07-15-2004, 12:07 AM
Can the renegade Karuna deliver his Big Magic?
By Taraki
Life goes on as usual in Batticaloa town and in its interior. The Army has stepped
up patrols and occasional checks on the main roads of the town. But no one appears
to be too hassled by this. But whenever I run into friends, acquaintances or
relatives, they invariably tell me that I am foolish to be back.
"You would be shot dead like Nadesan. Leave now", they say. But Batticaloa is my
home. This is where I was born and grew up. This is the only place in this wide
world where the evening air is sweetly suffused with memories of the girls whom I
once loved and the bars where I made merry in my first heady forays into manhood.
This has been my home despite years of a deadly internecine war between the LTTE and
another Tamil militant organisation to which I belonged, despite years of threats
posed by the (formerly) much-feared 'Razeek Group', despite the dire uncertainties
of life in the east during Eelam War III. (I am a reluctant sojourner of Colombo)
Therefore I won't let the 'Karuna Affair' dislodge me from the only place I wish to
settle down at the end of my travels, I tell my friends.
"The fox that lives in the Palmyra grove won't be startled by the rustling of
fronds," says the Tamil adage.
But no one appears to be convinced. "Leave before they kill you", they insist.
All these people, regardless of their political persuasions, are convinced that
Karuna and his men do not like the Tamil journalists of Batticaloa. They say that
his men murdered Nadesan and threatened others with death because he wants no Tamil
journalist around.
This is not a good start for Karuna. Bad press is bad for the kind of business he
intends to do in Batticaloa with the aid of his new found ally, Douglas Devananda.
The renegade's dislike of the Tamil press was obvious as soon as he decided to quit
the LTTE. Not a single Tamil journalist was informed of his decision. The
independent Tamil press was completely ignored by Karuna during his short-lived
rebellion despite repeated appeals by them seeking interviews to present his side of
the story. Tamil journalists in Batticaloa were not even allowed to visit the
LTTE-controlled areas during the rebellion. Those who reported the exodus of Jaffna
families were threatened. Karuna's men burnt thousands of copies of the Tamil daily
'Thinakkural' and threatened its local correspondent Shan Thavarajah with death.
Several lesser-known local journalists such as Venugopal were kept under house
arrest.
Instead, Karuna was seen welcoming with open arms the Sinhala press, including
irrationally anti-Tamil Sinhala nationalists, and international media at the
Meenaham Base.
Needless to say, this did not go down well with Tamil journalists. Karuna had rubbed
them on the wrong side. Also the majority of the newspaper reading public in
Batticaloa did not like the way in which the Sinhala nationalist press in Colombo
was gleefully promoting the renegade to proclaim the end of the Tamil cause. All
this embarrassed Karuna's supporters.
In fact, 'Siva', an undergraduate of the Eastern University from Koddaikallar who
was close to him during the 'rebellion', took up the matter with the renegade
commander and strongly advised him against giving interviews to Sinhala nationalist
media indiscriminately. "Ultimately we will have to rely on the Tamil press to reach
out to the people of Batticaloa. Hence, it is not prudent to alienate Tamil
journalists", the undergraduate had told him. Karuna had said he would consider the
matter. Period.
The murder of Nadesan and the continuing threats to local journalists shows that his
attitude hasn't changed.
Bad press is not a good start for Karuna.
But in Batticaloa, his association with the Sri Lanka Army and the EPDP is turning
out to be worse than bad press.
"My brother was shot dead on Karuna's orders for buying some provisions for the
Morokkoddanchenai Army camp. Now he had joined the military. What is he going to
tell hundreds of people like me now?" asked a man who had come to see Batticaloa MP
Jeyanandamoorthy three days ago.
As more details of the renegade commander's close association with the Army and its
intelligence emerge, even his covert supporters in Kiran and Valaichenai are
beginning to have second thoughts.
It has been well recorded by two Presidential Commissions of Inquiry into
Disappearances and by independent human rights groups that the Tamils of Batticaloa
have had very bitter and bloody experiences with the Sri Lankan armed forces in the
past. The deep psychological wounds are yet to heal. Memorials, widows and orphans
are constant reminders of the massacres, mass arrests, rape, torture,
interrogations, assassinations etc., by the military in Batticaloa. One cannot erase
these bitter memories etched deeply in the collective psyche of Batticaloa with a
single wave of the 'Karuna Wand'.
