Sunday Times 2
30 years on, remembering the life sacrifice of 634 policemen
Seeds of political terrorism had been sown in Sri Lanka since 1975.
In January 1989 Prime Minister Ranasinghe Premadasa rose to Executive Presidency pledging to solve the ethnic problem through Consultation, Compromise and Consensus. The Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE) who claimed to be the sole representatives of the Tamil People, accepted the President’s call, and peace talks began between the President and the LTTE.
LTTE cadres, however, committed acts of provocation against the Police and security forces. These provocations, though humiliating, had to be tolerated by the security forces — and the provocations grew in intensity to wrongful restraint, wrongful confinement, abduction and hurt. “No confrontation at any cost”, remained the President’s command. The LTTE thereby got away with the provocations with impunity and gained preponderance over the security forces who of course had no doubt about the LTTE intentions.
On June 11, 1990 while peace talks were still in progress in Colombo, police stations in the East were surrounded by armed LTTE cadres who ordered the policemen under threat of death, to surrender their arms and vacate the police stations by 1500 hrs. Ivan Boteju, ASP Kalmunai contacted his superiors, apprised them of the situation and ordered his men to take up position to defend the police stations. The LTTE, meanwhile, hoodwinked the President stating that it is a misunderstanding and will be sorted out. The President trusted the LTTE. “No confrontation,” remained his orders.
Passing the deadline of 1500 hrs the LTTE began attacking the Kalmunai Police Station and the policemen returned fire in defence. Volleys of fire and defiant words were exchanged for three and a half hours. At this stage the LTTE, giving an assurance to the President that all policemen of Kalmunai, Akkaraipattu and Pothuvil would be taken to Amparai and released, wanted the policemen to surrender. The president ordered the Police to comply with this proposition. Ivan Boteju and his men, however, were not willing to surrender, and protested insisting that they “would be tortured if not killed” and opting to face the LTTE attack, requested Air and Military support. “No confrontation” remained the orders of the President, personally conveyed by the Inspector General of Police (IGP) who was flown to the East with specific orders from the President. Ordering the police to cease fire would have been understandable if the ceasefire was mutual. But to have given specific orders to comply with the terrorists’ orders to lay down arms and to let the terrorists transport the policemen to Amparai, was the height of stupidity, just to prove to LTTE leader Velupillai Prabhakaran how much the President trusted him.
Ivan Boteju walked from Kalmunai Police Station with his men, sobbing and obeying. By way of deception, the LTTE blindfolded and took 324 policemen to the Tirukkovil jungle instead of Amparai, got them to lie down facing the ground and massacred them in a most cowardly manner, spraying bullets into them.
In this connection, SP Ampara, M F Noordeen, has placed on record inter alia, thus: “… At 1530 hrs contacted S/Dig Crimes and Ops and briefed about the prevailing situation in Kalmunai and sought instructions whether to evacuate Kalmunai also. I was told that instructions will follow. At 1555 hrs the LTTE started attacking Kalmunai Police station with mortars. All efforts to obtain air support and artillery support failed up to 1720 hrs. At this time IG Police spoke to me from Batticaloa and ordered to stop firing, and officers of Kalmunai to surrender to the LTTE like at Kaluwanchikudi. By 1800hrs Police surrendered without assistance from anybody and thereafter lost communications. …”
More than 300 policemen were similarly abducted from Batticaloa and Vavunya Districts after they surrendered on orders and were similarly massacred. The Government demonstrated its TRUST in the Tigers. This, however, was at the expense of the lives of the policemen, and that is the charge.
The law in this connection needs to be elaborated: The Right of Private Defence is an undeniable Right conferred on all persons by the law of the land. This Right as enshrined in sections 89 and 90 and further elaborated in section 93 of the Penal Code, reads:
89 – “Nothing is an offence which is done in the exercise of the right of private defence.” 90 – “Every person has a right, subject to the restrictions contained in section 92, to defend – Firstly – His own body, the body of any other person, against any offence affecting the human body;
Secondly – The property, whether movable or immovable, of himself or of any other person, against any act which is an offence under the definition of theft, robbery, mischief, or criminal trespass, or which is an attempt to commit …”
93 – The right of private defence of the body extends, under the restrictions mentioned in the last preceding section, to the voluntary causing of death or any other harm to the assailant, if the offence which occasions the exercise of the right be of any of the descriptions hereinafter enumerated, namely; Firstly – Such an assault as may reasonably cause apprehension that death will otherwise be the consequence of such assault. Secondly – Grievous hurt …. Fifthly, Kidnapping or Abduction …. Sixthly, Wrongful confinement ….
Who then were the Executive President and the IG Police, to deny this Right of Private Defence?
The IGP clearly blundered when he complied with the President’s unlawful order. SP Ampara, too, blundered when he in turn complied with the unlawful order of the IGP and did nothing to defend his men, knowing well that the policemen of Kalmunai “would be tortured if not killed, if they surrendered”. He not only had the right but was duty bound to exercise the right of private defence to defend his subordinates.
There is a precedent I wish to cite in this connection: Action taken by British Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher in the Falklands War of April 1982, to send troops to regain the Falklands, and her justification of the action, is a precedent to follow: “We shall exercise our right to resort to force in self-defence under Article 51 of the United Nations Charter until the occupying forces leave the islands.” She argued against waiting for UN response in the Falklands issue at hand, saying: “But the fact remained that if one could achieve an objective without UN authority there was no point in running the risk attached to seeking it.”
In January 2011, representations were made to the Lessons Learnt and Reconciliation Commission (LLRC) about the unlawful order and the cold-blooded slaughter of the policemen. The LLRC made a strong recommendation that this episode be fully investigated. But neither the UNP nor the SLFP-led governments showed any interest in such an investigation, preferring to flirt with the murderers for political expediency.
I reproduce below a poem I composed in September 1991 on ‘The Saddest Day in the History of the Sri Lanka Police Force’, when 634 brave Policemen were offered as a live sacrifice.
Charge of the Life Brigade
Bunkers to the right of them,
Bunkers to the left of them,
Bunkers in front of them,
Volley’d and thunder’d;
Stormed at with shot and shell,
Boldly they held and well,
Until the day was late,
Until the orders came,
N’ surrendered three hundred
“Surrender”, an order’s made!
Was there a man dismay’d?
Not though the Policemen knew
Someone has blunder’d.
Their’s not to make reply,
Their’s not to reason why,
Their’s but to do and die,
Alas! To the valley of Death
Groped the three hundred.
When can their glory fade?
Oh the surrender they made!
All the world wondered.
Honour the offer they made!
Honour the lives they laid!
Noble three hundred.
(Apologies to Alfred Lord Tennyson)
(The writer is a retired Senior Superintendent of Police)