A Brief Colonial History Of Ceylon(SriLanka)
Sri Lanka: One Island Two Nations
A Brief Colonial History Of Ceylon(SriLanka)
Sri Lanka: One Island Two Nations
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Thiranjala Weerasinghe sj.- One Island Two Nations
?????????????????????????????????????????????????Tuesday, July 25, 2017
Sri Lanka: Murderers are not war heroes!
It is very evident that a group connected to the Sri Lanka Navy was behind the abduction. It has been revealed that former Lieutenant Commander Sampath Hettiarchchi, who was engaged in special activities related to Sri Lanka Naval ship Parakrama and former Navy Commander Wasantha Karannagoda’s personal guard Wasantha Munasighe, had used the officers under him to kidnap them. Around 11 individuals from Colombo, Wattala, Kotahena, Dehiwala and Katunayake areas, have been kidnapped.
by Chamara Lakshan Kumara
Views expressed in this article are author’s own
Views expressed in this article are author’s own
( July 25, 2017, Colombo, Sri Lanka Guardian) With
the arrest of former Navy Media spokesperson Commodore D.K.P.
Dassanayake, the usual media spectacle accompanied by the drumming up of
rhetoric seems to have commenced. Many sing praises of the Commodore
and relate tales of his bravery while in service and allege that the
Government was and continues to be on the hunt for war heroes.
Uniforms don’t make heroes
How such connection is made is lost to both, the observant reader and
the average citizen. Dassanayake was not arrested for his actions
committed during the war against terrorism. He was arrested as a suspect
for the kidnapping and disappearance of 11 individuals with the aim of
collecting ransom through them. A person does not become a war hero just
because he wears a uniform. On the other hand, he is not given the
authority or licence to commit any lowly act just because he is a member
of the defence establishment. The argument is a simple one; if a person
acts in violation of the law, he should be punished. It is clear that
those who want to sell the ‘war hero’ label in Dassanayaka’s case are
only doing that to achieve their own petty political ends. In 2000, the
army was losing all its major camps; camps such as Elephant Pass were
falling like dominoes into the hands of the terrorists and as the Army
lay under siege at Jaffna Fort, it was Major General Janaka Perera who
gave the necessary leadership to rescue the soldiers trapped in Jaffna.
But during the Rajapaksa regime, he was under severe mental and physical
pressure and all those who speak on the rights of war heroes today, did
not utter a word in support of Major General Perera then. A similar
silence was adopted by these so-called patriots when former Army
Commander Sarath Fonseka who led the final fight against the terrorists
was continuously persecuted. Society was suppressed to that extent
during the Rajapaksa regime.
This is not the first or second time that a member of the Police or Army
has been arrested for murders or abductions. On August 6, 1996,
Krishanti Kumaraswamy was found raped and murdered; her mother;
Rasamma’s 16-year-old brother; Pranavan and a family friend,
Kirubarakaran, were strangled and their bodies cut into pieces, were
found buried in an army camp. Five suspects from the Army and Police
were convicted for these acts. A senior official of the Army was
convicted, along with a few other members, for the disappearances of 30
school students from August to November, 1989. In the incident of
October, 2000, in Bindunuwewa and in the rape and murder of 16-year-old
Premawathi Manamperi on April 16, 1971, the law was enforced on the
members of the security forces who committed the crimes, with no special
privileges awarded to any of them. Thus, when you compare this incident
to our history, this is not an unusual occurrence.
Commodore Dassanayake
The arrest of Commodore Dassanayake was set in motion when former Navy
Commander Admiral Wasantha Karannagoda lodged a complaint with the CID
in Colombo on May 28, 2009. His complaint was against his personal
security officer, Lieutenant Commander Sampath Munasinghe, who had been
tasked with investigating links directly or indirectly with the LTTE.
The same complaint was investigated by the Navy Provost Marshal Captain
Senaka Hanwella, who, when he conducted on-the-spot investigations at a
house used by Sampath Munasinghe, found in room number 8 of that house;
NICs, passports, credit cards, mobile phones and other personal items of
people who had been kidnapped over a long period of time. Among them
was a cheque for Rs. 760,000 from the Bank of Ceylon bank in Mt. Lavinia
from the account number 049568, a green promissory note bearing no A
3323 for the sum of Rs. 500,000, a pink promissory note bearing number A
5656 for Rs. 400,000; a Commercial Bank pass book holding account
number 8020019831, a Bank of Ceylon passbook holding the account number
7960595 and a HNB passbook holding the account number 002020330398, for a
person under the name of Sampath; another HNB passbook for the account
number 002093553, a passport bearing the number N1431844 under the name
of Stanley Leon, a NIC with the number 601772809V under the name K.A.