Talking of magic, let us look at the manner in which people in Batticaloa are
reacting to more information that is coming out regarding the renegade commander's
financial dealings.
On March 8, 2004, four days after Karuna went public that he was quitting the LTTE,
the registrar of companies issued a certificate of registration to a new company
called 'Mahajala Export and Import Company (Private) Limited' under his hand and
seal. The registration number of the company is N (PVS) 36846. The memorandum and
articles of association of the company were prepared and witnessed by S.
Thurairajah, Attorney-at-Law, Notary Public and Commissioner of Oaths.
The chairman of 'Mahajala Export and Import Company (Private) Limited' is Mrs.
Vithyapathy Muralitharan. The managing director is her father, Kanthaiya
Santhirasekeram of Kallady, Batticaloa.
Vithyapathy is the real name of Karuna's wife 'Nira'. The company appears to have
been a front for funneling money embezzled from the LTTE's coffers in the east.
Twenty five million rupees were deposited in her name in a private bank in
Wellawatte when the company was registered.
'Mahajala' means big magic. Interestingly, Karuna's personal aide and spokesman
Varathan who abandoned him recently says that he found it difficult to cope with
Nira's "avarice" and dictatorial manner when they were staying in the safe-house in
Mount Lavinia, which, according to Varathan was allegedly provided and looked after
by the military intelligence.
Nira joined the LTTE in 1989. She was trained in intelligence work in Jaffna. She
was sent back to Batticaloa after the Indian Army left and was soon promoted as the
head of the women's wing of the LTTE's intelligence unit in the district. She was
married to Karuna in Jaffna on the day President Premadasa was killed by a suicide
bomber in Colombo - May 1, 1993. 'Kuhanesan' the person who was (and still is) in
charge of Karuna's secret personal financial and business transactions was Nira's
driver when she lived in the Wanni. (Kuhanesan was one of the Tamil men who were
arrested with arms in the Hingurakgoda temple).
Speaking about an argument that he had had with her in the alleged military
intelligence safe house whether Karuna had any popular support in Batticaloa,
Varathan accuses her of goading the renegade with false visions of a business and
political empire in the east. Karuna had also registered two companies with
Kuhanesan as chairman.
In sorting out the state of financial ruin in which the renegade commander had left
the district, the LTTE's auditors and accountants have found that he has borrowed
more than thirty million rupees from local societies and businessmen. Karuna had
obtained the monies directly through Kuhanesan. There are no records of the
borrowings or of how they were spent. However, the LTTE has promised to repay the
loans over a period of time it has negotiated with the creditors.
Revelations about Karuna's financial misdemeanour have not endeared him to the
hundreds who paid heavy taxes to the Tigers under his command. The renegade eastern
commander was so strict about extracting 'tax' that even scores of die-hard LTTE
supporters were clamped behind bars for months until they paid up the amount
demanded of them. Some rich farmers and businessmen fell into permanent ruin, unable
to withstand the haphazard but harsh tax regime imposed by Karuna and his men in
Batticaloa. This eased greatly only after the LTTE headquarters started sending more
than ten million rupees a month to the erstwhile eastern commander.
"We put up with all their demands and paid our hard earned money because they
sacrifice their lives for us, for the sake of our future well being. I cannot
forgive anyone who takes that money for his personal use", said a friend in
Kaluwanchikudy, talking about Kuhanesan's transactions with him. He had to stop
building his house after Kuhanesan had demanded an amount almost equal to the cost
of construction.
One hears hundreds of stories like this in the towns and larger villages of
Batticaloa. And none of the victims in these stories are going to laud Karuna for
starting 'Mahajala Export and Import Company in his wife's name.
Meanwhile, I checked on a claim by an NGO in Colombo that Karuna has started
collecting 'tax' in Batticaloa. This is baseless. Some of Kuhanesan's private
transactions have been confused for tax.
The supporters of Karuna in the corridors of power in Colombo overlook many obvious
common sense facts about the situation in Batticaloa in their over enthusiastic
vision of Karuna as one who is going to wrest the east from the Tigers - at least
politically.
The renegade's "Big Magic' (Mahajala) dazzles them yet.
