Major Vilvam /John
Major Vilvam /John
I went to his house yesterday. He was laying down on that palm leaf mat. I call him ‘Father’. The one who held out the lamp towards my face started talking like this, ‘I remember my son calling me ‘Father’ by opening the curtain of the faded times. He will tell his mother to cook the meat. He will run away without eating the cooked food.”
His cousin’s daughter was also there. Born after her uncle joined the movement, she listens to her uncle’s stories with longing – I see his life through the search of those small eyes. “Mulangavil Maveerar Thuyilumillam” – To pay a final tribute to his son. I see his life through the feelings of the priest who said to the father who was waiting with tears, “Aya, don’t cry, your son was born to fight, he will take another birth. Don’t be ashamed.”
That was 1988. A time when the Tamil nation stood against yet another foreign invasion. The war crimes and atrocities of the Indian army had watered down his sense of freedom. 1988.09 ‘Nila’ was his movement name. Time gave him more names like Mango, Amma, Joan, and Vilvam.
In the Mannar-09 training camp, his life of the Tamileelam liberation war began. The milky full moon was his home. He would interact with everyone, regardless of whether it was big or small, and would point fingers at everyone. The questions he would ask after listening to the things he was taught and deeply absorbing them, made that ‘Nila’ stand out in the training camp. ‘Suresh! I am handing over twenty pearls to you. It is your responsibility to turn them into diamonds and saltpeter.’ That is what Colonel Banu told Suresh, who was then the political in-charge of Mannar district. Among those twenty pearls, Vilvam (Nila) was one. The main task was ‘political’. The political work of a large area in Mannar district, namely Vattakandal, Palapperumalkattu, and Guruvilvan, was in the hands of this young fighter. Igniting the fire of freedom in the minds of the people, pointing out social grievances, and listening to them while understanding the war without getting caught in the searches and encirclements of the Indian army, were challenging tasks. He faced the challenges.
His name will be mentioned many times in the final vote of thanks at school functions. He will lecture on the freedom struggle as if he were at the ‘bar’ (tea). In the shadow of the cross of Jesus, social development will be planned with the priest. His name will also be heard in the mantras recited at Hindu temple festivals. His feet will go up and down the steps and the door of the house for the educational needs of Variya students. His presence will also be present in the disputes that arise in the Katukkarai pond and the canal. Vilvam is the child of every house in those beautiful villages – a nuisance only to the Indian soldiers.
1989 His incredible courage, speed and composure were observed by Suresh in the ambush attack against the Indian soldiers in Kumanayankula, Mannar. 1989.09. His cleverness was recognized when he calmly threw a hand grenade in an ambush against the Indian troops and a group of mercenaries patrolling from Adampan camp in Mannar towards Nedungandal and turned time in his favor. Although he risked his life in his duty and acted with great commitment and responsibility, the mischief of youth only made him see through it. He took the motorcycle of a supporter and went from Adampan to Manthai. In that rush, he dropped the motorcycle into the muddy pond. ‘Vilvam fell’. All the people who knew that came running, the person who explained the matter pretended to wash the motorcycle.
His investigative perspective in reporting his work and the investigative perspective that is evident when analyzing and investigating the subject were the reasons for his induction into the Intelligence Department in the 1990s, when the Indian Army was removed from our land. The Intelligence Department was new to him, and when he heard the message that ‘no matter which department you enter, you have to make that mark’; he quickly wrote a letter and received permission from the head of the Intelligence Department to join the college.
After completing his studies, he became Nalan’s assistant in the investigation department. Facing anti-national challenges in the Mannar region, including Madupradesh, where many displaced Tamils settled in Mannar district, while preventing social crimes and corruption while the activities of the police were not expanded, were important goals in the investigation department. Describing his activities, Nalan said, “In my absence, he analyzed the enemy’s intelligence challenges and social crimes that may occur in the district. He was able to see its depth, identify its exact final form and take appropriate action, and I always trusted him.”
It was 1994, when Kalali Lake was the communication route between Vanni and Yarlpanam. When we received news that a military intelligence officer under our surveillance in Yarlpanam had escaped from surveillance and had sailed to Vanni, we urgently passed this information on to Wilwath in Periyamaduvil, Mannar, and obtained a motorbike from Sanath and rode for about seventy-five kilometers. Before the boat from Kalali reached Nallur shore, he stood on the Nallur shore and welcomed the spy. His act of connecting and bonding with the people in the investigation work was extraordinary.
Many children coming home from school would leave their bike and get off at the door. He would gather the children and entertain them with the sweets he had on hand. He would enter previously unknown houses as if he were already well acquainted and would become a familiar relative. The longer the relationship, the more he would go into the kitchen and serve the food himself under the stove. This kind of attitude arose from the platform of his political work.
Just as his involvement in the investigation as supporters, agents, and cronies was the reason for his success, when he shot a chicken with his pistol to eat chicken at the sponsor’s house – that accidentally injured a neighbor’s girl. Being condemned for this, and his excessive involvement in his relationship with people – his habit, his kind approach, were based on a sense of freedom and for the purpose of investigation. They were seen by some in society as a romantic exercise, which may have infected another side that taught the lesson of ‘being careful in relationships’. Considering the need to eliminate a key target.
