By Rajan Hoole –

Boyhood and Career

Devanesan was the eldest of Canon and Mrs. Somasundaram’s grandchildren, born in 1935, the youngest being Theepaharan, born in 1972. I was born in 1948. My earliest memory goes back to 1951: March to Tangalle Hospital, when my younger brother Muktan was born and just outside the window, a game of volleyball was being played. A subsequent memory also in Tangalle, probably 1952 recalls my cousins Balen Annan and Lanka Annan, chatting, while clutching the bars of a large window at our home in Tangalle. The next early memory was from the vicarage in Nallur in 1952, the compound was full of children, my cousins. I think that was the time my grandfather, Thatha, then aged 76 fell off the Tamarind tree, which I learn he was routinely in the habit of climbing. I saw him falling on his two feet and hands, which probably eased his fall. He was in pain and was placed on a bed. This was considered a routine of his life.

It was about this time in 1952 or 53 that Devanesan and family visited Tangalle from Wellawatte in the Morris Minor that his father, Kunasekaram Nesiah, Peri-Iyah, had just purchased. I am not sure if Devanesan was allowed to drive the car at that time. Another memory of Devanesan at that time was a bit scary.

Devanesan Annan had answers to some of the craziest problems we were faced with. Once probably in 1953, when I was only 4, we were with Devanesan and Lanka Annan driving to Jaffna by car from Veyangoda. Somewhere in the jungle, we stopped to ease ourselves. My mother went deeper into the jungle. I became anxious about her and expressed my worry to Devanesan Annan. Devanesan Annan quickly found a stick and ordered me to protect my mother with it from the Lions should they come. He said, “If a Lion comes, hit him hard’’. I went torn between my shivering knees and anxiety for my mother, and came back with her relieved that the Lions had decided to keep away.

I was with Devanesan and my cousins for maternal grandma (Ammama’s) (Emily Ponnamma’s) funeral also in 1953, at 15. Chemmani Rd. as the place was then known. Being diabetic, she had lost her buxom appearance then. I remember her in the house, surrounded by betel-chewing ladies. I remember a group of us coming to the house again to witness Thatha’s lonely breakfast, served by church keeper Nalliah. My father was transferred from Veyangoda to Nallur in 1956, when we came into occupation of the house where grandpa, Thatha joined us, and every year brought a rich harvest of mangos, besides coconuts. Thatha passed away in that house in 1967 under the care of Gnanar Mama and Joan Aunty.

Post 1956

During his university days in Colombo Devanesan Annan was involved in left politics through which he came to oppose anti-Tamil sentiments in education and employment that were taking hold of politics of this country in the early 50s.

He topped the civil service examination, a prestigious examination of that time and despite other handicaps he got a place in the civil service. As a mark of respect, he called on Thatha (Grandpa) in Nallur. We enjoyed such visits then. As a gift from an affectionate cousin, Devanesan Annan subscribed to the Eagle Magazine for me and Shantha, that came to us through Millers, the distributer in Colombo Fort. It was a great joy for us with several stories continued in cartoon strips on a weekly basis.

His batch mate Prof. Tharmaratnam was another person who played a major role in my life, under whom I taught Mathematics in the 1980s. The penultimate time Devanesan came to Jaffna in Nov 2023, we called at the home of Prof. Tharmaratnam in Karainagar , and the two had a parting cup of coffee with home-made vadais. Tharmaratnam too passed away, in Karainagar in December 2025.

Devanesan Anna could talk on various subjects from children’s stories to politics, anyone engaged with him, was happy with the conversation. He was quite witty, even during in one of his last trips to Jaffna, he came through Pallaly. When he came out of the airport, and looked at his boarding pass, he smiled, and said that the airlines have given him a promotion, because they have spelt his name wrongly as Messiah, instead of Nesiah.

He used to say, if you are good at reading and walking, you can be cheerful wherever you are. He said at Vasuki’s place in New York there are more than 1000 books on each floor, and he could pick up a book and read, in between, whenever he is up, even in the nights.

He had a lot to say about his experience of working with J.R. Jayewardene, his shrewdness and how he used others to have everything the way he liked and brought about this mess.