They hear only what they like to hear because the march of folly has already begun.
dailymirror
By Taraki
Life goes on as usual in Batticaloa town and in its interior. The Army has stepped
up patrols and occasional checks on the main roads of the town. But no one appears
to be too hassled by this. But whenever I run into friends, acquaintances or
relatives, they invariably tell me that I am foolish to be back.
"You would be shot dead like Nadesan. Leave now", they say. But Batticaloa is my
home. This is where I was born and grew up. This is the only place in this wide
world where the evening air is sweetly suffused with memories of the girls whom I
once loved and the bars where I made merry in my first heady forays into manhood.
This has been my home despite years of a deadly internecine war between the LTTE and
another Tamil militant organisation to which I belonged, despite years of threats
posed by the (formerly) much-feared 'Razeek Group', despite the dire uncertainties
of life in the east during Eelam War III. (I am a reluctant sojourner of Colombo)
Therefore I won't let the 'Karuna Affair' dislodge me from the only place I wish to
settle down at the end of my travels, I tell my friends.
"The fox that lives in the Palmyra grove won't be startled by the rustling of
fronds," says the Tamil adage.
But no one appears to be convinced. "Leave before they kill you", they insist.
All these people, regardless of their political persuasions, are convinced that
Karuna and his men do not like the Tamil journalists of Batticaloa. They say that
his men murdered Nadesan and threatened others with death because he wants no Tamil
journalist around.
This is not a good start for Karuna. Bad press is bad for the kind of business he
intends to do in Batticaloa with the aid of his new found ally, Douglas Devananda.
The renegade's dislike of the Tamil press was obvious as soon as he decided to quit
the LTTE. Not a single Tamil journalist was informed of his decision. The
independent Tamil press was completely ignored by Karuna during his short-lived
rebellion despite repeated appeals by them seeking interviews to present his side of
the story. Tamil journalists in Batticaloa were not even allowed to visit the
LTTE-controlled areas during the rebellion. Those who reported the exodus of Jaffna
families were threatened. Karuna's men burnt thousands of copies of the Tamil daily
'Thinakkural' and threatened its local correspondent Shan Thavarajah with death.
Several lesser-known local journalists such as Venugopal were kept under house
arrest.
Instead, Karuna was seen welcoming with open arms the Sinhala press, including
irrationally anti-Tamil Sinhala nationalists, and international media at the
Meenaham Base.
Needless to say, this did not go down well with Tamil journalists. Karuna had rubbed
them on the wrong side. Also the majority of the newspaper reading public in
Batticaloa did not like the way in which the Sinhala nationalist press in Colombo
was gleefully promoting the renegade to proclaim the end of the Tamil cause. All
this embarrassed Karuna's supporters.
In fact, 'Siva', an undergraduate of the Eastern University from Koddaikallar who
was close to him during the 'rebellion', took up the matter with the renegade
commander and strongly advised him against giving interviews to Sinhala nationalist
media indiscriminately. "Ultimately we will have to rely on the Tamil press to reach
out to the people of Batticaloa. Hence, it is not prudent to alienate Tamil
journalists", the undergraduate had told him. Karuna had said he would consider the
matter. Period.
The murder of Nadesan and the continuing threats to local journalists shows that his
attitude hasn't changed.
Bad press is not a good start for Karuna.
But in Batticaloa, his association with the Sri Lanka Army and the EPDP is turning
out to be worse than bad press.
"My brother was shot dead on Karuna's orders for buying some provisions for the
Morokkoddanchenai Army camp. Now he had joined the military. What is he going to
tell hundreds of people like me now?" asked a man who had come to see Batticaloa MP
Jeyanandamoorthy three days ago.
As more details of the renegade commander's close association with the Army and its
intelligence emerge, even his covert supporters in Kiran and Valaichenai are
beginning to have second thoughts.
It has been well recorded by two Presidential Commissions of Inquiry into
Disappearances and by independent human rights groups that the Tamils of Batticaloa
have had very bitter and bloody experiences with the Sri Lankan armed forces in the
past. The deep psychological wounds are yet to heal. Memorials, widows and orphans
are constant reminders of the massacres, mass arrests, rape, torture,
interrogations, assassinations etc., by the military in Batticaloa. One cannot erase
these bitter memories etched deeply in the collective psyche of Batticaloa with a
single wave of the 'Karuna Wand'.
