Let’s remember Ratnam Palippody

“I have vivid memory of a respectable person who worked as a Grama Niladarari (Village Officer/Grama Sevaka) in the Eastern Sri Lanka during Eelam War 02. He was a humble and non violent person and was always working hard to see peace and harmony within communities in the East. This humble human tried to do many things for his people, but unfortunately lost his life to a terror gun eighteen years ago on Oct. 26.”


by Nilantha Ilangamuwa

(October 27, Colombo, Sri Lanka Guardian) Yesterday (Oct. 26) was another day of skullduggery in the East with the state sponsored demonstrations there. The East has changed course from Tamil struggle or the so-called uprising to a democratic process and has also now become a hotbed for political manipulations.

The real situation is both Tamils and Sinhala races are unfortunate races in the World today. Both these races are suffering due to lack of genuine political leaderships on both the divides. The so-called Marxist patron saints within the Sinhalese due to their blinkered vision have inflicted serious harm to the Sinhalese society in their terror campaign against the government to establish a fascist dictatorship of the socialists on two occasions.

On the Tamils side the hero worshiping terror campaign of the LTTE has destroyed thousands of Tamil youths. Thirty years of violence of the LTTE has only harmed the Tamils and have made them almost a lost society. The LTTE struggle cannot be considered as a legitimate struggle of the Tamil people. The underline theme of LTTE struggle gives more importance to controlling the real estate of patch of land of Tamil Ealam than the real value for the human lives of the lives. The politically immature LTTE is using the innocent Tamils as wretched lots and destroying the very foundations of the Tamil society in the island. Both these two highly religious races are fighting each other without any feelings or thoughts for their religion or nation. Both races are progressing towards irredeemable decay.

I have vivid memory of a respectable person who worked as a Grama Niladarari (Village Officer/Grama Sevaka) in the Eastern Sri Lanka during Eelam War 02. He was a humble and non violent person and was always working hard to see peace and harmony within communities in the East. This humble human tried to do many things for his people, but unfortunately lost his life to a terror gun eighteen years ago on Oct. 26.

In 1990 the Batticaloa city was run by the Special Task Force (STF) after the defeat of LTTE there. But the STF did not know who the terrorist were and many innocent people were killed purely on suspicion. Gruesome killing of a young mother Koneswary by triggering a bomb in her genital in the mid-1990’s is the typical tragic experience in the East the Tamils experienced which cannot be easily forgotten. These types of violence created serious rift between the security forces and the civilians. These events gave credence to the LTTE terrorists gain sympathy from the Tamil civilians.

The Grama Niladaree who worked in Periyaneelavani Division 02 worked tirelessly to prevent excesses by the STF. ‘The time has come to conduct serious talk with the security forces about these unfortunate developments against the innocent civilian population’ he told one day in the presence of his colleagues. He took the trouble to visit the STF camp many times to plead with them to respect the civilian population.

He suggested that STF must be made accountable and wanted a Civil Monitoring Community (CMC) to monitor and investigate the youth who had been arrested by the STF on terrorism charges. The security forces too agreed to his suggestion and CMC was formed and the GS became its President.

The GS was none other than Ratnam Palippody who played this important role to bring accountability of security forces. His effort produced better understanding between people and the STF. As a result human rights abuses declined dramatically.

This development was not palatable to the Tigers. Palippody received a warning letter from the LTTE and it was signed by one Ramanan (who was killed few months ago in a military operation). He was the Intelligence Chief for the LTTE in the East. Palippody was asked to attend the Liberation Tigers' base nearby for an urgent meeting. As a Grama Sevaka he too went there, but Tigers decided his fate already. Tigers held him in captivity and all his documents at his premises were then taken and burnt. ‘You have betrayed our liberation struggle to the slave Sinhalese Army and you must be killed,’ was the warning given by a senior LTTE officer.

The poor man tried to justify his conduct but the Tigers were not in a mood to listen to reasons. Death order came none other from Karuna and the Tiger bullets pierced the body of this innocent man. This happened just opposite to Periyakallar market.

His dead body was later recovered by people in the area on the following morning. A warning note was left with the dead body stating, ‘The supporter of the slave Sinhalase Army has been killed by the Liberation Tigers. If anyone wants to support the slave Sinhalese Army, they must be ready to face the same fate.’ A sincere man was gunned for doing a remarkable job to save the Tamil lives.

After 18 years of what had happened in the East to Palipoddy, the Eastern leader of the LTTE Karuna Amman after breaking away from the LTTE has joined the mainstream politics. He is a buddy of the government now and has become a parliamentarian through the back door. He and his party activists are now getting the very same protection from the security forces that Palippody associated. What a tragedy the very same Karuna giving orders to kill Palippody for aligning with the security forces is now have become dependent on the very same security forces for his survival.

Unfortunately, the Grama Sevaka is no more. Even his family was evicted from the East by terror power of Karuna.

One of GS’s sons joined the Sri Lankan Army and was working as intelligence informant without any payments. He wanted to take revenge on his father's killers. But he also became a victim of the dirty politics of the South. He was paralyzed over an incident and had to flee the country. He narrowly escaped death in an LTTE attack in Wellawatta in Colombo. The Tiger's pistol gang shot him in front of the Wellawatta police situation in January 2005. He faced unbelievable discriminations by the Security Officials due to their selfish motives and for being a Tamil. He was an asset to the state, as he passed invaluable information about LTTE activities to the Sri Lanka intelligence.

But fortunately Palippody's son had some support from the foreign Diplomatic Service and he has saved his life. An European embassy gave him the necessary help for him to flee the country. He is living outside Sri Lanka now but as a life time disabled person.

It is sad to see such loyal citizens fleeing the country after having worked for our country to maintain its territorial integrity. I cannot reveal about his exact whereabouts because of his safety concerns. One of his brothers who achieved a Degree in Philosophy from the University of Peradeniya became mentally disabled when he saw his father's dead body.

The other two members of the family are living somewhere in this country, but they too are suffering from the trauma of their father’s death.

There is a mass demonstration in Batticaloa yesterday organized by the government with the help of Karuna (and others). Karuna is doing this scandalous demo with the very security forces with whom he was fighting and after enjoying the killing innocent persons like the humble Palippody.

All these fellows are now tools of the government to extend the violent path of the state, which they fought as hero’s few years ago. Will they have any remorse for the crimes they have committed on persons like Palippody? They will not. These are worms that sucks the blood of the nation for their own glory. - Sri Lanka Guardian