I saw soldiers bury Kuttimani’s body

Kuttimani Thangathurai

By Savani Sheshadhi and Udeni Saman Kumara-2016-01-17

Aneez Thuwan was a labourer attached to the Colombo Municipal Council and was working in various capacities. In 1980s, he was working as a labourer at the Borella Cemetery. He was also a night watcher there. The series of events that took place in the last week of July 1983 changed the order of Thuwan's life. On one night in July of that fateful year, a group of soldiers suddenly entered the cemetery and started combing the length and breadth of the cemetery. After a lengthy search they picked two locations.

Soon after, an excavator operated by a soldier entered the cemetery. Without seeking permission from the authorities, they started digging a hole in the ground in the area that is now used as a car park near Devi Balika Vidyalaya, where the crematorium is installed now.
The administrator of the cemetery immediately informed about this intrusion to the Mayor. However, the advice was to do nothing and allow the soldiers to carry-out their task.

Thuwan noticed the soldiers dug two 10X10X10 grave. The next day, the excavator returned followed by a covered truck.
The back cover of the truck was hauled up and Thuwan saw blood soaked bodies of 35 men which were soon dumped into the graves. Then the grave was covered with soil. The bodies are believed to be of Tamil prisoners, including that of Kuttimani. On the next day, another 18 bodies were brought and they too were dumped similarly in a grave dug at the back of the cemetery.
The climax of Black July 1983 was the killing of 53 Tamil political prisoners on 25 and 27 July 1983. It was said the deaths were a result of prison riots.

Thuwan does not remember the exact date the bodies were brought to the cemetery. However, it is worth investigating whether the graves were dug while the men were still alive.
Following is the list of names of Tamil prisoners killed on 25 and 27 July 1983:

25 July 1983: 1. Kuttimani Yogachandran, 2. N. Thangathurai, 3. Nadesathasan, 4. Jegan, 5. Alias Sivarasa 6. Sivan Anpalagan 7. A. Balasubramaniam 8. Surash Kumar 9. Arunthavarajah 10. Thanapalasingham 11. Arafat 30. Anpalagan Sunduran 12. P. Mahendran 31. Ramalingam Balachandran 13. K. Thillainathan 32. K. Thavarajasingham 1420. S. Subramaniam 21. Mylvaganam Sinnaiah 22. G. Mylvaganam 23. Ch. Sivanantharajah 24. T. Kandiah 25. S. Sathiyaseelan 26. Kathiravelpillai 27. Easvaranathan 28. K. Nagarajah 29. Gunapalan Ganeshalingam . S. Kularajasekaram 33. K. Krishnakumar 15. K. Uthaya Kumar 34. R. Yoganathan 16. S. Sivakumar 35. A. Uthayakumar 17. A. Rajan 36. G. Amirthalingam 18. S. Balachandran 37. V. Chandrakumar 19. Yogachandran Killi 38. Sittampalam Chandrakulam 39. Navaratnam Sivapatham (Master)

27 July 1983: 1. Muthukumar Srikumar 10. Gnanamuthu Naveratnasingham 2. Philip Amirthanayagam 11. Kandiah Rajendran (Robert) 3. Kulasingam Kumar 12. Dr. Somasunderam Rajasunderam 4. Selachami Kumar 13. Somasunderam Manoranjan 5. Kandasamy Sarveswaran 14. Arumugam Seyan (Appu) 6. A. Marianpillai 15. Thamotharampillai Jegemogenandan 7. Sivapathan Neethirajah 16. Sinnathambi Sivasubramaniam 8. Devanayagam Paskaran 17. Sellay Rajeratnam 9. Ponnaiya Thurairajah 18. Kumarasamy Ganeshalingam 19. Ponnampalam Devakumar.

This list includes names of a number of well-known members of Tamil militant groups. Kuttimani, Thangathurai and Jegan, who were convicted and sentenced to death on 24 February 1983, were also among them.
A statement made by Kuttimani at the end of his court case is very famous. He said "We are fighters belonging to an organization that is struggling to liberate our people. To those noble souls who keep practising terrorism, we have something to say. Did you not get frightened of terrorism when hundreds of Tamils got massacred in cold blood, when racist hate spread like fire in this country of yours?

"Did terrorism mean nothing to you when Tamil women were raped? When our cultural treasures were set on fire? When hundreds of Tamil homes were looted?
"Why, in 1977 alone 400 Tamils lost their lives, reddening the sky above with their splattered blood. Did you not see any terrorism then?

"It is only when a few policemen are killed in Tamil Eelam, and a few million rupees bank money robbed, that terrorism strikes you in the face... But my fervent prayer is that innocent Sinhalese people should not have to reap what power hungry Sinhalese politicians have sown.
"These tribulations are a boon bestowed by God to purify us. The final victory is ours."
Before these killings took place, on 3 June 1982, police were vested with powers to bury the dead bodies without conducting an autopsy.

These killings took place during the violence against Tamils after the killing of 13 soldiers in the first landmine attack of the LTTE. The attacks in the South started on 24 July 1983 and the first wave of killings took place in Welikada Prison between 2:15 and 3:15 on the morning of July 25. The senior medical officer found 35 bodies of Tamil prisoners after the rioting prisoners were dispersed. The dead bodies were buried in Borella Cemetery and the relatives of the prisoners were not informed about the deaths. D.P. Delgoda was the Prisons Commissioner and K. Janz was the Deputy Commissioner of Prisons at that time.

Then Indian High Commissioner of Sri Lanka J.N. Dixit mentioned about this killing, "Major damages in Colombo. The houses of the staff of the Indian High Commission were also attacked. Violence spread to the other Sinhala dominated areas where Tamils lived. The Sri Lankan Government was either helpless or it had given the Sinhalese opportunity to take revenge for the killing of Sinhala soldiers. Worst was the Tamils were under the siege of the Sri Lankan Government. That led to a large number of them fleeing to Tamil Nadu.

"President Jayewardene, instead of controlling the situation, did not address the people on television for six days. His first address after six days lacked description."