Talking of magic, let us look at the manner in which people in Batticaloa are
reacting to more information that is coming out regarding the renegade commander's
financial dealings.
On March 8, 2004, four days after Karuna went public that he was quitting the LTTE,
the registrar of companies issued a certificate of registration to a new company
called 'Mahajala Export and Import Company (Private) Limited' under his hand and
seal. The registration number of the company is N (PVS) 36846. The memorandum and
articles of association of the company were prepared and witnessed by S.
Thurairajah, Attorney-at-Law, Notary Public and Commissioner of Oaths.
The chairman of 'Mahajala Export and Import Company (Private) Limited' is Mrs.
Vithyapathy Muralitharan. The managing director is her father, Kanthaiya
Santhirasekeram of Kallady, Batticaloa.
Vithyapathy is the real name of Karuna's wife 'Nira'. The company appears to have
been a front for funneling money embezzled from the LTTE's coffers in the east.
Twenty five million rupees were deposited in her name in a private bank in
Wellawatte when the company was registered.
'Mahajala' means big magic. Interestingly, Karuna's personal aide and spokesman
Varathan who abandoned him recently says that he found it difficult to cope with
Nira's "avarice" and dictatorial manner when they were staying in the safe-house in
Mount Lavinia, which, according to Varathan was allegedly provided and looked after
by the military intelligence.
Nira joined the LTTE in 1989. She was trained in intelligence work in Jaffna. She
was sent back to Batticaloa after the Indian Army left and was soon promoted as the
head of the women's wing of the LTTE's intelligence unit in the district. She was
married to Karuna in Jaffna on the day President Premadasa was killed by a suicide
bomber in Colombo - May 1, 1993. 'Kuhanesan' the person who was (and still is) in
charge of Karuna's secret personal financial and business transactions was Nira's
driver when she lived in the Wanni. (Kuhanesan was one of the Tamil men who were
arrested with arms in the Hingurakgoda temple).
Speaking about an argument that he had had with her in the alleged military
intelligence safe house whether Karuna had any popular support in Batticaloa,
Varathan accuses her of goading the renegade with false visions of a business and
political empire in the east. Karuna had also registered two companies with
Kuhanesan as chairman.
In sorting out the state of financial ruin in which the renegade commander had left
the district, the LTTE's auditors and accountants have found that he has borrowed
more than thirty million rupees from local societies and businessmen. Karuna had
obtained the monies directly through Kuhanesan. There are no records of the
borrowings or of how they were spent. However, the LTTE has promised to repay the
loans over a period of time it has negotiated with the creditors.
Revelations about Karuna's financial misdemeanour have not endeared him to the
hundreds who paid heavy taxes to the Tigers under his command. The renegade eastern
commander was so strict about extracting 'tax' that even scores of die-hard LTTE
supporters were clamped behind bars for months until they paid up the amount
demanded of them. Some rich farmers and businessmen fell into permanent ruin, unable
to withstand the haphazard but harsh tax regime imposed by Karuna and his men in
Batticaloa. This eased greatly only after the LTTE headquarters started sending more
than ten million rupees a month to the erstwhile eastern commander.
"We put up with all their demands and paid our hard earned money because they
sacrifice their lives for us, for the sake of our future well being. I cannot
forgive anyone who takes that money for his personal use", said a friend in
Kaluwanchikudy, talking about Kuhanesan's transactions with him. He had to stop
building his house after Kuhanesan had demanded an amount almost equal to the cost
of construction.
One hears hundreds of stories like this in the towns and larger villages of
Batticaloa. And none of the victims in these stories are going to laud Karuna for
starting 'Mahajala Export and Import Company in his wife's name.
Meanwhile, I checked on a claim by an NGO in Colombo that Karuna has started
collecting 'tax' in Batticaloa. This is baseless. Some of Kuhanesan's private
transactions have been confused for tax.
The supporters of Karuna in the corridors of power in Colombo overlook many obvious
common sense facts about the situation in Batticaloa in their over enthusiastic
vision of Karuna as one who is going to wrest the east from the Tigers - at least
politically.
The renegade's "Big Magic' (Mahajala) dazzles them yet.
They hear only what they like to hear because the march of folly has already begun.
dailymirror
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