Anton, a NIC with the number 790683021V under the name of Thiyagaraja
Jegan, a NIC with the number 584201179V under the name of N.S. Leon, the
NICs of Amalan Leon and Roshan Leon; their passports and the mobile
phone of a foreigner called Mike Ogan who was living at Ramanadan Flats,
was found in the room. Captain Hanwella took all items found into his
custody and handed them over to the CID on May 30 for further
investigation. It is to be noted here that by this time, Sampath
Munasinghe no longer engaged in official naval duties and had got
accustomed to a life undercover.
‘Navy Sampath’
Sampath Munasinghe had come to be known increasingly as ‘Navy Sampath’
and when Admiral Karannagoda was the Commander of the Eastern Naval
Forces, he worked as an officer in the Trincomalee Naval Intelligence
Unit. He came to be known as a talented officer who had uncovered many
important information on the LTTE and its operations in the area. When
Admiral Karannagoda took over as Navy Commander, he appointed Sampath as
his personal security officer. The relationship between the two were
close and Karannagoda often treated Sampath as he would his own child.
Sampath’s influence in the Navy thus was quite significant and many
officers came to him if they wanted their transfers adjusted. It is not
clear as to what brought about the breakdown of trust between
Karannagoda and Sampath but the rumours over the breakup are many.
In the meantime, Karannagoda came to know many suspicious activities
surrounding Munasinghe. Among such complaints was the kidnapping of five
students for ransom worth millions. As soon as information on the
kidnapping came to light, the Navy Commander had ordered the Navy
Intelligence Unit Investigator, Ananda Guruge to conduct an internal
investigation into the incidents. The disappearances had been made known
to the Commander by Captain Jagath Jayantha Ranasinghe. The youth who
were kidnapped were Pradeep Vishwanathan, Thilakeshwaran Ramalingam,
Rajiv Naganathan, Mohamed Jilal Jamaldeen and Mohamed Saajith.
Ranasinghe had revealed all details through a text message to Commodore
Udayakeerthi Vijaya Bandara.
Abductions in play
Having kidnapped the youth, they had called Rajiv Naganathan’s parents
and asked that they pay a sum of Rs. 10 million to release their child,
but had later reduced the sum to Rs. 1 million and had informed the
parents that the money be paid to Sampath, an officer close to the Navy
Commander.
The CID, in their investigations, were also able to uncover that out of
the NICs and passports handed over to the Department, four of the
individuals were reported to be missing since 2008.
Of those missing since 2008, was Stanley Leon, a resident of No. 47/1
Aarippuwala East, Aarippuwala. He had come to Colombo with his son
Amalan Leon and the foreigner Mike Ogan to apply for a visa to the
United Kingdom. They were staying at the Ramanadan Flats in Kotahena. On
August 25, 2008, Amalan and Stanley were kidnapped by an unidentified
armed group. The NICs found at Sampath’s official residence was that of
Thiyagaraja Jegan from Trincomalee. Jegan, who was working at a
jewellery shop in Colombo 13, went missing in 2008.The CID was able to
get many useful information regarding the abduction when communicators
attached to the Sri Lankan Navy Signal Corps; Aluthgedara Upul Bandara
and Lakshman Udaya Kumara, who were working under Sampath Munasinghe,
were questioned. Upul Bandara, a resident of Raththota, Matale, had
mentioned that in 2008, they were informed by Munasinghe that five
suspicious individuals would pass Badowita Road, Dehiwala, around 10 pm
and that they needed to be arrested. Lieutenant Commander Hettiarachchi
and a group had gone in a van at the time to arrest them. They also
brought their 5559 black motor car along with them. The tip-off on the
economic situation of Naganathan’s family was given to Munasinghe by
Anwer Ali, alias ‘Haajiyar,’ who was in the intelligence service at the
time. Anwar Ali is a resident of Dehiwala.
