By
D.B.S. Jeyaraj

Sri Lanka experienced its first suicide bomber attack by the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam(LTTE) on 5 July 1987. The Sri Lankan armed forces had commenced “Operation Liberation” on 27 May 1987 and succeeded in recapturing the Vadamaratchy region of the Jaffna peninsula. A major detachment of the Army was stationed at the Nelliaddy central college premises near Nelliaddy junction. The LTTE re-grouped and launched a counter attack on the military camp on July 5.

Vallipuram Vasanthan alias “Capt Miller”, a son of a bank manager ,drove an explosive ladedn truck into the Nelliaddy camp precincts camp and triggered off an explosion. . This was followed by a coordinated multi-pronged LTTE attack. Both sides incurred huge losses. The attack was a sensation in those days as it was the pioneering suicide bomb attack by the tigers. The first suicide bomber “Capt Miller’ was hailed as a “Karumpuli”. This was translated into English as black tiger instead of panther.

Thereafter the LTTE conducted many more “black Tiger” suicide bomber attacks. July 5th was declared as Black tigers day. It is still obseeved annually as such by tigerish elements in Tamil Nadu and the Diaspora. When the LTTE was militarily active, attacks were conducted on July 5th to denote Black tiger day. Some of these attacks were not black tiger operations.

Ten years after Capt Miller’s death on 5 July 1997, there was an LTTE attack in Trincomalee town on Black Tigers day. The target was the then Tamil United Liberation Front(TULF) Trincomalee district MP Arunasalam Thangathurai.

Sri Shanmuga Hindu Ladies College

61 year old Thangathurai was ruthlessly assassinated at the premises of Sri Shanmuga Hindu Ladies College in Rajavorathayam Street, Trincomalee by three trouser-clad youths who lobbed a grenade first and then fired 9mm pistols at close range.He was bidding farewell to a group of teachers and students after declaring open a new three storeyed building block for the school that evening. Thangathural had allocated funds extensively from the de-centralised budget for this project. Although the primary target, Thangathurai was not the only victim of the grenade cum bullet attack.

Five others were killed and fifteen: wounded in the attack described as “cowardly and reprehensible” by the then TULF President and former Parliamentarian M. Sivasithamparam. Most of these victims were students and teachers of Sri Shanmuga including Principal Rajeswari Thanabalasingham who was killed and Vice Principal Amirthini Kulasingham who was injured.

Thangathural’s body lay in state at the Trincomalee Urban Council Hall for the public to pay their respects. Massive crowds paid homage. The final procession and last rites at the Villoondry Crematorium too was wall attended. The then speaker KB Ratnayake and several ministers were personally present at the funeral held on 9 July. It was delayed to enable his eldest daughter from London and wife, daughter and son from Chennal to be present.

I became acquainted with Thanathurai from 1977 in my professional capacity as a journalist. Our relationship developed over the years into a personal friendship. His death was a great loss to the Tamil people in general and those of Trincomalee district in particular. I wrote about him extensively after his demise and will rely on some of those writings in writing this article.

Towering Political Leader

In the remote Mutur area of the Trincomalee District in the Eastern Province Arunasalam Thangathurai of the FP and later the TULF was a towering political leader . In the not so distant days of energetic electioneering in the North-Eastern Provinces of Sri Lanka, an indispensable feature in propaganda campaigns was shouting slogans and chanting cheers by enthusiastic supporters extolling the virtues of political parties and candidates Some of these would be coined or “punned around the names of the politicians themselves.

The name Thangathurai or “Golden Lord ” facilitated slogan chanting easily. “Engal Thangam Thangathurai “(Our gold is Thangathurai) and “Engal Thurai Thangathural (Our Lord is Thangathurai) were the popular slogans.

Thangathurai was a much-loved man of the people. Elders called him “Thangathambi”. To those of his age group he was Thanga”. To those younger he was “Thangannaa” The FP organ “Suthanthiran used to refer to him as the “Mutur Muthu or “Pearl of Mutur”.

