{"id":92676,"date":"2013-06-23T00:12:14","date_gmt":"2013-06-22T18:42:14","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.colombotelegraph.com\/?p=92676"},"modified":"2013-06-27T14:28:55","modified_gmt":"2013-06-27T08:58:55","slug":"wijeweeras-daughter","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.colombotelegraph.com\/index.php\/wijeweeras-daughter\/","title":{"rendered":"\u2018Wijeweera\u2019s Daughter\u2019"},"content":{"rendered":"

By\u00a0Malinda Seneviratne<\/a><\/span>\u00a0–<\/strong><\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>

Malinda Seneviratne<\/p><\/div>\n

\u2018Wijeweera\u2019s Daughter\u2019.\u00a0The title of a tragic novel that might never get written.<\/p>\n

The families of failed revolutionaries (or terrorists, extremists and insurgents if you prefer that nomenclature) tend to be a far cry from beds of roses, especially if the particular individual has perished in battle.\u00a0 The near and dear of those who are successful in capturing power are talked about.\u00a0 Others fade away and become less and less newsworthy.<\/p>\n

In the aftermath of the LTTE<\/a><\/span> military leadership being vanquished, there was curiosity about Prabhakaran<\/a><\/span>\u2019s parents. For a while.\u00a0 Ironically (and thanks to painstaking efforts to twist context for the purpose of myth-making and mythologizing) enduring newsworthiness was obtained more from the dead, especially the terrorist leader\u2019s younger son\u2019s dead body.<\/p>\n

The families of other slain LTTE leaders, in particular S.P. Thamilselvan and Sea Tiger chief Soosai, interestingly were accorded the privilege of leaving the LTTE-held narrow neck of land without pain of punishment (others were shot at in order to discourage).\u00a0 We know that the Sri Lankan Government takes care of them, that they live in comfort and gratitude and that the children are adequately insulated from the bloody history their fathers forged over several decades. They attend good schools and go about sans stigma of any kind.<\/p>\n

But what of the JVP<\/a><\/span> leader\u2019s family?\u00a0 Rohana Wijeweera<\/a><\/span> was apprehended on November 12, 1989. He was at the time posing off as a planter, living in Kotmale using the name \u2018Attanayake\u2019.\u00a0 He was shot dead under suspicious circumstances a couple of days later.\u00a0 At the time, he had 5 children, four girls and a boy who was the youngest. His wife Chitrangani was pregnant with his sixth child.<\/p>\n

Fourteen years have passed.\u00a0 With the assassination of Wijeweera followed by the crushing of insurrection, public attention shifted to other things.\u00a0 We\u2019ve had three Presidents after the man who presided over the decimation of the JVP was himself killed. We had 4 general elections.\u00a0 A thirty year long war was ended. A debilitating tsunami served to obliterate a lot of things, not just landscapes.\u00a0 Chitrangani and her children were naturally forgotten.<\/p>\n

The news since 1989 was sketchy. It was reported that the family, spurned by their own relatives, were forced to seek shelter with the Army and later the Navy.\u00a0 They lived in relative obscurity in Trincomalee. The children did reasonably well in school and passed their exams.\u00a0 They were moved to better schools in Colombo.\u00a0 A surprise visit by Mahinda Rajapaksa<\/a><\/span> when he was Minister of Fisheries had resulted, it is said, in the family being moved to the Navy facility in Welisara.<\/p>\n

A few years ago Wijeweera\u2019s family stirred public interest again; this was on the occasion of the second daughter getting married.\u00a0 The newsworthiness came from the fact that leaders of the breakaway group led by Wimal Weerawansa<\/a><\/span> arriving at the function, upon invitation of course.\u00a0 The party had done what they could for the family, apparently, supporting Chitrangani and the children financially and helping them organize the wedding.\u00a0 Tempers naturally were frayed.\u00a0 That\u2019s news.\u00a0 Wijeweera\u2019s family, however, were incidental to the story.\u00a0 Happened. Faded away.<\/p>\n

And then, just the other day, they made news again.\u00a0 The eldest daughter was arrested by the Police following a complaint made by Chitrangani.\u00a0 The girl, now 32, unmarried, apparently got into an argument with her brother and assaulted him as well as her mother who had tried to intervene.<\/p>\n

That day of assault, however, was not random.\u00a0 This girl, Eesha, probably the only one in the family who was fully cognizant of the tragedy that befell them in November 1989, is said to have been as or more intelligent and studious as her siblings.\u00a0 There was a difference, however.\u00a0 She was wont to stare into space, to try count the stars in the night sky and spend long hours outside their \u2018quarters\u2019 in the Trincomalee Naval Base in complete silence.\u00a0 According to her mother, Eesha was a \u2018difficult\u2019 child, given to long bouts of brooding and ever ready to pick a fight with her siblings.\u00a0 She would lash out with tongue and fist, we are made to understand.\u00a0 On one occasion she had swallowed a fistful of pills that was part of her mother\u2019s medication.\u00a0 That would count as a suicide attempt. She had to be flown to Colombo for treatment after she lost consciousness.<\/p>\n

Then this.<\/p>\n

There is of course only so much that anyone can do, the State included. The party has done what it could.\u00a0 The Government has intervened.\u00a0 Apart from Eesha, the other children have grown up, educated themselves and are leading normal lives.\u00a0 A lot to be thankful for, one might say, given circumstances.\u00a0 And then again there would be many who would find no reason to pity or be generous, considering all the children orphaned, all the families torn apart and all the lives laid waste by the acts of their father.\u00a0 Just as the terrible tragedy of a 12 year old boy called Balachandran being shot dead is \u2018dismissed\u2019 by referring to the crimes his father is guilty of.<\/p>\n

Children, however, are not to be blamed.\u00a0 We do not know if this girl\u2019s condition was wrought by ordeals she had to contend with at a tender age or if it was due to something totally unconnected to that tragic turn of events. \u00a0All we know is that Wijeweera is dead.\u00a0 The girl had no father figure in her growing up years.\u00a0 As unfortunate as any other fatherless girl.\u00a0 As deserving of attention.\u00a0 Not because who she is but in spite of who she is.<\/p>\n

Bottom line.\u00a0 She didn\u2019t get closure.\u00a0 Her father bears responsibility. We do too.<\/p>\n

*Malinda Seneviratne is the Chief Editor of \u2018The Nation\u2019\u00a0and his articles can be found at\u00a0www.malindawords.blogspot.com<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

[…]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":22,"featured_media":78746,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[3,46],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-92676","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-colombotelegraph","category-constitutional-reforms"],"yoast_head":"\n\u2018Wijeweera\u2019s Daughter\u2019 - Colombo Telegraph<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.colombotelegraph.com\/index.php\/wijeweeras-daughter\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"\u2018Wijeweera\u2019s Daughter\u2019 - Colombo Telegraph\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"[…]\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/www.colombotelegraph.com\/index.php\/wijeweeras-daughter\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"Colombo Telegraph\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2013-06-22T18:42:14+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:modified_time\" content=\"2013-06-27T08:58:55+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"https:\/\/www.colombotelegraph.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2013\/03\/Malinda-Seneviratne.jpg\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:width\" content=\"923\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:height\" content=\"1112\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:type\" content=\"image\/jpeg\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"COLOMBO TELEGRAPH\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Written by\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"COLOMBO TELEGRAPH\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:label2\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data2\" content=\"5 minutes\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\/\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.colombotelegraph.com\/index.php\/wijeweeras-daughter\/\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.colombotelegraph.com\/index.php\/wijeweeras-daughter\/\",\"name\":\"\u2018Wijeweera\u2019s Daughter\u2019 - 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