Did The Devil Get Into The Military?

• Over one hundred, beaten, arrested and hospitalised

By Kusal Perera

The largest number of detainees over the “grease devil” protests, is from Navanthurai, Jaffna. Over one hundred men were reported arrested on August 23, 2011. The time of the arrests was around 01.30 a.m, which is dead of the night, when devils, if any, usually roam. The rounding up operation of fast-sleeping men in their homes was by the military.

The villagers were severely beaten and dragged to the main road near the Navanthurai army detachment located around 300 metres from the village. The beaten, bruised and injured  men were thereafter loaded into buses around 4 a.m.  and transported to the Jaffna police station. There, they were kept until about 10 a.m. and then taken to the Jaffna Courts. When they were actually produced before the Jaffna District Judge in batches, it was around 01.30 in the afternoon, the same day (August 23).
From around 01.30 or 02.00 a.m. in the night when the army operation dragged the beaten men out on to the street, for over twelve hours they were held without any medical check or treatment, until the District Judge ordered medical treatment for them. The District Judge Premashankar ordered eighteeen (18) of those seriously injured to be admitted to hospital and for the medical certificates to be produced in Court. The rest were denied treatment until around 7.30 p.m.
It thus happened, perhaps for the first time in our recent history, that over one hundred (100) men were arrested and detained, and all detainees immediately admitted for treatment. Meanwhile,  there are still conflicting estimates and doubts on the exact number of persons detained in the operation and whether all were produced in Court.

Grease Devils in Navanthurai

The reason for this mass detention was once again reported as that of protests against army complicity in the “grease devils” fiasco.  It was said by the people of Navanthurai that around 8 p.m. on the night of August 22, some had spotted five supposed “grease men” in the Navanthurai church premises. When the alerted villagers surrounded and tried to capture the men, they had escaped into the Navanthurai army camp.
The next obvious reaction was to mob the army camp and demand that the army produce the “grease devils” who had run into the camp. A short while later, the villagers claim they saw the “grease men” being driven out of the camp. Agitated by the protection given by the military to these supposed grease devils the villagers had become boisterous and had thrown stones at the jeep. The army had fired into the sky and had dispersed the crowd by around 9.30 p.m.

The Army Roundup

According to eye witnesses including two Catholic nuns, between 6-12 army officers entered each house in the village and dragged out men who  were sleeping. The men were brutally and indiscriminately beaten with rifle butts and iron rods and dragged along the road. Women and children were also beaten in the attack.
There were bullet holes in the walls of some houses, where shots had been fired. Doors and windows had been broken in several houses and villagers claimed the army destroyed furniture inside many houses. Many said, their valuables including jewellery, mobile phones and money were taken by the military during the operation. There were blood stains on the road near houses where people were attacked, said eye witnesses.
One villager who is a local grocer, said that the army came to his house four times that night and his 16-year-old son was beaten and dragged on to the road by the army. Young boys of school going age were also beaten and dragged on to the street.
The villagers were unable to give the exact number of officers who entered the village but say that it has to be well over one hundred soldiers.

At the Jaffna Courts

At the District Court Jaffna, the relatives were not given access to detainees until the District Judge intervened and ordered the police to allow one family member to visit the detainees. Several Catholic priests, nuns and local civil society activists were also present at the Court.
Lawyers for the villagers submitted that villagers had chased after “grease men” who were seen in their village, and had entered the army camp. The lawyers told Court the people grew agitated only after the army refused to produce the men and instead took them away. In retaliation the military had entered the village early in the morning on August 23 and  had mercilessly beaten the villagers.
The ASP Jaffna Police, in his submission to Court, accused the villagers of unlawful gathering, disturbing the peace, destruction of public property, attacking the police, injuring a policeman and damaging police vehicles
The Jaffna District Court Judge ordered all persons from Navanthurai, produced by the police, to be remanded till August 26. The legal fraternity in Jaffna says, twenty four (24) lawyers will appear for the detainees when they will be produced in courts, on August 26.

Jaffna General Hospital

We visited the Jaffna hospital  around 5 p.m. with two Catholic priests and a Buddhist monk from the inter-religious council in Jaffna.  In total 20 persons had been admitted to hospital by Court Order.
We met around seven of the men injured in the attack and their families. Many were still being brought back to the ward from surgery. All the men we spoke to had suffered fractured bones in their arms and legs, some had head injuries and all showed signs of torture or severe beating.
Each person we spoke to had been sleeping inside their homes or in a vehicle when they were pulled out and beaten by the army. We also met a young woman who was visiting relatives in Jaffna with her husband, who had also been injured in the attack.
We were told that several more were still held at the Jaffna Court without treatment. At around 7 p.m. we received information that a further thirty five (35) persons had been admitted to hospital for treatment. The rest are believed to have been brought to hospital for treatment at around 7.30 p.m.
Community Fear and Post Operation Talk
According to Area Commander Jaffna, Major General Hathurusinghe, the military has “increased troops and were conducting foot and mobile patrols in the area to assist the police”. He also told a media briefing in Jaffna on August 23 that he believes “terrorists” were involved in the Navanthurai army camp incident.  This he said, is a well-planned incident and the people came ready to attack the military and the police.
Rejecting claims over “grease men” as fabricated stories, he said that the military could not tolerate or sit by,  while people took the law into their hands.
TNA MP Sreetharan told Parliament on August 23 that people had proof that “grease men” were really military persons who attacked villagers. He said that in Navanthurai, Vadamarachchi, Polikandy and Vathirai in Jaffna and Bharathipuram in Killinochchi, there were incidents of some persons slipping into houses at night.
When villagers tried to catch them, they had escaped into military camps. In Navanthurai, the military entered houses and had arrested 118 people,  said MP Sreetharan. Meanwhile,  the increased military presence in Navanthurai, has scared women and children in the village, where men have been arrested wholesale and remanded. The women were thus worried  about staying at home alone in the night with army in large numbers patrolling the village. It is an empty village though patrolled by the army.