The gruesome murder of Thangathurai also marked the end of a vibrant brand of politics in the Tamil arena. The life and time of Thangathural were quite turbulent and tempestuous. He was the long-standing leader of the federal party youth league and was at times considered a militant rebel. Thangathural was an extremist militant when it came to safeguarding Tamil rights in the Trincomalee District. This embroiled him in many controversies and placed him at loggerheads with the powers that be on many an occasion.

Thangathural was a colourful personality and controversial figure who retained a fierce political independence. This again caused resentment in his party hierarchy which expected a certain degree of conformity. Moreover Thangathural would attempt to reconcile attachment to principles with affection for personalities. Combined to this was an admirable trait in his political approach. He was a rare blend of the idealist and pragmatist which in turn inculcated a flexibility that was at times hard to comprehend. His political approach enabled him to associate with different hues of the Tamil political spectrum at various stages. In that sense he was a political enigma.

Born in Kiliveddy

Thangathurai was born on 17 January 1936 , in Kiliveddy , an agrarian village in the Mutur region of South Trincomalee.After primary schooling in Mulur, he moved to Goverment College (Now Mahajana) in Batticaloa. Thereafter he went to Stanley Collage (Canaganatram MMV)in Ariyalai, Jaffna on a scholarship.

Hampered by the family’s financial constraints, Thanga forsook higher studies and opted to join the clerical service. He was for the greater part of his clerical career attached to the irrigation department. While in the clerical service he participated with gusto in trade union activities. He was an active member of the Government Clarical Services Union(GCSU) . He was also involved in non-political social service aimed at uplifting the people of Kilveddi in particular and the Mutur area in general.

In the meantime along with his relatives, Thangathural also engaged in large-scale agriculture. Through these agricultural pursuits, Thangathural and his relatives acquired a remarkable amount of wealth and soon became a family of consequence in the region.

Divisional Revenue Officer

Moreover, Thangathural after years of being in govt clerical service passed the then Ceylon Administrative Service(CAS) examination and became a Divisional Revenue Officer (DRO) . The combination of agrarian wealth and administrative office made Thangathurai one of the brightest stars in the Mutur Tamil political firmament.

In the 1960 to 1977 period, the district of Trincomalee had two electorates namely Mutur and Trincomalee. Mutur was a double -member electorate. This was to ensure representation for both the Muslims and Tamils.The Mutur Constituency at that time had roughly 45- 50 % Muslims, 30-35% Tarnils, and 15-20 % Sinhalese.

AL Abdul Majeed of the Sri Lanka Freedom Party(SLFP) was representing Mutur since July 1960. MEH Mohammed Ali had been elected on the Ilankai Thamil Arasuk Katchi(ITAK) ticket in the 1962 by election.Abdul Majeed of the SLFP and Mohammed Ali of the ITAK were elected from Mutur in March 1965. There was no Tamil member for Mutur from 1962-1970 although it was made a multi- member constituency for that purpose.

MEH Mohammed Ali

The ITAK joined the United National Party(UNP) led national Govt of Dudley Senanayake in 1965.In 1969 the FP left the UNP Govt of Dudley Senanayake and reverted to opposition benches. Mohammed All however continued to remain with the UNP Govt. This compelled the FP to look for a new face to contest Mutur in the 1970 polls. Former Paddiruppu MP and FP President SM Rasamanickam was in charge of selecting a suitable candidate for Mutur. His choice was Thangathurai. Subsequently it was approved by the party leadership.

The ITAK candidate had to mobilise a large number of votes to win as the presence of two powerful Muslim candidates, Mohammed Ali and Abdul Majeed could have resulted in both of them being elected. Two factors helped Thangathurai to win.

The first was the community consciousness of the Tamil voters who voted en bloc for the ITAK/FP. The second was HDL Leelaratne contesting as an independent. A a substantial Sinhala population had evolved in Mutur by 1970. Leelaratne, a Sinhala candidate weaned away these votes from the UNP and SLFP Muslim candidates. This in turn reduced their votes enabling Thangathurai with a solid chunk of Tamil votes to become second to the SLFP’s Abdul Majeed who polled 22,727 votes. Leelaratne garnered 18,698 while Mohammed Ali got 15,018 votes. Thangathurai with 19, 787 votes was elected as second member of Mutur.