Considering his talent, his investigative work became centered on Mannar Island. The only way to travel is by sea. Mannar is an island with a radius of a few kilometers that is occupied by the Sinhalese army and serves as their military base. The presence of soldiers everywhere in the sea areas surrounding the island, the security areas, the guards, the journey to land on the island, was a life-threatening experience. It was 1996, at that time, when his journey and work were taking place with the sole hope that his people were there. On a new moon night, amidst the turbulent sea, he, his comrade Ganesh and many others would land between two guards of soldiers with the help of boats. That day, just a few hours after landing, the soldiers’ guns began to crack, Sundaramani, clinging to the boat, lost his pulse, and regardless of the danger he might face, dragged the body of the patriotic sailor into the water, hid it safely in the ‘soil’, and brought it back to the place where the boat had been launched before nightfall. His bravery and respect for the ‘supporters’ who loved freedom and were willing to take a direct part in the battle revealed this. Another patriot, who loved his country’s liberation, began to land those young fighters in another part of the sea, on Mannar Island.
One day, during their investigation, they transformed into people with the people in Mannar town… While they were drinking tea with their supervisor Vinayakam, an army investigator suddenly entered and, while they were puffing on a ‘cigarette’, he asked his supervisor, ‘Do you want to take it?’ (shooting with a pistol) in a daze. The shopkeeper, who knew them well, was shocked and could not forget it. His courage was not just courage but wisdom. That day, during the busy ‘city’ in Mannar town, two Sinhalese police in a jeep with guns approached a busy ‘liquor shop’ between the Sinhalese army camps. One of them wanted to go inside the shop to drink alcohol, while the other stood guard in front of the shop.
He arrived in a hurry, stopped it calmly and took out the pistol from his waist. With a calm aim, the guard collapsed, confirming his death, and entered the liquor shop and shot the other man who was staggering there with a glass of wine, thus giving a ‘water’ to the security strategy of the Sinhala soldiers. His escape had created such fear that the people had declared him a hero and the army investigators had been told, ‘I only have a few months left until my duty ends – don’t do anything to me’. While his offensive operations were underway, such as the demolition of the military’s telecommunications tower on Mannar Island, in order to achieve a crucial intelligence objective – and because his supervisor, Vinayakam, was acting in the inevitable need to enter Mannar Island, which was completely occupied by the military for that operation – the command had ordered him to avoid attacks that flowed out of necessity and security considerations.
‘To achieve that intelligence objective – he created a platform among all religions and communities in his work. As one of his supporters said, ‘Even if some did not help the liberation struggle, he did not turn into ‘traitors’.’ That situation opened many avenues for his full activity. Within his intelligence structure, the activities of the Muslim people who were absorbed are complete, valuable – hidden. The fact that the agent called ‘Citizen’, who was arrested by the enemy but did not reveal his secret, his top secret, did not change under any circumstances is a testament to his agency structure. That family is a very ‘comfortable’ family living in the complete occupation area of the army and is one of his ‘supporters’ list who do not fall under the ‘address’ structure.
The militants he recruited into the organization are a testament to the fact that in his investigative work, the search for liberation had reached beyond the upper and lower levels, professions and religions. He was aware of how important the collection of documents was in his investigative work. He knew the agents and supporters who were protected by him. The investigative successes achieved from the documents collected by him from many levels are many. With the dedicated work of many fighters including him and his comrade Ganesh over many years
When the time came to achieve the ‘intelligence objective’ they had planned, the plan was abandoned due to the refusal of the command, stating that ‘there was a possibility of civilian casualties’, and they had to work again from the starting point.
11.12.1998 While staying at a house near the Mannar Sebasriyar Temple after completing the investigation work of the day, a team led by Arjeena Weerasinghe, the Sinhala camp in-charge of ‘Sani Village’, surrounded the house. Arjeena, who had entered the room where he and his friend Major Ganesh were sleeping, first shot the light. The bullet of his pistol broke Arjeena’s kneecap, and he fell, and a grenade exploded in the room. Ganesh, who was lying behind him, was injured and could only get up and come out. ‘You escaped, I cannot come,’ Vilvam said before his last breath. Did his incredible bravery cause him to lose the familiarity and cruelty of living in the military area?
“Did Vilvam not escape?” The supporter asked when he saw Ganesha with injuries.
“I took clothes for the New Year for him in the hope that he was still alive”, in the unforgettable memory.
“When he was not there that day, I became like a child abandoned in the temple” said his supervisor Vinayagam, in the trust of Vilvam. ‘His humility, which wins the hearts of the people without getting angry, without exerting power, and with love, is an example for all investigative activists.”
It is rare for such a leader to have such courage naturally. He had that courage as an exception. On the other hand, the immaturity seen in reporting and documenting his activities with a view to future intelligence operations – and in guiding the fighters within the planned administrative system – may be his shortcomings. In the eyes of the intelligence officer. ‘Our motherland must be liberated. The slave animals that bind us must be broken. Our people must live freely, with dignity and security. If this goal is to be achieved, we must fight. We must shed blood. In the national leader’s thinking, his life is noble in the dedication of the sacrifice that he achieved the goal he sought one day.
Memory Sharing: C. Mathula.
From the Liberation Tigers Magazine (March 2004)
(Translation by Kaanagan)
0 Comments