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In peace times, too, have the laws fallen silent and ceased to apply to self-confessed mass murderer Vinayagamoorthy Muralitharan, better known as the dreaded Karuna Amman, who, as a regional commander of the Tamil Tigers during its reign of terror, carried out dastardly attacks on the Lankan Forces and has now taken to gloat over his gory deeds on public platforms with impudence?

Does the killing of over two thousand Lankan soldiers in the name of establishing a utopian Tamil Eelam on Lankan soil qualify for a blanket amnesty and grant a licence to exult over   brutal exploits that enable Karuna to revel on the grave of the massacred men, all Lanka revere as war heroes?

In the small town of Navadinveli, Ampara, in the Eastern Province where he once rode rough shod blazoning his Tiger stripes and brandishing his gun, 54-year-old Karuna declared to a gathering last Friday: “Chairman of the Karathivu local government body has said that I am more dangerous than the coronavirus. That is true. When I was a member of the LTTE, I killed some 2000 to 3000 Sri Lankan army personnel in one night at Elephant Pass. I have killed more in Kilinochchi. That is certainly higher than the number of lives the coronavirus has claimed in Sri Lanka.”

‘I killed some 2000 to 3000 Sri Lankan army personnel in one night at Elephant Pass? I have killed more in Kilinochchi?’

His vainglorious boast of his reprehensible acts starkly reveals the pathological murderer in him had not fled with ministerial office or after his appointment as SLFP vice president in 2009 but still lurks within to make him bear with empty pride the scalps of those whom he had slaughtered years ago on his breast as medals earned in the killing fields of Lanka where slaying hordes of Sinhala soldiers was deemed sport.

It also reveals how, years after the grisly incident, to brag about his bloody role and feat and his individual haul of trophies has become for him a revitalising ego trip to the blood soaked days of old when pulling the trigger let one play God.

Karuna’s offensive and inflammatory statement sparked a storm of protests. If Karuna had not forgotten the atrocities he had flagrantly committed, it was abundantly clear neither had the rest of the country forgotten nor forgiven him. Karuna, it seemed, had flung his stone at the wasps’ nest and brought his nemesis nearer to him.

The United National Party (UNP) was the first to light the bonfire to burn Karuna at the stake.  The party’s former State Minister of Defence, Ruwan Wijewardene, giving voice to the nation’s mass outrage over Karuna’s callous boast, told a public gathering in Attanagalla last Saturday: “We vehemently condemn this statement made by Karuna Amman. People such as these talk of patriotism in the South but talk of killing Sri Lankan soldiers when they go to the North, and we pity these people. This statement of Karuna who is backing President Gotabaya Rajapaksa has created a controversial situation. It is a serious challenge to the rule of law.”

CHANGE OF FORTUNE: All dressed up in bespoke suit and light grey silk tie as Hon, Minister for National Integration in 2009

The Sri Lanka Podujana Peramuna (SLPP) took pains to distance itself from the villain of the piece, practising the COVID fostered social distancing guideline to ensure the wellbeing of its own political health. Addressing a news briefing last Sunday, the party’s Secretary Sagara Kariyawasam said that they vehemently condemn Karuna’s statement. “We are not in a position to take the responsibility of the statement he made as he is neither a member of the SLPP nor a member of our affiliated group. He is contesting the upcoming General Elections against our party from another newly formed party. However, we would like to categorically mention that Karuna Amman is not maintaining any links with our party for the upcoming General Elections and reiterate that we highly condemn the statement.”

But from the SLPP’s mother-ship, the Sri Lanka Freedom Party (SLFP), there emanates a studied silence over Karuna’s comments. In the light of the embarrassment, Karuna’s lurid confession has caused to the once Rajapaksa-led SLFP that ruled the nation between 2005 to 2015, the Karuna scandal has erupted at a most awkward moment.

The questions raised are why the SLFP embraced the former LTTE terrorist supposedly turned reformed informer into the party’s top echelon? Why, after entering Parliament from the UPFA National List in 2008, he was appointed Minister of National Integration in March 2009 and why, a month later, on April 24 was accorded the post of a Vice President of the SLFP? And why, at the start of the SLFP’s second term as the Government in 2010, he was sworn in again as a minister, the Minister for Resettlement? Perhaps such government patronage in return for Karuna grassing on the Tigers was deemed worth the price.