Youngest ITAK/FP Member

Arunasalam Thangathurai was the youngest ITAK/ FP member in the Parliament of 1970-72 and National State assembly of 1972-77.
Thangathurai’s tenure in that legislature was generally uneventful. He was elected President of the FP Youth League. Beyond that he was not given much prominence in the party and was generally treated as a “Podiyan” MP.

Thangathurai, however, concentrated on developing his economically backward electorate. To do this he had to establish close rapport with the leaders of the government. Assiduously cultivating the SLFP members Thangathurai succeeded in obtaining many benefits for the Mutur people. The chiel areas of development were in the sectors of transport, roads, ferry services, electricity, agriculture, irrigation, fisheries and education.

Thangathural’s greatest enthusiasm was for Education and developing educational infrastructure. He was firmly of the opinion that the way to upward social mobility for the down-trodden Eastern Province Tamil was mainly through education. Thangathurai felt that the eastern Tamil had to emulate his or her northern counterpart and utilise education as the path to progress. In fact even his final address at the Sri Shanmuga College ceremony emphasised the need for upgrading education. He evoked thundering applause when he reiterated his commit- ment to the opening of the “educational aye” (Kalvikkann) in the east.

So Thangathurai during 1970-1977 utilised all his political skills to extract concessions from Education minister Dr Badiuddhin Mahmud, Deputy minister Tudawe and fellow Mutur MP and deputy minister Abdul Majeed to promote the educational infrastructure in Mutur. Opening of schools, upgrading and enhancement of facilities for schools along with recruitment of teachers etc were some of the benefits obtained.

In this process of gaining maximum development benefits for his constituency, Thangathural incurred the displeasure of many partymen from the north who objected to his perceived links with the SLFP Government. Thangathural with his fierce streak of independence and his commitment to the upliftment of his people continued undeterred.

Appapillai Amirthalingam

The demise of veterans like Rasamanickam and Naganathan along with the declining health of Chelvanayakam in the 1970-1977 period saw newcomers like Thanga being bereft of firm moorings in the party. Thangathurai moved closer to Chelliah Rajadurai of Batticaloa who in turn was becoming increasingly isolated in the party. The ascending personality was Appapillai Amirthalingam whose differences with Rajadurai were now getting widened. Amirthalingam was now viewing Thangathurai as being of the Rajadurai camp and turning hostile towards him. This was the beginning of the deteriorating relationship between Amirthalingam and Rajadurai.

Meanwhile the ITAK and the ACTC sank their differences and came together first as the Tamil United Front and later as the Tamil United Liberation Front. The introduction of standardisation in higher education had galvanised sections of the Tamil youths into adopting violent militant tactics. Tamil politics itself became radicalised with the demand for a separate state gathering momentum. Amirthalingam was at the crest of this rising tide of Tamil extreme nationalism that threatened to engulf the whole nation.

Again Thangathural was not wholly in favour of the emerging political trend among Tamils, He felt that the concept of increasing opportunities for higher education for backward areas through modified schemes of standardisation would tremendously benefit the Tamils of the Wanni and the Eastern province. As such there would be greater equity within the Tamil community itself in the higher education sphere. Also this would help improve the overall condition of the east. This went against the grain of the Jaffna-centric dominant line of thought in the party.

The second was about separation itself. Thangathural was one of the few within the TULF who were opposed to the demand for separation. Again Thangathurai’s opinion was shaped from the particular perspective of the eastern province. He felt that such a radical demand was unattainable and would only cause immeasurable hardship to the Tamil people living in the ethnically heterogeneous eastern province. These are views that could be termed prophetic in the light of recent history.

Thangathurai however did not have the political stature then to make his voice heard in the party structure reverberating to the thunderous rhetoric of secession. In fact Thangathurai was literally shouted down when he raised the issue with Amirthalingam a few times.

Thangathural’s differing viewpoints, his affinity towards certain members of the SLFP Government, his cordial relations with Rajadural etc caused a rupture in the relationship he had with Amirthalingam. With the death of Chelvanayakaim , Amirthalingam became the supremo of the TULF. At this point elections were also announced. Thangathural found himself without an electorate to contest at the hustings.

