Kuttimani
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Selvarajah Yogachandran, () (died 25 July 1983) also known as Kuttimani was one of the leaders of the former Tamil militant organization
TELO The Tamil Eelam Liberation Organization (TELO) is a Sri Lankan Tamil political party and former militant group. Initially, the TELO campaigned for the establishment of an independent Tamil Eelam in northeastern Sri Lanka from 1972 to 1987, until ...
from
Sri Lanka Sri Lanka, officially the Democratic Socialist Republic of Sri Lanka, also known historically as Ceylon, is an island country in South Asia. It lies in the Indian Ocean, southwest of the Bay of Bengal, separated from the Indian subcontinent, ...
. He was arrested and sentenced to death, and was killed in the 1983
Welikada prison massacre The Welikada Prison Massacre took place during the 1983 Black July pogrom against Sri Lankan Tamil minority in Colombo Colombo, ( ; , ; , ), is the executive and judicial capital and largest city of Sri Lanka by population. The Colombo m ...
along with the other TELO leader
Nadarajah Thangathurai Nadarajah Thangavelu (; died 25 July 1983; commonly known by the nom-de-guerre Thangadurai) was a Sri Lankan Tamil rebel and one of the founders of the Tamil Eelam Liberation Organization, a separatist Tamil militant organisation in Sri Lanka. ...
.


Early activism and TELO

Selvarajah Yogachandran along with
Nadarajah Thangathurai Nadarajah Thangavelu (; died 25 July 1983; commonly known by the nom-de-guerre Thangadurai) was a Sri Lankan Tamil rebel and one of the founders of the Tamil Eelam Liberation Organization, a separatist Tamil militant organisation in Sri Lanka. ...
inspired several Tamil student radicals to rise against Sri Lankan state terror and founded the
Tamil Eelam Liberation Organization The Tamil Eelam Liberation Organization (TELO) is a Sri Lankan Tamil political party and former militant group. Initially, the TELO campaigned for the establishment of an independent Tamil Eelam in northeastern Sri Lanka from 1972 to 1987, until ...
in the late 1960s. The group formally constituted itself into an organisation in 1979, inspired in part by the LTTE and the Eelam Revolutionary Organisation of Students (EROS). Soon, it had become the most effective of the Tamil militant groups except the LTTE. Kuttimani was a firm believer that only a free, independent country for the island's Tamils in their traditional homeland will protect their legitimate rights. Kuttimani, Nadarajah and many others would later be arrested in 1981, in a brutal and intensive government crackdown of most of the Tamil liberation groups and activists.


Nomination to the parliament

Before his death, Kuttimani was officially nominated to the
Vaddukoddai Vaddukoddai (, ) (also spelt Vatukotai, Vaddukkoddai) is small but important town in the minority Sri Lankan Tamil dominated Jaffna peninsula of Sri Lanka. This place famous to Cultural Dances & Hindu rituals. It became prominent with the foundin ...
constituency in 15 October 1982, when the then sitting member of TULF party, T.Thirunavukkarau died on 1 August 1982. However the legal sources, then under the control of President
J. R. Jayewardene Junius Richard Jayewardene (; ; 17 September 1906 – 1 November 1996), commonly referred to by his initials JR, was a Sri Lankan lawyer, public official and statesman who served as Prime Minister of Sri Lanka from 1977 to 1978 and as the secon ...
, ruled that Kuttimani's nomination as a member of parliament was invalid. The then Prisons Commissioner Priya Delgoda announced on 16 October 1982 that Kuttimani would not be released from prison to take his oaths at the parliament. Kuttimani's appointment was gazetted while he was under a sentence of death. In a statement issued to explain the reasons for nominating Kuttimani to the vacant parliamentary seat, the TULF officials included five. Among these are two prominent reasons: (1) Kuttimani's nomination is a token protest against the state terrorism perpetrated from time to time through the agencies of the police and military personnel especially on the young Tamils of the country. (2) It is a protest against the death penalty imposed on Kuttimani and Jegan. Subsequently, on 4 February 1983, Kuttimani's death sentence was commuted to life imprisonment under the general amnesty proclaimed by President Jayewardene. After this, Kuttimani resigned his Vaddukoddai seat in the parliament, to which he was nominated.


