Pottuvil’s pot pouri simmers

Allegations of dominance and resultant discrimination among the three communities are creating undercurrents of racial tension

Rohan Abeywardena reporting from Pottuvil

It has often been said that truth is the first casualty in war. This age old adage was amply proved to us when we visited Pottuvil on Tuesday and Wednesday to get a first hand insight into disturbing reports about the area being plunged into turmoil allegedly as a result of armed Karuna cadres taking the law into their own hands, while the police and the Special Task Force stood idly by. The reports published from Colombo also indicated that this once bustling town was now reduced to a virtual ghost town with life coming to a standstill.

The building at the centre of dispute. Pix by J. Weerasekera

The truth is far from it. The town is a hive of activity with all communities getting on with their businesses, though some people there may entertain some apprehension about their security as people anywhere else in the country. The first place we made a beeline to on entering Pottuvil was to the so-called Karuna’s office being run from a small house belonging to a Sinhalese businessman there. According to Ven. Thambugala Somavansa Thera of the Sri Dharmarajaramaya, situated about 300 metres away, they had simply got possession of the building, apparently with the help of Tamilinhala neighbours there, while the house was kept closed, when the businessman was in Colombo. Now the businessman is demanding this, his extra house back and Karuna’s people are promising to go, but they have no place to go to.

In fact we too were intimidated by them, more out of panic and fear. When we started asking them questions about the incident on April 9 where there was a confrontation between them and the Muslim dominated Pottuvil Pradeshiya Sabha (PPS) members, the first obstacle we faced was the language barrier. These Karuna cadres hardly seemed battle hardened, except the leader. There couldn’t have been more than ten of them. All seemed more like boys waiting to play cops and robbers proudly cradling T-56s like their new found toys. Finally they produced a Sinhala speaking cadre from inside the house. Through this translator we found these cadres were clueless as all those involved in the incident had been removed from the area, possibly following protests by the Muslims. They were also reluctant to talk in general and requested us to get in touch with their spokesman Azad Moulana, who is in Batticaloa. When we requested permission to photograph them bearing T-56s, their leader panicked and thought we had already taken photographs and told his cadres not to allow us to leave the place till the police came and he took off to the nearby police post on a motorcycle. So we stood there till the matter was sorted out, not taking any chances.

L to R: Vairamuttu Mylvaganam, Chairman of the Pottuvil PS Mohammed Rauf and Basnaya kaNilame Mutubanda

The fact that these cadres are no match for the seasoned Tigers had been amply proved recently, when a LTTE pistol gang duo had arrived there on a motorcycle and fired at Karuna cadres and escaped, while the latter, though armed with T-56s had run for cover. We saw four Karuna cadres going on two motorcycles on the main road, with two of them holding T-56 assault rifles, but the security establishment maintained that each time they leave their office they report to the STF about their movements.

The Tamils and Sinhalese we met were actually happy that Karuna cadres are around as they feel that prevents harassment of innocents. When suspected Tiger cadres are arrested especially by the STF, who bears the brunt of securing the region surrounded by thick jungles, Karuna’s men are able to quickly identify if they are actual Tiger cadres or not, having been in the same organization earlier. They also obviously see the Karuna group as a counterweight to the Muslim dominance in the area.

It is not that they have given Karuna a blank cheque. As one of them put it: “They are no problem now, but the future we do not know”

The Tamils here, unlike the Muslims, feel totally neglected and unrepresented. The Sinhalese too are a unique lot with most of them having blood links with Tamils or are of mixed marriage and virtually all Tamils and Sinhalese are bi-lingual. The racial inter-mix is such it is not uncommon to find Tamils with Sinhala ge names and Sinhalese with Tamil ge names. For these reasons unlike in other areas the Tamils and Sinhalese have a close bonding. Even some in the security establishment jokingly refer to these Sinhalese as 50-50. Karuna also seems to have recruited a number of these 50-50 Sinhalese from other places like Polonnaruwa and Dimbulagala, like the translator at their office, we later learnt.. Tigers too have been having such cadres for a long time and some of them have crossed over with Karuna’s defection from the LTTE.

A suspect caught in a stretch of jungle in Lahugala being taken for questioning

The latest problems arose, according to a sixth generation Sinhalese here, Punchimahattaya Mutubanda, whose great ancestor is said to have come here to escape British repression after the Wellassa rebellion, with their virtual disenfranchisement after Panampattu Village Council to which they belonged being merged with the Muslim dominated Pottuvil Pradeshiya Sabha (PPS) in the early 1990s by the then UNP administration more for political expediency.

Muslims are in a majority in Pottuvil, literally able to suffocate both Tamils and Sinhalese. According to statistics shown to us by Development Assistant of the Pottuvil Divisional Secretariat Nusrath Ali as of 2005 there had been 24,628 Muslims here, as against 4,898 Hindus, 996 Buddhists, 847 Catholics and 221 others. Because of this preponderance of Muslims, the Sinhalese and Tamils naturally feel overwhelmed as Tamils and Muslims would feel in entirely Sinhala dominated areas.

Like politicians elsewhere in the country, Muslim politicians here too have obviously ensured that their people have got the lion’s share of jobs in state establishments and it is the major grouse of Tamils and Sinhalese here that whether they go to the post office, the Divisional Secretariat, the hospital, or whatever government institution they get step-motherly treatment at the hands of majority Muslim officialdom. When we visited the Divisional Secretariat we spoke to some Tamils and Sinhalese there and they complained that they had to come over and over many times to get anything done. This is however a malady afflicting all government institutions practically anywhere in the country, which can only be corrected by palming some money at present, but these often ignorant and poor people feel they are singled out for discrimination by Muslims. Even in the police, these Tamils and Sinhalese complain the key officers are beholden to Muslims, because of their political clout with there being several Muslim ministers representing Eastern Muslims.