1976 De-limitation Commission

The De-limitation Commission led by Noel Tittawela had divided the existing double-member Mutur constituency in two. Predominantly Sinhala areas were carved into the Seruwila electorate where the ethnic ratio was roughly Sinhala-67%; Tamil-19% and Muslim-13%. The re-demarcated Mutur was now only a single member seat. The ethnic ratio in Mutur was roughly Muslim-66%; Tamil-30% and Sinhala-3%. Only the Trincomalee electorate had a Tamil majority with a rough ethnic ratio of Tamil-57%; Sinhala- 23% and Muslim-18%. Despite the Tamils being the single largest community in the Trincomalee District at that time, they were entitled to only one member in Parliament. While the Muslims retained the earlier level of one the Tamil representation of two had been reduced to one while the Sinhalese now had one from none. Tamil fears about Sinhala colonisation had come true again. The Sinhalese had gained electorally at the expense of the Tamils.

This again was a contentious issue between Thangahul and the TULF leadership. Hard as it may be to believe the TULF had not objected to Tamil representation decreasing in the Trincomalee district. Worse still the TULF itself had recommended the creation of the Sinhala majority Seruwila.

There was a very selfish logic that motivated the TULF in this. The TULF wanted a new electorate Mullaitheevu to be carved out of Vavuniya. This was to enable T Sivasithambaram of the Tamil Congress to contest Vavuniya and for the sitting member X M Sellathambu of the Federal Party to contest from Mullaitheevu.

T. Sivasithambaran who was the victor in 1960 and 1965 had lost to Sellathambu in 1970. The rivalry between both was very intense. Both wanted to contest in Vavuniya in 1977 also. The fragile unity between the FP and TC was threatened because of this dispute. So the way out seemed the creation of Mullaitheevu.

Also the TULF wanted representation for the Tamils of the Amparai District. So Pottuvil was made a double member seat. Since these two recommendations were prioritised by the TULF it failed to assert itself in the Trincomalee District. So the Sinhala seat of Seruwila was almost a quid pro quo for Mullaitheevu and Pottuvil. The sacrifice in this case was the Tamil seat of Mutur.

Thangathurai, the sitting member of Mutur was naturally angry and hurt at this development. These feelings were aggravated by the fact that he had not been consulted on this matter. The damage was done. Thangathurai and his supporters now pressed for nomination to the Trincomalee electorate. Since it was the only avenue for Tamil representation in the Trincomalee District the stakes were naturally high. The sitting TULF member for Trinco was Neminathan. Before him Manickarasa represented it from 1963 to 1970. Both were considered weak and ineffective in the context of rising Sinhala chauvinism propped up by the state in the district. There was a view that Trincomalee had been deprived of a strong Tamil leader since the days of Rajavarothaiam. So a new strong candidate was deemed necessary

Trincomalee Electorate

Since Mutur and Seruwila had Muslim and Sinhala majorities, Thangathurai staked his claim to contest Trincomalee electorate in 1977 from the newly formed TULF. The party hierarchy favoured Rajavarothayam Sampanthan a successful lawyer in Trinco town. Sampanthan being a lawyer was considered “strong” as compared to Thangathurai – a non-lawyer.

Besides the TULF party branches in Trincomalee Town preferred the “Urban” Sampanthan to the “rural” Thangathurai. Since the electorate was Trinco and not Mutur their voice carried much clout. Also Amirthalingam threw his weight behind Sampanthan. Thangathurai was left out in the cold.

Amirthalingam’s justification that he was helpless in the wake of opposition from Trincomalee branches was unacceptable to Thangathura’s supporters who felt that the only remedy for the loss of Tamil representation was to make Thangathurai MP for Trincomalee. The argument that the electorate branches wanted Sampanthan rang hollow because in Batticaloa the TULF had nominated Kasi Anandan on the FP ticket against the official TULF candidate Rajadurai .This was in spite of the party machinery in Batticaloa solidly supporting Rajatural. The supporters of Thangathurai created quite a ruckus in Colombo protesting against Sampanthan’s nomination. Thangathural himself told confidantes that Amir had “cut his throat”.