Imprisonment, death and martyrdom


Death sentence

Kuttimani was arrested by the
Sri Lankan Navy The Sri Lanka Navy (SLN) (; ) is the navy, naval arm of the Sri Lanka Armed Forces and is classed as the country's most vital defence force due to its island geography. It is responsible for the maritime defence of the Sri Lankan nation and its ...
on 5 April 1981 and was charged with an array of "criminal acts". The Sri Lankan court sentenced him to death. The presiding judge said that when he sat down he would pronounce his verdict as required by law. However, before that, he wanted to state that he did not view Kuttimani as a common criminal. He further said that if one day the president was to grant a reprieve to Kuttimani he would be happy to hear of it. Kuttimani's reply showed the world his yearning for a free country (
Tamil Eelam Tamil Eelam (, ''tamiḻ īḻam''; generally rendered outside Tamil-speaking areas as தமிழ் ஈழம்) is a proposed independence, independent sovereign state, state that many Sri Lankan Tamils, Tamils in Sri Lanka and the Sri Lan ...
) for his people. This was his reply: Upon his death sentence, Kuttimani was sent to the Welikada (Welikade) maximum-security prison to wait for his execution. There were both Sinhala and Tamil prisoners. The Sinhala prisoners were convicted of criminal offences such as murder, rape, robbery, etc. The Tamil prisoners were all militants. The Sinhala and Tamil prisoners were kept apart all the time to avoid racial clashes between them.


Murder

Kuttimani was brutally murdered during the 1983 Anti-Tamil pogrom in the island. Sinhalese mobs as well as personnel belonging to the Sri Lankan forces went on a rampage in Tamil areas, torturing and murdering Tamil men and children, raping, torturing and murdering Tamil women and girls, and looting and burning Tamil residences and businesses. Police and army (which were almost exclusively Sinhalese) either participated in this orgy of violence against the Tamils or kept a blind eye. On 25 July, the second day of the pogrom, the Tamil inmates of the Welikada prison, who almost all of them had been detained without any trial, were brutally murdered by the Sinhalese convicts with the assistance of the prison guards. According to Amnesty International, some of the Sinhala prisoners were given alcohol and then were encouraged to attack the Tamil prisoners. A large number of the Sinhala prisoners, with knives and other sharp weapons, stormed into the building where some 35-37 Tamil prisoners were lodged. They stabbed, beat and tortured the Tamil prisoners. Genitals of a few prisoners were mutilated. Both the eyes of Kuttimani as well as
Jeganathan Ganeshanathan Jeganathan (born 28 October 1956, in Thondaimanaru) was a political writer and one of the members of former Tamil militant organization Tamil Eelam Liberation Organization (TELO). He was arrested and sentenced to death and was kil ...
were mutilated and gouged out with iron bars, since he had dreamed of seeing with them, through another person after his execution, an independent Tamil state. One version has it that Kutimani's tongue was cut out by an attacker who drank the blood and cried: "I have drunk the blood of a Tiger." He was then murdered and his body was disposed in front of a statue of the
Buddha Siddhartha Gautama, most commonly referred to as the Buddha (),* * * was a wandering ascetic and religious teacher who lived in South Asia during the 6th or 5th century BCE and founded Buddhism. According to Buddhist legends, he was ...
in the prison yard.


See also

*
Nadarajah Thangathurai Nadarajah Thangavelu (; died 25 July 1983; commonly known by the nom-de-guerre Thangadurai) was a Sri Lankan Tamil rebel and one of the founders of the Tamil Eelam Liberation Organization, a separatist Tamil militant organisation in Sri Lanka. ...
*
Velupillai Prabhakaran Velupillai Prabhakaran (; ; ; 26 November 1954 – 18 May 2009) was a Sri Lankan guerrilla and a major figure of Tamil nationalism, being the founder and leader of the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE). The LTTE was a militant organiza ...
*
Sivakumaran Ponnuthurai Sivakumaran (; 26 September 1950 – 5 June 1974) was a Sri Lankan Tamil rebel and the first Sri Lankan Tamil militant groups, Tamil militant to commit suicide by swallowing cyanide. Early life and family Sivakumaran was born on 26 ...
*
Jeganathan Ganeshanathan Jeganathan (born 28 October 1956, in Thondaimanaru) was a political writer and one of the members of former Tamil militant organization Tamil Eelam Liberation Organization (TELO). He was arrested and sentenced to death and was kil ...
*
Rajasundaram Dr. S Rajasundaram was a Sri Lankan Tamil people, Sri Lankan Tamil activist known for his struggle for the rights of Tamil people in Sri Lanka, through peaceful and democratic means. Along with his friend S.A. David, He founded Gandhiyam, a socia ...
*
S. J. V. Chelvanayakam Samuel James Veluppillai Chelvanayakam (; 31 March 1898 – 26 April 1977) was a Ceylonese lawyer, politician and Member of Parliament. He was the founder and leader of the Illankai Tamil Arasu Kachchi (ITAK) and Tamil United Liberation F ...
*
Black July Black July (; ) was an anti- Tamil pogrom that occurred in Sri Lanka during July 1983. The pogrom was premeditated, and was finally triggered by a deadly ambush on a Sri Lankan Army patrol by the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE) on 23 ...


References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Yogachandran, Selvarajah 1983 deaths Sri Lankan Tamil rebels Sri Lankan Tamil people Tamil Eelam Liberation Organization militants Fugitives wanted by Sri Lanka Year of birth missing People from Valvettithurai