UNOPs road building work site

Mr. Mutubanda, who is the Basnayaka Nilame of the Kataragama Devale at Okanda, a key point to break journey for Hindus from North and East who trek to Kataragama on pilgrimage, through jungle tracks along the eastern coast from time immemorial, said that prior to this amalgamation Panampattu Village Council occupied one side of the Pottuvil main road and the PVC comprised a number of Sinhala and Tamil villages. The building in Pottuvil town, which is the centre of the current dispute, had been the Panampattu Village Council office. “Though Muslims are in a clear majority, they have no moral right to unilaterally demolish that building to make way for a new public market as it is bound to defile the place with meat stalls abhorred by Hindus,” he said.

Mr. Mutubanda and many others in the Sinhala and Tamil communities maintain that it was not a dilapidated building requiring demolition as claimed by Muslim Pradeshiya Sabha members. In fact they had wanted the building to be given to mainly Sinhala vendors who trade in vegetables, betel etc on road sides. Most of these people for obvious reasons do not want to be identified.

They also contend that Chairman of the Pottuvil PS Adam Lebbe Mohammed Rauf had earlier agreed to give the unoccupied building to the Karuna faction to run its office, but extremist elements within the Muslim community made him change his mind and on April 9 tried to demolish the building with a back hoe bulldozer. It was then that Karuna Group intervened and stopped them from demolishing it, but by that time the dozer had already done damage to the building. They also maintain that in fact Karuna group was scheduled to take over the building the following day as previously agreed with the PPS Chairman.

Mr. Rauf, however vehemently denies having gone back on any deal. “It’s a big lie. They never asked, nor did they ever come to our office,”: he told The Sunday Times.

Vairamuttu Mylvaganam, an old farmer now in his twilight years yet with a clear memory, too complained that the decision to merge with the Muslim dominated PPS by the Premadasa administration was their undoing. To him it came at a most unfortunate time for both Tamils and Sinhalese here, as just prior to that in June 1990 with the outbreak of the Second Eelam War and the massacre of more than 600 policemen by the LTTE after they surrendered to the Tigers on the instructions of the then government, nearly all Sinhalese had fled in fear. Later when the Government began retaking the East from the Tigers, the Tamils too had fled in fear of the army. While some of those Sinhalese had still not returned to date, he and most of the other Tamils had only returned from displaced camps in 1994. So the amalgamation had been done in their absence without their consent.

Mr.Mylvaganam who despite his advanced age is not afraid to speak out said they had fled the area in 1990 with only the clothes on their backs and when they returned after languishing in displaced camps in 1994, they found everything belonging to Tamils and Sinhalese looted and many of their houses which were near the police station totally bulldozed for security reasons.

He too charged that the majority Muslim community controlled PPS was doing things as they pleased as Tamils had no voice or clout. As recent examples, he said 200 houses built at Rotte by an NGO had been distributed by the PPS in the proportion of 180 for Muslims and only 20 for both Tamils and Sinhalese. Even the rehabilitation of roads it was done primarily in Muslim areas, neglecting Tamil areas.

PPS Chairman Rauf, however retorted that World Vision had built more than 50 houses entirely for Tamils there. Besides, he said the distribution of houses at Rotte had been decided by the Divisional Secretary and the Grama Seva Officer on the basis of the tsunami needy and the particular land belonged to a Muslim and the exact location came under the predominantly Muslim Hijra Nagar.

As for road rehabilitation, Mr. Rauf said the United Nations Office for Project Services, had undertaken the task of repairing 32 roads totaling eight kilometres, which included Kovil Road and Bharathi Road in the Tamil area and UNOPS gives priority to roads with heavy usage. Guna Raj Niraula, a Nepali expert working for UNOPS was however of the opinion that roads were selected by the PPS.

Mr. Rauf charged that out of the total of ten members in the PPS, the Tamils and Sinhalese should have been able to elect two, but they had elected only one to represent themselves as a sizeable number had cast their votes to a Muslim after taking money from him.

The obvious insinuation is that the sole SLFP member of the Pradeshiya Sabha M.A.Abdul Majeed was elected through vote buying. Eight of the PPS members, including Mr. Rauf belong to SLMC. After the SLMC list was rejected, they had entered the PS through an independent group. The sole Tamil member is from the TNA.

A prominent Sinhalese businessman flatly denied this charge about Tamils and Sinhalese having accepted money voted for a Muslim. “What happened was that many Tamils abstained from voting as they were scared. The truth is they are at the mercy of the LTTE, Karuna Group or the government forces at any given time”, he said.

Recently some unidentified group torched Mr. Majeed’s car and sections of the Colombo based media had immediately insinuated that it was the work of the Karuna Group and this has resulted in the Tamil and Sinhala intelligentsia here accusing the media of playing a partisan role. They also charged that only voices of influential sections are aired in the media. As a result we too were needlessly at the receiving end of much criticism.

There appear to be certain extremist elements in the Muslim community. When we visited the ancient Muhudu Maha Viharaya situated in Pottuvil town, which is even recorded in the Mahavansa, we found acts of outright vandalism. And out of 73 acres recovered in 1965, not even three acres remain due to encroachment. It is strange that the Archaeological Department had done hardly anything to secure what remains of the ancient ruins. To our horror we found the five home guards now assigned to protect it and its so-called custodian clad in a monk’s robe smelling of Kasippu.

When we raised the issue of vandalism and acts of intimidation with members of the PPS, they in unison said it was all due to the fault of the ‘custodian’. We too are ashamed to mention some of the allegations made against him by them and many others. If the authorities had taken greater interest in their duty, may be this ‘custodian’ would not have gone astray and much more of this ancient heritage could have been saved for posterity.