Rajiv Naganathan was a student from a Colombo International School and
he was abducted a day before he was to leave to the UK for his higher
studies. He had shown great interest in cricket as well and his Advance
Level report card states that he had received 2A’s and one B. He was to
be a doctor. His parents had also decided to gift him a BMW vehicle for
having passed his tests. His birthday parties were held in famous hotels
and all these factors came into consideration when he was chosen as a
likely candidate to be held for ransom.
On the day before he left, Naganathan had gone out for dinner with his
friends to Mount Lavinia near St. Thomas’ College and his plan was to
get a haircut in a famous salon and then meet Anwar Ali afterwards.
Based on the information that has been uncovered thus far, Rajiv was
kidnapped and brought to the Colombo Navy Camp in Chaithiya Road. He was
next sent to the Navy Camp situated near the Navy Jetty in Trincomalee;
this is considered to be one of the biggest naval camps in the country.
Call for ransoms
The camp was initially under the British and it was officially taken
over by the Sri Lankan Navy in 1957. Several artilleries used during
World War II can still be seen here. There are tunnels and warehouses in
the camp which they used to store bullets and gun powder. Rajiv and the
group were taken to the camp were kept inside one of the underground
prisons called the “Gun Side.” They later kidnapped Anwer Ali as well
over issues related to ransom.
He was kidnapped when he was returning from Katunayake to Colombo. The
CID has found enough evidence to prove that all who were kidnapped were
kept in the Trincomalee Navy Camp. Rajiv had also phoned his house from
the Navy Camp.A person called Annachchi had called Rajiv’s father
Govindar Swamy, demanding Rs. 10 Million as ransom to release his son.
After negotiations, the ransom was reduced to Rs. 5 million. The ransom
taker had asked him to come to Naarammala and when Swamy asked whether
he could come to Welisara, the ransom taker had said he would let him
know after talking to ‘big annachchi.’ Meanwhile, on January 15, Rajiv
had phoned his father. Govinda Swamy wanted to know whether it was truly
his son who was talking to him on the phone; therefore, he had asked a
few personal questions also from Rajiv and after that, he had confirmed
that it was his son. Rajiv had told everything that had been going on.
In April, 2009, Swamy had got another call from a person called Heshan
and he had said that his son would be released if he pays the ransom.
Heshan, meanwhile, had let Rajiv talk to his parents over the phone
several times.
Rajiv had informed his father that he had been brought to Trincomalee
from Colombo. Having confirmed his suspicions that his son along with
others had been kidnapped by the Navy and were in their custody, Govinda
Swamy had approached his friend, Minister Felix Perera for his
assistance in their release. Minister Perera had verbally as well as
through written request contacted the Navy Commander about it but no
action was taken. Further evidence of the fact that the kidnapped were
in Trincomalee was found in Anwer Ali’s cousin, Siraj’s phone on 23
March 2009.
“Sampath has caught me. Please inform DIG Kamaldeen and save me,” was
the message sent by Ali to his cousin’s phone. On 26 July 2009, Siraj
received a phone call from Ali.
“This is the last day they are going to keep me here. Please save me”,
said Ali to Siraj at the time. That was the last time he contacted him.
It has now become very clear that all of them were kidnapped for ransom
and the person named Annachchi had also contacted Thiyagaraja Jegan’s
mother and asked a ransom of Rs. 1 million from her too. In
negotiations, thereafter, the amount had been reduced to Rs. 500,000 and
she was asked to bring the money to an area in Thambalagamuwa. When she
had done so, the person who showed up had tried to run away with the
money.
It is very evident that a group connected to the Sri Lanka Navy was
behind the abduction. It has been revealed that former Lieutenant
Commander Sampath Hettiarchchi, who was engaged in special activities
related to Sri Lanka Naval ship Parakrama and former Navy Commander
Wasantha Karannagoda’s personal guard Wasantha Munasighe, had used the
officers under him to kidnap them. Around 11 individuals from Colombo,
Wattala, Kotahena, Dehiwala and Katunayake areas, have been kidnapped.
Having made to held in captivity in secret in Tricomalee Navy Camp, they
were made to disappear. The present Commodore Sumith Ranasinghe was the
then officer in charge of Sri Lanka Navy Jetty when they were held in
captivity.
The writer works for the Daily News, Colombo, where this piece first appeared)