How are the fallen risen: Karuna rides high again Sunday Punch 2
In the small town of Navadinveli, Ampara, in the Eastern Province where he once rode roughshod blazoning his Tiger stripes and brandishing his gun, 54-year-old former LTTE terrorist Karuna Amman gloated at a voters gathering six weeks before August’s general elections, how he had massacred over two thousand Sinhala soldiers at Elephant Pass in one night’s carnage and many more at Kilinochchi at the height of the Eelam War.
This is also the man with a long record of butchery after his name, including the cold blooded slaughter of over 600 policemen in Batticaloa who had laid down their weapons and surrendered to his cadres on President Premadasa’s direct order in June 1990. In fact, not all the milk of human forgiveness can wash away the stains of his inhumane deeds.
Furthermore Karuna and LTTE colleague Pillaiyan, known as Sivanesathurai Chandrakanthan, now the Hon. Member of Parliament, are also named in a fundamental right application filed this July in the Supreme Court by Venerable Aandhaulpatha Buddhasara Thera, a monk who survived the Aranthalawa massacre by Tigers in 1987 where 31
Buddhist monks were killed. The monk, who suffered serious injuries, claims Rs. 20 million as damages.
In his petition, the monk claims that several top-level LTTE leaders who were involved in the massacre had put down arms and entered politics and among them are Vinayagamoorthy Muralitharan alias ‘Karuna Amman’ and Sivanesathurai Chandrakanthan alias ‘Pillayan’; and avers allowing individuals connected to massacres to roam free, violates his fundamental rights. The case is to be taken up for consideration two weeks hence on November 2.
After the 30-year terrorist war had ended on the banks of the Nanthikadal lagoon on May 18, 2009, ex-Tiger terrorist turned government snitch Karuna was appointed to Parliament through the SLFP-led alliance UPFA’s National List. During the second tenure of former President Mahinda Rajapaksa, Karuna was appointed as a government Minister and a Vice President of the SLFP to boot.
But after Karuna’s sickening boast this June of how he had massacred Lanka’s Golden Heroes in one night, had shocked the nation, the ruling SLPP distanced itself from Karuna and refused to touch him with a barge pole.
In fact, referring to Karuna’s bragging over killing Sinhala soldiers, SLPP Secretary Sagara Kariyawasam held a news conference on June 21, and said, “He is neither a member of the SLPP nor a member of our affiliated groups. We would like to categorically mention that Karuna Amman is not maintaining any links with our party for the upcoming general election and reiterate that we highly condemn the statement.”
But perhaps, you can’t keep a determined man down.
This Tuesday, Prime Minister Mahinda Rajapaksa received Karuna Amman alias Vinayagamoorthy Muralitharan at Temple Trees and appointed him as the District Coordinator of the Prime Minister for Ampara and Batticaloa districts in the East paid for by the public purse.
After finishing his hatchet job in the East by splitting the Tamil vote and denying the TNA eastern representation -- never mind his own flop -- perhaps, it was time for him to return to the fold to collect not his scalps of one night’s battle but his spoils of inglorious defeat.