Adai Wettuda

I was in a small naval craft in the kalpitiya lagoon when i noticed a saffron robbed Buddhist monk among the blue uniformed sailors who was in a very pensive mood looking at the empty sky. The seas were bit choppy and incoming waves hit the craft causing a little inconvenience to the people on board. The sun showed no mercy and spared no one from its scorching heat.After paying all due compliments to the monk, i fell in to a casual conversation with the monk. During the course of our conversation i spotted a scar on his left palm. It was natural for me to ask the monk about the scar and he took a long time to give any reply as to how it happened. Reply to my question about scar took the conversation in to a totally unexpected terrain..and revisiting of a horror..a brutal inhuman act took that place in a teak jungle ...almost 21 long years ago.

Walallawita Wimalaghana threo was the deputy principle of the Vidyananda pirivena at Ampara in 1987. On that fateful day on 02nd June 1987, he, along with the chief incumbent of the pirivena,'Uthru Nagenahira depalathe adikarana sanga nayaka' most venerable Hagoda Indrasara thero got in to a bus with a team of young Buddhist monks around 6 am from Ampara. Their initial destination;Kandy....and they were on a educational cum religious visit to Katharagama via Kandy.The bus travelled on a normal journey until it was stopped by a gang of around 20 armed men wearing olive green uniforms similar that of Army. And the place was ..Aranthalawa ; a hitherto hardly heard village on Ampara Kandy road. " It was quite normal and we observed 02 'soldiers' getting in to the bus", said Wimalaghana thero. One with a automatic weapon ordered the bus to be taken in to the woods on an unpaved road. A little suspicion aroused as the order was in broken sinhala mixed with Tamil words. " By this time, i was quite sure that those were LTTE and we for a moment never thought that we will be in any harm's way as we were saffron robed Buddhist monks", thero remarked.

The bus was taken about 2kms inside the teak jungle before it was ordered to halt.The leader of the LTTE group armed with an automatic weapon and a burly LTTEer with a long sword got in to the bus again at this place. "A sharp chill ran through my whole body at that moment" said the thero. But no body in the bus in their wildest imagination thought that they will be harmed by those men with arms. That sort of a thing had never happened before. LTTE had massacred scores of innocent civilians a few months before at at a hamlet called Mangalagama near Ampara. But those were civilians.

"It didn't take long to understand that i was wrong in my assumption", muttered the thero, now looking at the empty sky and not feeling any discomfort under the scorching heat or crushing waves that made the craft to swell violently. The LTTE leader pointed his automatic weapon at the driver and he pleaded " don't kill me...i am a poor father of six kids" before being shot several times on the head and chest. There was a 'pin drop silence' in the bus. The burly LTTEer with the sword shouted loudly ''adai wettuda" at the same time landing the long sharp sword on the bold shining head of the chief priest who was sitting terrified in the front seat with a vicious force bisecting the head and killing the chief priest instantly. 'Adai weetuda' literally means, 'Guys lets chop them all'. And the the carnage of Aranthalawa thus started.

Young monks and novices screamed and begged for mercy. and that was not be. Whilst LTTE leader started strafing on monks with his automatic, other was busy chopping off heads,amids incessant screaming. The rest of the LTTE team surrounded the bus with weapons pointing at the bus. "I was in the second seat from the front and one with the sword tried to chop off my head. when he raised his sword, it got entangled with some object in the bus and its force was weakened and finally landed on my left palm giving me a sharp pain..and i fell on to the floor. suddenly i felt a heavy weight on me as another monk fell on me dead. i was buried under his head body. i also remained in total silence as if i am dead. I could feel a river of blood flowing in the bus. But i remained without any movement thinking that next bullet would pierce my scull or sharp sword will chop off my head. After a few minutes, the two got off to from the bus and i heard the leader barging some orders in Tamil. And i thought..my god i escaped...my little solace lasted only for few minutes as i noticed two of them getting in to the bus again. Leader with automatic started firing underneath the seats to ensure all of us are killed, and other one was busy with the sword. There were very few screams this time.... And then they were gone...but i remained motionless...i don't know how long..smell of row blood and its odour was unbearable. After a hour or so..some got in to the bus and asked anybody who is alive to make a move. i was still afraid..but when they spoke again and again...i could detect the unmistakable and authentic sinhala accent of them....they were Army men..and i was in safe hands to live an another day"..Wimalaghana thero described.

When this barbaric inhuman act by the LTTE was being described by the thero, the boat entered the clear blue waters of Indian waters from the murky waters of Kalpitiya lagoon. And the boat rocked violently with a heavy wave. All of the men on board were thrown to one side as a result. But i noticed that thero was unmoved and he was in a different world. He didn't feel that we were in a navy boat off Moderagam Aru and sea water splashed on our bodies. He was simply numbed.. so did i.

According to the wimalaghana thero,32 Buddhist monks and 02 civil persons including the driver of the bus were butchered in this barbaric act by the LTTE; so called saviours of the Tamil people.Only 05 monks were fortunate enough to live another day with multiple injuries. This thero has narrated this story to many people over the last 21 years and he told me that he is so unfortunate to live with those grim memories despite he being in the list of very few who 'survived' this carnage at Aranthalawa. Now the boat was almost coming to our intended destination off the shores of Mullikulam bordering Vilpattu jungle. Both of us were soaked in sea water and i could feel taste of salt when a drop of them entered in to my thirsty lips. Wimalaghana thero, i saw, looking again at the empty sky before the boat skipper killed the engines and there were no feelings in those dead eyes. He made a deep sigh of relief... may be thinking that how many times he will have to narrate this horrific tale again....and ..revisit those ghost moments.