By Peter Christie
Sinnathamby was the father of two young children. One a girl of seven and a boy of six. The family lived in a comfortable three bed roomed house in Mattakuliya in Colombo North.
July 1983 to Sinnathamby can only bring traumatic memories. Although he was a Tamil, Sinnathamby had no cause to complain about the Sinhalese, for almost 39 years he lived among them and spoke Sinhalese. He realised that an armed struggle had begun in the North fired on by separatists who made many Tamil people believe that all Sinhalese were racists. Sinnathamby however felt different. Most of his closest friends at a manufacturing firm were Sinhalese. As a practising Hindu, Sinnathamby believed in the grace of the gods.
When thirteen soldiers were killed by a landmine and their bodies flown for burial, he felt a tightening fear grow within him for his little family. He was expecting trouble to break out. But as any brave young man would have done he was prepared to face the adversities.
The gathering at the funerals of the soldiers turned sour when anti-Tamil speeches were being made. Evidently the members of the armed forces were up against the rebels who had caused the deaths of their comrades. There were scuffles and speeches which got more and more aggressive to a point that violence was incited. On the way back the houses and businesses in the area around the General Cemetery Kanatte were attacked. Comprehensively grief was overcome by anger and hatred, but when soon the looting, arson, assault and even rape continued some members of the public were shocked to see armed police and military personnel looking on.
It was late afternoon. The unruly crowd continued to storm doors then loot. Some of the shop owners begged for their lives only to be cut down. The acts of violence soon spread to inner city Colombo. Tamil householders barricaded themselves in their toilets and baths and prayed for divine intervention. But none was forthcoming.
On Friday that week relative calm had come over the city and Sinnathamby who had no news of his sister-in-law who lived in Narahenpita decided it was safe enough for him to get news of her well being. On his little motorcycle he left Mattakuliya and rode past Dematagoda. Near the Railway grounds at Mount Mary he was stopped by a large group of thugs and beaten over his head. The fact that he wore a helmet saved him from certain death. He fell off his motorcycle when a fourth blow was dealt. The gang were armed with knives and soon he was a bleeding mess pleading that he was a Muslim named Thamby.
For a while they scrutinised him and noticed that his ear lobes had been pierced. They beat him almost unconscious and he then feigned death realising that that was the only way he could be saved. In a short while an army jeep with soldiers firing indiscriminately came by and the gang of thugs took to their heels. He tried to take cover in the bushes by the road but found he couldn’t walk. Sinnathamby then saw a little boy come up to him . The boy in Sinhalese told him to squat behind the bushes and led him by the hand. Minutes late his little saviour was gone. In his underwear Sinnathamby went to the home of a close friend whose wife on seeing the state he was in declined to let him in and shut the door in his face.
Sinnathamby then related how he was fortunate to find a taxi driver he had known. In his brand new car the driver took Sinnathamby to the General Hospital. He was given treatment and his wounds bandaged. Every move he made was painful and as some of his cuts needed suturing they still bled. Thugs had in the meanwhile taken the injured Tamil people out and killed them. When his name was called Sinnathamby pretended he was asleep.
Sinhalese friends from his office however had got wind of his plight and visited him in hospital. He was smuggled out of hospital dressed as a doctor with a stethoscope in his pocket. Once he was at home his children noticed how badly hurt he was when he took his shirt off. His mates rushed him to the Grandpass Nursing Home where he was properly attended to.
Sinnathamby’s sleep is disturbed. He has nightmares and is sometimes short tempered. While he does not blame the Sinhalese, he often wonders why the then Government did nothing to stop the massacres he believes were the root cause of the insurgency in the North and East.
Many people remember how the Jaffna Library was set on fire by two hundred CTB bus loads of thugs that set off from the Kurunegala depot. The Jaffna library was one of the best equipped in Asia. The pain is still there when they talk about the number of innocent people who lost their lives in the riots. 1983 was worse than any riot Sri Lanka ever faced in her history. Retribution was not sought by the masses despite the fact that hundreds lost their lives in the bomb attacks by the LTTE on the Central Bank Building in 1996, the Central Bus Stand some years earlier, the Galadari Hotel bombing or the bomb blast at Maradana. The reason for this is that this Government had strict orders to nip any violence in the bud.
The Human Rights Commissions can find no fault with how the army, the navy, the air force or the police brings wrong doers to book.
Courtesy: Daily News, Saturday 24, July 1999