The Hon. Ramalingam Chandrasekar - Minister of Fisheries, Aquatic and Ocean Resources

¶ 01 Hon. Deputy Chairperson of Committees, I thank you for the opportunity.

¶ 02 Today’s debate lays a foundation for the historical documentation of the Batalanda torture camp and an opportunity to further substantiate the evidence. Especially in 1987-1989, not only at Batalanda but across the country there were torture camps. Thousands of our comrades were killed; tortured; subjected to various hardships.

¶ 03 Hon. Deputy Chairperson of Committees, that historical narrative cannot be woven merely with words or written merely with letters; it must be written in blood. Based on those records, today’s debate shows that those torture camps and the oppression unleashed on our comrades in that period are again being discussed from morning. The Opposition, while talking now, continues to hurl the same accusations and keep unleashing that oppression repeatedly upon us.

¶ 04 Until 1983 we pursued democratic politics peacefully. In July 1983 our party was banned. The main reason was the ethnic pogrom — “Black July” — which remains a black mark on our nation to this day.

¶ 05 We appealed to the President, to the President’s Secretary, and to the United Nations to lift the ban democratically. When none of it bore fruit and when they themselves set the repression in motion, when agreements that betrayed and ruined the country were entered into, when the country was handed over, no citizen with a backbone could stand by and watch. In 1987-1989, the brave comrades who rose up against those betrayals were our comrades. They are buried not only in Batalanda but all over Sri Lanka. Those buried have now risen as sown seeds.

¶ 06 About 40 years have passed since these events. If this issue resurfaces today, it shows that truth can never be buried. Truth will repeatedly rise and establish justice against those who killed it — that is the rule of history. According to that rule, the killers, torturers, and those responsible for the Batalanda torture camp must be found and punished; justice must be established.

¶ 07 At the same time, while we speak of this, we must also inquire into such incidents in the North and especially the Hill Country. From 1948, as an oppressed community racially, caste-wise, and religiously, it is our Hill Country people who suffered. In 1977 and 1978, in Ratnapura, Pelmadulla, Balangoda, Bandarawela and elsewhere, people were brutally attacked and killed. In 1983, rivers of blood flowed in cities including Jaffna and Bandarawela. When will investigations be held, and when will justice be delivered, Hon. Deputy Chairperson?

¶ 08 If you look for who killed the innocent Hill Country people, it was the UNP. Who was behind the burning of Colombo in 1983? In 1981, whose hand was behind the burning of the Jaffna Library, where 97,000 books were destroyed? Was Ranil Wickremesinghe not among those behind it? In 1983’s Black July, weren’t Ranil Wickremesinghe, J.R. Jayewardene, and R. Premadasa behind it? Today those who weep crocodile tears should answer.

¶ 09 Continuing, all know about the rape and murder of Koneswari in Batticaloa. Those responsible were those in power then. Similarly, the Jaffna Chundikkuli College student Krishanthi was murdered. Many were tortured and murdered in those areas. Torture camps abounded in every region. Parents of the disappeared still search for their children and yearn for justice.

¶ 10 Not only in the North, but in the South, there are parents who still sob, wondering if their disappeared children will return today or tomorrow. Through these events we see that especially from 1971 to 1994, the country was turned into a killing field by the politics of Ranil Wickremesinghe’s United National Party.

¶ 11 [Expunged on the order of the Chair.]

¶ 12 He was the main mastermind of the Batalanda torture camp. In 1981, to prevent the District Council election in Jaffna, thugs were unleashed; the democratic hopes of youth were destroyed. This gave rise to separatist struggle and war. Consequently, across the nation, hundreds of thousands of lives were lost; rivers of blood flowed.

¶ 13 Despite such suffering, in 1981, even when we were imprisoned and tortured, we loved the people and worked for them. Our party leader, beloved Rohana Wijeweera, arrested in 1971 and taken to Jaffna Prison, realized he would be killed. Wanting to leave a last message to the people, he went to write on the wall with a charcoal piece, recalling the Czech communist Julius Fucik, whose last words under torture were: “People, I love you. Because I loved you I am in prison; because I loved you my life will be taken. Yet forgive me for not fulfilling your expectations.”

¶ 14 Hon. Deputy Chairperson, in 1971 our party leader Rohana Wijeweera wrote the same words in Jaffna Prison. As a party that loves the people, we say that those who betrayed the people must be punished. The time has dawned to deliver that justice. Our enemies are trembling; let them tremble. We will definitely win. Thank you.