Apart from Mahinda Rajapaksa’s cursory remark at a Kuliyapitiya rally on Tuesday that ‘Karuna’s history is well known’ those who represented the party then have generally kept mum on the issue. To save further blush in such a predicament, the prudent course, no doubt, is to observe silence as the best golden policy. Especially with a general election round the corner, the less said the better.

The former Commander of the Sri Lankan Army, Field Marshall Sarath Fonseka, giving his on the spot Situation Report on the incidents that took place during the height of the Eelam War, doubts the veracity of the figures boasted by Karuna as his tally of those he had killed. ‘Karuna couldn’t have killed that number of soldiers at Elephant Pass and at Kilinochchi as he has claimed.’ the Field Marshall said on Tuesday.

‘However,’ Sarath Fonseka stated, ‘it is true that Karuna killed 1,200 army personnel, who surrendered in Mullaitivu and another 600 police officers in the East. He is trying to be a hero as if he killed everyone in the army. But he did kill personnel who surrendered.”

Karuna may not have killed everyone in the army or even killed 2000 to 3000 in Elephant Pass and many more in Kilinochchi as he claimed last week. As the Field Marshall said, Karuna may have been exaggerating. But, exaggerating or no, his self-confession that he killed a large number of soldiers suffices to nail him to the cross from which there can be no absolution.

BEFORE: LTTE Eastern Commander Karuna in battle fatigues

In 2004, Karuna, who had joined the LTTE in 1983 and had been appointed its Eastern regional commander in 1990, broke ranks with the Tamil Tigers on the grounds that the eastern Tamils were being ignored by the LTTE high command and claimed he had renounced violence. The Tigers in return claimed the real reason was because its intelligence wing was closing in on him for financial and personal misconduct. The ensuing internecine war, with Karuna turning LTTE informer and assisting Government forces to clear the east of Tiger presence, considerably weakened the LTTE to make its fiat run in the East.

As far as Karuna’s claim to have renounced violence and draped himself in ahimsa should be taken with a pinch of salt. As Meenakshi Ganguly, the South Asia Director for Human Rights Watch said in a statement this week: ‘Even after Karuna split from the LTTE to lead a pro-government armed group in 2004, his alleged crimes were never investigated. Instead his forces committed more abuses, apparently this time on the government’s behalf. The United Nations, Human Rights Watch, and others reported that Karuna’s group, known as the Tamil Makkal Viduthalai Pulikal (TMVP), was responsible for enforced disappearances, torture, and child recruitment.’

Certainly the time to investigate his manifold crimes has dawned now. Following the furore, the CID on Monday launched an investigation and Karuna was summoned to appear at the CID headquarters the following day and give a statement. After ‘no show’ on Tuesday on health grounds conveyed through his lawyer, Karuna finally turned up on Thursday at the CID’s Fort office.

After seven hours of having his statement recorded, Karuna emerged from the CID premises to explain to the waiting media what had transpired at the CID office.  Speaking in Tamil Karuna, who is contesting the August 5 elections from the Digamadulla district as an Independent Group 10 candidate, said:

‘’What I said at Navadinveli last Friday has been distorted by various parties for political reasons ahead of elections. I said it in the context of my election campaign but it was taken out of context by the media and distorted. Now this has been used to reduce the votes from Sinhala people in the upcoming elections. I do not want to discredit our military which is an outstanding military force and assist people when in need. I am a friend of the majority Sinhalese community.’’

A friend indeed! Does Karuna Amman believe he can atone for his ghastly crimes against humanity by adopting the air of condescension and patronising the Sri Lankan Army, describing them in flattering terms after having gloated of how he slew over 2000 soldiers in a one night’s killing spree at Elephant Pass and many more than that at Kilinochchi?

Can a people’s forgiveness ever be his when it is common knowledge, confirmed by eye witness accounts and well documented, that he is directly responsible for the slaughter of 1200 soldiers who surrendered to him in Mullaitivu and for the cold blooded murder of 600 policemen on June 11, 1990 who were commanded by the then President Premadasa to lay down their weapons and meekly surrender to the LTTE cadres commanded by him? They were taken to  the Trincomalee jungles, lined up and shot.

The CID should not consider the statement Karuna made to them on Thursday as the end of their investigation but only as the starting point of their probe to bring Vinayagamoorthy Muralitharan, better known as self-confessed mass killer Karuna Amman, to justice. And see justice finally delivered to all who were slaughtered at the hands and on the commands of ‘Colonel’ Karuna.