He dealt in jobs, transfers, market buildings, public lavatories and streetlights. It suited him to have government patronage for his style of politics, and so he aligned himself with the SLFP. …

“From 1972, the TUF (FP) launched vicious attacks on Duraiappah calling him a traitor worthy of death. At the beginning, it may have been a stunt to win the Jaffna seat. But the more they articulated it, the more they began to believe it to be only right and natural that his end should come. An important event in the vilification of Duraiappah was the International Tamil Research Conference of January 1974. …

“There was not a shred of evidence that Alfred Duraiappah was in any way the cause of this tragedy. But the fact that he was with the Government made the city father a ready scapegoat. The SLFP office on the Main Street was that same night attacked by a mob led by a man identified as a TUF supporter. …

“Very quickly an effective propaganda campaign was unloosed accusing Duraiappah of responsibility for the tragedy and the deaths of the civilians. This was again a case of ‘corpse politics’. It was later carried to new heights by Prabhakaran, the LTTE supremo. …

“On 27th July 1975, Duraiappah was shot dead when he arrived by car at the Ponnalai Varadaraja Perumal Temple with two companions, as was his custom on Friday evenings. Prabhakaran was among the group of assassins who formed the incipient Tiger Movement.”

Related events
August 1977
5 May 1976
22 May 1978
23 July 1983

Source
Blowback: Linguistic Nationalism, Institutional Decay, and Ethnic Conflict in Sri Lanka, Neil DeVotta (2004), Stanford University Press.

Text of the agreement between Dudley Senanayake and S.J.V. Chelvanayakam (1965)
Mr Dudley Senanayake (UNP) and Mr S.J.V. Chelvanayakam (Federal Party) met on the 24.3.1965 and discussed matters relating to some problems over which the Tamil-speaking people were concerned, and Mr Senanayake agreed that action on the following lines would be taken by him to ensure a stable Government.

1. Action will be taken early under the Tamil Language Special Provisions Act to make provisions for the use of Tamil as the language of administration and of record in the Northern and Eastern provinces.

2. Mr Senanayake stated that it was the policy of his Party to amend the Language of the Courts Act to provide for legal proceedings in the Northern and Eastern Provinces to be conducted and recorded in Tamil.

3. Action will be taken to establish District Councils in Ceylon vested with powers over the subjects to be mutually agreed upon between the two leaders. It was agreed, however, that the Government should have power under the law to give directions to such Councils in the national interest.

4. The Lank Development Ordinance will be amended. Mr Senanayake further agreed that in the granting of land under colonization schemes the following priorities be observed in the Northern and Eastern Provinces.

(a) Land in the Northern and Eastern Provinces should be in the first instance be granted to landless persons in the District.
(b) Secondly – to Tamil-speaking persons resident in the Northern and Eastern Provinces, and
(c) Thirdly – to other citizens in Ceylon, preference being given to Tamil citizens in the rest of the Island.

Sgd/Dudley Senanayake 24.3.1965
Sgd/S.J.V.Chelvanayakam 24.3.1965

Related events
5 June 1956
15 June 1956
25 July 1957
9 April 1958
4 August 1958

Extract from Emergency ’58: The Horror Spreads
“The killing of Seneviratne on May 25 was thus officially declared to be the cause of the uprising, although the Com­munal riots had begun on May 22 with the attack on the Polonnaruwa Station and the wrecking of the Batticaloa—Colombo train and several other minor incidents.

“No explanation was offered by the Prime Minister for sing­ling out Seneviratne’s name for particular mention from the scores of people who had lost their lives during those critical days. Did the fact that he was a wealthy man rate him a special mention in a Call to the Nation at such a moment?

“No effort was made to check whether the Seneviratne killing was a political affair or the outcome of a private feud as sug­gested by Mr S. J. V. Chelvanayakam during the debate in Parliament on June 4. If it was, indeed, a ‘private’ murder, the use of this man’s name in that context was a grievous and costly error.”

Extract from Emergency ’58: Emergency Declared
“Shortly after noon on May 27, the Governor-General proclaimed that a State of Emergency had arisen in Ceylon. Several units of the army and navy were mobilized. Army units were rushed to Batticaloa district from Colombo and Diyatalawa where the Sinhala regiment had just held its passing-out parade. Volunteers were called up for active service. A dusk to dawn curfew was clamped on the whole island.

“The Government also took the bold step of proscribing the Federal Party and the Jatika Vimukti Peramuna, which were at the two extremes of the language conflict. It was a bold step, certainly, that had immediately beneficial results—but whether it was a wise one remains to be seen.

“The rioters continued their battle in the streets. Fresh fires broke out in Wellawatte, Maradana and Pettah. Looting continued apace.”

Extract from Emergency ’58: Federalists Detained
“Little did Chelvanayakam or his colleagues suspect that behind the Prime Minister’s glasses his eyes were twinkling with dramatic irony. The House adjourned that night at about 10 p.m. As the Federal Party M.P.s left the premises they were accosted by the police and placed under house detention. Chelvanayakam and Party Secretary Dr E. M. V. Naganathan were held incommunicado in their homes in Kollupitiya. Those who had no homes in Colombo were detained at the Galle Face Hotel, on the second floor, overlooking the swimming pool.

“The Federalist leaders arrested were: S. J. V. Chelvanayakam (Kankesanturai), Dr E. M. V. Naganathan, V. A. Kandiah (Kayts), Dr V. K. Paramanayagam, V. N. Navaratnam (Chavakachcheri), N. R. Rajavarothiam (Trincomalee), C. Vanniasingham (Kopay), C. Rajadurai (Batticaloa) and A. Amirthalingam (Vaddukoddai).”

For a full account of the events leading up to and following the 1958 riots, we recommend Tarzie Vittachi’s award winning Emergency ’58: The Story of the Ceylon Race Riots, 1959 Ramon Magsaysay Award for Journalism, Literature and Creative Communication Arts.

Quotation

“An unfortunate situation had arisen resulting in communal tension. Certain incidents in the Batticoloa district where people lost their lives, including Mr D.A. Seniveratne, a former mayor of Nuwara Eliya, have resulted in various acts of violence and lawlessness in other areas,” S.W.R.D. Bandaranaike’s ‘Call to the nation’, 26 May 1958.

Related events
19 February 1958
April 1958
May 1958
27 May 1958