During that visit he spoke a lot about his childhood with Thatha and his mother, Pushpamany (Periamma) a soft-spoken lady, as a mentor in teaching him Tamil, who also taught him chess, and played with him until he started defeating her.

He said those days the children gave a lot of respect to their parents and wouldn’t talk too much, but he being the grandson, he had the privilege to be with Thatha and ask anything he liked.

He said, Thatha would eat anything and everything that was on his plate without wasting, thinking some of them are just fibers. So much so, when Thatha was ill and when he refused to take cod liver oil tablets, his wife used get them from the doctor and sprinkle it on top of his food, which he took obligingly.

Of that time concerning my mother, I have one recollection from Devanesan Annan. Being a teacher at Chundikuli Girls’ College later in the war years, Devanesan’s residence quite close to the school was one she frequented. An incident of some interest was, she invited two British officers for tea and entertained them. It must have been about 1945 when she had finished her career teaching at the Anglican Convent in Matara.

During 1983, Devanesan Annan came to serve in Jaffna as a GA, during that period, he was able to do something to address the needs of the people who came as refugees as well as those who were already here, along with the rising militancy.

Devanesan’s wife Jeevi Acca’s table was generously full even as our stomachs craved for more. Jeevi Acca’s sharp tongue, to my ears, spoke mainly of the heaps of generosity behind it. It was she with her flair that were able to cope with the flood of refugees when they with their tremendous needs arrived in Jaffna in July 1983, post the holocaust.

Devanesan was also due to go to Havard on a scholarship in 1984 to do his to do his PhD. That was the time Kirupa and I were married, in June 1984.

Devanesan Annan finished his PhD and returned in 1989. Once more Kirupa and I threw ourselves on his hospitality, which was never refused for his relatives. For a time, we shared his flat with Nimala Acca.

In Jaffna upbringing, my mother had a special place for her sisters’ children, Devanesan, Pushpadevi, Nimala, Lanka, Balen and Damayanthi, the last two having become motherless in 1940 demanded special attention. Her other nephews and nieces then, in 1950, were Periya Mama’s (George Uncle’s) children Indrani, and Premini and Peter Mama’s children, Shantha, Malathi and Soundary. And Devanesan, being the seniormost of the cousins, had demands from all his cousins which he readily accommodated. A special note of gratitude is due to Lanka Annan, Malathi and Jeevi Acca for their care during our lean years, 1990-2010.

Deaths and Disappearance

Being GA in Jaffna from 1981 was a crucial part of Devanesan Annan’s career, where all eyes were on him. Devanesan then took the opportunity to do his doctorate at Harvard, and take up his long overdue promotion as Secretary to the Ministry of Tourism from where he retired in 1995, aged 60. It was then that his career became interesting as a leading public servant and human rights advocate, owing to a large number of disappearances and deaths for which the country, notably its North, had become notorious. External pressure pushed the Government to appoint Commissions of inquiry to set the record straight.

Following parliamentary elections in 2000, where the UNP opposition won a majority, though Chandrika Kumaratunge remained President. Devanesan played an important role in the peace process under Prime Minister Wickremasinghe.

The committee under Devanesan Nesiah with Camillus Fernando and Jezima Ismail with M.C.M. Iqbal as secretary playing a pivotal role had to inquire into 281 of the 321 complaints of disappearance forwarded by the regional office of the Human Rights Commission in Jaffna. The list included 25 Muslims abducted from Jaffna in 1990.

The committee was mandated to compile, “The evidence available for identifying the person or persons for these alleged disappearances and the findings based on evidence.” In the latter respect this report broke new ground by going further than previous official commission reports in identifying army officers responsible and tabulating their names against incidents of disappearance.