Nevertheless in the ensuing election campaign Thangathural did participate.He canvassed for Sampanthan.. Yet his heart was not in it. In Batticaloa he supported Rajadural with great vigour. The elections saw the TULF sweep the polls in the north-east on a mandate for Eelam.

Kiliveddy Bo -Tree

Thangathurai was embroiled in a controversy shortly before the elections.. Moves were afoot by Interested parties to convert an area around an ancient Bo Tree in Kiliveddi into a Buddhist place of worship. The rationale for it was the “myth” that the Bo Tree was of historical value and therefore sacred. The Tamils of Kiliveddi were paranoid. They knew the. pattern of Sinhala colonisation where Bo Trees become Places of Worship, a Buddhist priest takes up residence and then gradually a state-aided Sinhala Buddhist population builds up, resulting finally in the demographics of the area being changed.

In Kiliveddi something drastic happened. The Bo Tree was felled and destroyed overnight. Communal conflict on a minor scale occurred as a result . Kumaradurai, the younger brother of Thangathurai was among those arrested in connection with it. Thangathurai was considered the mastermind behind this. He was questioned but not arrested because of his MP status. Shortly after the polls communal trouble flared up again and once again Kumarathurai was arrested. Thangathurai himself was detained for some time and later released.

Lawyer

When denied nomination for Trincomalee one thing that hurt Thangathurai was the reason trotted out that he was not a lawyer. So he began studying law after 1977. Burning the midnight oil with a vengeance , Thangathurai soon became a fully qualified lawyer.

The period of time between 1977 -1981 and the rise of Tamil militancy was an interregnum in which the possibility of Sinhala encroachment into Tamil lands in Trincomalee was a constant source of threat. This threat was countered and contained to some extent by a strategy of deterrence adopted by the Tamils. This in essence was the use of limited violence, threats of violence, covert intimidation and sabotage by militant sections of the Tamils. These were not the gun toting youths of a later period but ordinary people determined to resist the loss of their historic areas of habitation. . It was widely believed that the dynamo behind this force was Thangathurai.

An important figure of this period was the legendary Kandapodi, a Robin Hood- like figure who held sway over Trincomalee South and Batticaloa North. He was ultimately shot dead by the Police inspector Thavarajatheepan . Again the belief in the east was that Kandapod’s benefactor and protector was
none other than Thangathural himself.

Chandrahasan

There soon emerged in the TULF a faction that was opposed to Amirthalingam. This loose coalition hinged around Chelvanayakam’s son SC Chandrahasan. Thangathural soon became an important member of this caucus. Amirthalingam’s decision to accept the District Development Councils as a temporary alternative to the separation demand was seized upon by this coterie as a means to undermine Amirthalingam. The same Thangathurai who opposed Thamil Eelam was now criticising the DDC’s as a sell-out in intra-party meetings.

The seasoned Politician, Amirthalingam deflated this challenge by offering the Jaffna and Trincomalee District Development Council Chairman posts to his critics S Nadarajah and A Thangathurai respectively. Both persons who felt earlier that the DDC’s were a sell-out now discovered merits that warranted the experiment of trying to work the DDC’s. In Thangathurai’s case he genuinely believed that he could curb colonisation and foster education through the DDC’s.

District Development Councils

In 1981 elections to the District Development Councils (DDC) wee announced. Thangathurai was picked by the TULF to Contest the Trincomal district as its lead candidate and potential chairman.

Contesting the DDC in Trincomalee was a formidable task for the TULF. Since the SLFP was boycotting the DDC polls it was a straight fight between the UNP and the TULF. In multi-ethnic Trincomalee the TULF could get its votes from the Tamil community alone. The UNP with Sinhala, Muslim support and some Tamil votes was likely to be the winner.

Thangathurai saw in this challenge an opportunity to display his political acumen. Apart from fully mobilising the Tamil people into supporting the TULF, he made deep in-roads into the Muslim and to some extent the Sinhala constituency of the SLFP He was able to convince the local SLFP figures that it would be better to let the TULF win rather than the UNP in Trincomalee,Thangathural also got certain SLFP bigwigs to covertly sanction this stratagem. The end result was an upset TULF victory over the more fancied UNP .