Dr. Devanesan Nesiah, having chaired the Committee of Inquiry into Jaffna disappearances and M.C.M. Iqbal acted as its secretary. In 2006, Dr. Nesiah was again appointed to the Presidential Commission of Inquiry into several grave violations, including the ACF and Five Students cases, in which the State was implicated. M.C.M. Iqbal joined the staff of the International Independent Group of Eminent Persons (IIGEP) that was meant to observe the work of the Commission. When it became evident that IIGEP was getting considerable information on its own, Iqbal was forced to flee the country under threat. The presence of Dr. Nesiah provided succor to Tamil witnesses who otherwise felt threatened. The President forced him to step down from the successor commission in 2008 under a spurious pretext of an alleged conflict of interest, with little protest from other commissioners, several of whom later resigned on their own.

Our UTHR Special Report No.33, gives further indications of how the Government handled the Commissions of post 2006.

At the top levels, officers serving the Commission of Inquiry like Nesiah, were intimidated and let off. But down below were officers like Kapila Jayasekere, who reached the highest levels without any impediment. After having given the order for the final murder of 17 persons in the ACF cases in Mutur and 5 persons in the student murders of early January 2006 in Trincomalee. To this must be added the local suspects who saw too much. Rev. Albert Sornarajah paid the price for being about the last person to see the ACF staff alive on the morning of the murder in Mutur. The time was 8.30 AM on 4^th August 2006, when Sornarajah spoke to the women and left the area about 11.00 AM.

Senthoorkumaran was the brother of Kokilavathani Vairamutthu, among the women to be killed on 4^th August. Kokila had happily called Senthoor to say that she would see them soon and had returned the call little before the fatal shot that killed her around 4.30 PM. Senthoorkumaran was abducted and repeatedly harassed and spent two days in detention where he was tortured around the neck by being beaten with a stick with prickly fibres, and trampled on the ground by booted feet before being let off. It was the body of S. Romila with a missing left arm that pointed to the weapon by which she was murdered, by firing 5.56 mm bullets; it was a bullet in her head that the Australian pathologist Dr. Dodd initially identified as 5.56 mm. It was a type used only by the security forces.

Our report gives a good deal of background information from persons and sources not cited as evidence, but finally gave us the confidence that the key witnesses on whom we based the story got it right, that personnel from the commandos, the police and home guards were involved in the killings about 4.30 PM on 4th August 2006. Our crucial reliance was on Witness Shanmugarajah, a policeman, whom we questioned at length, and who with the help of the IIGEP obtained asylum in Australia. He was in the Police Station, heard and saw a good deal and was present when the killings took place. What transpired at the Commission of Inquiry, has despite attempts at disinformation, left our conclusions of April 2008 unimpaired.

We also pointed out that the evidence from the bullet found in Romila has been mishandled, and evidence on the types of bullets given in the Addendum to the report came from a witness now abroad and in touch with the ACF. We stated all this confidently because evidence from different directions evolved into a coherent picture. In all fairness the Commission cannot ask us to reveal sources, when information coming to the Commission has been at the root of several of the witnesses being subject to threat and intimidation, as could be seen in the abominable treatment of Tamil witnesses cited above.

It was with regard to the ACF case that Dr. Nesiah was found to favour the victims and his resignation was demanded by fellow commissioners Javed Yusuf and Douglas Premaratne, both closely associated with the ruling SLFP at the end of June 2008. Dr. Nesiah submitted his letter of resignation from the Commission to the President, stating, “I find it incongruent that my prudence, ability and fidelity can be selectively found lacking for some of the cases before the commission, and not for others.”

The President had wanted Dr. Nesiah to step down from just the ACF and Five Students cases, among the 17. Some caustic remarks on our (UTHR) report were made at the Commission on 2^nd September 2008 by Deputy Solicitor General Kodagoda and by the Counsel for the Army Gomin Dayasiri. Kodagoda said that we seem to have copious amounts of information but no sources and Mr. Dayasiri said that they should also look at the defamation aspect of the UTHR reports.

We stated all this confidently because evidence from different directions evolved into a coherent picture. In all fairness the Commission cannot ask us to reveal sources, when information coming to the Commission has been at the root of several of the witnesses being subject to threat and intimidation, as could be seen in the abominable treatment of Tamil witnesses cited above. Particularly concerning the key witness Rev. Albert Sornarajah who was intimidated in the Commission’s premises.