JR Jayewardena, however delayed devolving full powers and allocating funds to the DDC’s. The whole exercise once looked forward to eagerly by the Tamils as a panacea for their malady became a practical fiasco and was unceremoniously dumped into the dustheap of history. The 1983 pogrom and it’s consequent resurgence of Tamil militancy coupled with the role of India changed the situation dramatically.

Relocated to India

The 1983 pogrom and consequences utterly transformed life for the Tamils of Sri Lanka. Although many front line TULF members went abroad Thangathural continued to remain in Mutur. Many of his relatives and children of friends joined the milltant movements. Thangathural known for his strident viewpoints and close links with Tamil youths was once again suspected of being a powerful force promoting armed militancy. Despite the risks involved Thangathural remained with his people living in a volatile atmosphere until mid-1985

He was compelled to leave Sri Lanka as he was being constantly detained for questioning by the security authorities. Thanga also received reliabel information that he had bean earmarked as someone to be “removed” shortly. With great reluctance he relocated with his wife, son and two daughters to Chennai, Tamil Nadu. Thereafter his family continued to stay in India.

In India , Thangathurai found himself to be one of those rare Tamils who had easy access to all shades of Tamil political opinion. He was a welcome guest in all Tamil militant offices. A little known fact is his amiable relationship with LTTE leader, Velupillai Prabakharan. He was one of the few TULF personalities who had easy access to the LTTE leader. Thangathural maintained this close relationship with Prabakharan until 1989.

In 1987 he issued a statement to the Press criticising India for the way it handled Prabakharan at the time of the Indo- Lanka accord. He went against the public position of the TULF and asserted boldly that Prabakharan’s course of action had been right. This again got him into hot water with both New Delhi as well as Amirthalingam,

Thangathural, during his stay in India, was also very friendly with Chandrahasan. Relations between Amirthallngam and Chandrahasan had deteriorated considerably and being friendly with one was resented by the other. Besides there were always rumours about inner-party intrigues within the TULF regarding the replacement of Amirthalingam with Chandrahasan.

In such an atmosphere Thangathur’s open association with Chandrahasan irritated Amirthalingam on more than one occasion. The worst row between both was when Thangathural went to New Delhi to meet Indian leaders with Chanrahasan without informing Amirthalingam. When questioned Thangathural maintained that he would do anything in the interests of the Tamil people. Thangathurai’s relations with Amirthalingam remained strained even up to the time of the latters death in 1989

Returned to Sri Lanka

After the Indo-Lanka accord of 1987 , Thangathural returned to Sri Lanka in 1988 leaving his family behind in Chennal .He began working actively for the TULF again. Apart from short visits to Chennai Thangathural would shuttle batween Colombo and Trincomalee regularly.

During this period Thangaihural was of yeoman service to the people of Trincomalee He endeared himself to the people by his selfless service to them in a very difficult situation.The people of Trincomalee demonstrated their appreciation of Thangathural at the appropriate moment.

Trincomalee Tamil MP

In 1988, Thangathural returned to Sri Lanka leaving his family behind in Chennai. After Amirthalingam’s death he began working actively for the TULF again. Apart from short visits to Chennai Than-gathural would shuttle between Colombo and Trincomalee regularly. In Colombo he stayed at the TULF headquarters and was almost like a full-time party worker. DurIng this period Thangathurai was of yeoman service to the people of Trincomalee. He endeared himself to the people by his selfless service to them in a very difficult situation

The people of Trincomalee demonstrated their appreciation of Thangathural at the appropriate moment. In 1994 he contested Trincomalee on the TULF list and was elected as the only Tamil Parliamentarian. He obtained 22,410 preferential votes, the highest number by any candidate In Trincomalee. R. Sampanthan with 19,525 votes failed to get elected.

As a former member of Parliament for seven years (1970- 77) he was the senior most Parliamentarian of the TULF. Yet Batticaloa MP Joseph Pararajasegeram who had been in Parliament only since 1990 staked his claim for Parliamentary group leader status Thangathural did not press his rightful claim for the position and gracefully withdrew.

Trincomalee TULF Branch.

A more serious problem rose with the Trincomalee TULF Branch. Despite the personal popularity of Thangathurai with the masses of Trincomalee the TULF Branch remained very hostile to Thangathurai. They wanted Sambanthan to be MP. Continuous pressure was exerted on Thangathurai to resign and pave the way for Sambandan to become MP. Thangathural’s supporters became the countervailing force to these manouevres and resisted these efforts to make Thangalural to resign.

Thanga’s political rivals in the Trincomalee TULF Branch also generated malicious propaganda against him. The most serious charge was that he had now become an agent of the PA Government. Rumours began creating that he had even joined the Government. Adding grist to the rumour mill was the intimate contacts Thangathural had with some SLFP leaders. This state of affairs existed because of Thangathural’s personal friendship with them that had been cultivated over the years. He used these links to derive maximum benefits for the people of the Trincomalee District. But to his opponents depicted this as some great sacrilege.Hence Thangathurai had to suffer these canards.

Affinity with SLFP

It is an open secret that the left-oriented non-elitist Thangathurai was more partial to the SLFP than the UNP. He also went on record publicly that it was his considered opinion that it was only the present SLFP-led Government led by Chandrika Lumaratunga that could resolve the ethnic crisis and not the UNP. He identified with all the good things done by the Chandrika government. Thangathural also engrossed himself in the TULF’s attempts to help the government resolve the crisis. This stance reinforced the accusation that he was now a lackey of the government.

Thangathural however continued in his own independent manner. His concerns were primarily about developing the area, a task made more difficult by the war situation. Yet, he strove valiantly to address the needs of the community. Again, he focussed more on enhancing the educational facilities in his district. To Thangathural that was a mission of paramount Importance

The ongoing war brought in it’s own right a spate of human rights violations. The LTTE’s ascendancy in South Trincomalee saw that region being treated as enemy territory by the government. It was almost a superhuman task to ensure basic food being provided to that region. There were also many incidents of human rights violations. The most noteworthy among them being the massacre of innocents in Killveddy, Thangathural’s native village in 1996 After publicising details of the massacre globally Thangathurai kept exerting pressure on the government to ensure justice being done.

Never Felt Danger

Thangathurai, according to associates, had never felt he was in any danger from Tamil militants particularly the LTTE. The reasons for this feeling was both personal and political. On a personal level Thangathurai was well known to the LTTE hierarchy. He was also a familiar figure to the LTTE leadership at the regional level. It is said that Thangathurai’s close associates in the district had sounded out the local tigers about Thangathurai continuing to function in Trincomalee. The response had been very positive. In LTTE parlance Thangathurai had been given “clearance” by the LTTE to function in Trincomalee.

The second political reason was the political situation of Trincomalee itself. The district is multi-ethnic with all three communities living in near equal numbers, Given the on-going war the position of the Tamils was quite fragile. Their position was very perilous in that context. So Thangathunal had told friends that the LTTE would allow the TULF some political space to function in the district because in the overall interests of the Tamil people. It would not weaken the Tamils by de-stabilising the TULF. As such Thangathural’s contention was that there was no physical threat to him from the LTTE.

The Sri Shanmuga Hindu Ladies College itself is situated in Rajavarothiyam Street between the main street and Powerhouse Road junctions. This is in the thick of the Tamil quarter in Trincomalee. The house belonging to Thangathurai’s wife is on Rajaverothaiam Street too. So Thangathurai felt totally secure in that neighbourhood. He had even instructed his bodyguard to dispense with firearms before accompanying him. In fact Thangathurai always treated his bodyguards as a necessary evil to be tolerated whenever in “Tamil Trincomalee”. This was because he was supremely confident that he was in no danger. That notion was shattered tragically on 5 July 1997.

D.B.S.Jeyaraj can be reached at dbsjeyaraj@yahoo.com

This is an enhanced version of the “DBS Jeyaraj Column”appearing in the “Daily Mirror” of 8 July 2023.It can be accessed here –

https://www.dailymirror.lk/opinion/Black-Tiger-Day-murder-of-Trinco-Districts-Golden-Lord/172-262659