On the 25th of October Kumara Seneviratne (48) a businessman from Galle was cut and chopped in broad daylight by two persons riding a motorbike at Dickman Junction whilst hundreds of people watched helplessly. It was reported by the media that the guardians of peace, the Police were engaged in traffic control whilst this gory crime took place. The dead man was the brother of Dushantha Seneviratne the leader of the Opposition of the Galle Municipal Council.
Ten days later Kumara Seneviratne’s murder was avenged. Four youngsters were killed. On the 4th of November the Police found their bodies in the early hours by the Mahason culvert. The media reported this as a result of a clash between two rival factions on the report of the Police Spokesperson Prishantha Jayakody.
Till the Sri Lankan Army annihilated the LTTE during a bloody war, which ravaged for over thirty years, killing was not a strange phenomenon to the people of Sri Lanka. Both parties to the conflict killed as
if a competition was on.
Though both embarked on a fight to the finish it was the people of Sri Lanka who were killed. The methods were also brutal and as a result the people in the north and the south lived in fear.
The violence and murder that took place after the war ended reached a crescendo on the 9th of November. The people felt fear once again. The raid in the prison by the STF that fateful day to search the inmates ended with the death of 27 prisoners. On the 12th of November the state-owned Sinhala newspaper Dinamina justified these killings on the basis that 27 of the most hard-core criminals were killed. The message to the people was that since these were not innocents, the people should not worry.
Those who sat before their TV’s on the 9th of November went to bed after witnessing a Chicago style ambush. As expected the ever forgiving Buddhists had forgotten this sordid episode within two days.
Analysts believe that a post-war period would be naturally filled with crime. Dr. Jayan Mendis the specialist psychiatrist of the National Institute of Mental Health says that it is a difficult task for a people who have experienced war for over thirty years to revert to a normal life in a short time period. “This is a frightening state of affairs. Every society, which experienced war, went through similar periods. During the war the people’s minds were filled with thoughts of bombs and guns. People got used to killings and death. Now that it is not so it is easy to switch off immediately”.
Dr. Mendis opined that young people commit a major section of today’s crime. He explained, “We lived with a war for thirty years. All those who are 30 years or so were born, bred and schooled within a war situation. That was the most important factor at that time. They knew of war and war alone. This was not a good background. Now it is over. However what one grows up with is not easily forgotten. Some would want to kill any person who troubles him on even a small issue, just to get even. They know of killings and murder quite well. That is their experience”.
Dr. Mendis believes that a war does not confine its ravages to men and property. It also destroys a society and then the young and the country as a whole.
It is the opinion of experts that a concerted effort must be made to bring back normalcy to society in a post war scenario. Prof. Harendra De Silva said that the American government continues to spend a colossal amount of money on its Vietnam War veterans in order to bring them back to normalised conditions. “The Americans identified that the mental health conditions of the soldiers who were in Vietnam had to be addressed in a serious manner in order to prevent a crisis. The crime wave engulfing this country has the mark of soldiers who have left the Army. Police reports show this clearly. We do not say that all of the crime is committed by ex-servicemen. But for soldiers it is that much easier to kill given their training and mental conditioning,” said Prof. De Silva.
He said that soldiers who left the Forces have difficulty in living normal civilian life. They are used to a violent atmosphere and it does not take much for them to turn to killing. “We call this Post Traumatic Stress Disorder. Their minds are lighter when they kill. But our society does not yet understand this. It is the absence of addressing this that has brought disastrous consequences”.
Whilst there is a debate on the mental fall out amongst people in a post-war scenario, Police Spokesperson Prishantha Jayakody states that there has been a decline in homicides between 2008 and 2012. According to him there were 1924 murders in 2008 compared with 575 up to 30th of November 2012. He went on to say, “Though people say that homicides have increased, we find that during the past five years it has in fact decreased, but the murders committed in recent times have been more gruesome. Murder is most heinous now. They cut and chop without a care. Some time back, rape was not followed by murder, however now rape is followed by murder. They do that to destroy evidence”.
He also said that society has deteriorated contributing to the gruesome nature of the killings. “Most are committed by persons without much education. Free education must be made use of by parents to give their children a sound base. It is through education that we can extricate ourselves from this,” he said.
He further says that the media highlights crime and this acts as a catalyst to further crime. Even though the Police records show otherwise there were some gruesome killings in the recent past. On the 19thof November, three members of the same family, mother, father and son, were killed in their house in Bulathsinhala. Manage Ayadoris, the father who was killed was 92 years of age. Misilin, the mother was 85 and the son was 60. He was also of unsound mind. The investigations revealed that this family had sold a property recently and the motive may have been to rob this money.
The same day it was recorded that a 32 year old woman from Kiriella, Ratnapura, together with her seven year old son had taken poison and committed suicide. She has done so because her mother-in-law was constantly finding fault with her for losing her youngest child to an illness a few months before that.
On the 18th of November a person was found killed in a car parked along Marine Drive, Bambalapitiya. He was identified as Vijith de Costa (43) a senior executive in a shipping firm. He was married and lived in Kirulapone. His neck had been slashed with a sharp weapon. Inquiries revealed that he was in a homosexual relationship and though his partner had wished to end the relationship the deceased had not agreed. Investigations further revealed that his partner and his partner’s father were responsible for his murder. Another brutal murder was reported from Wattala on the 27thof November. R. A. Dona Sriyani (44) a mother of three children was murdered by her paramour. We recall bodies being found in lakes, rivers and floating downstream on waterways during the 1988/89 JVP insurrection. Last week a well-wrapped parcel washed ashore on the Pulmudai beach. It contained a human foot. Another body was found near the Castlereigh reservoir. But the Police say that all these cannot be classified as murders. There could be suicides amongst them, say the Police.
Even though Police records show otherwise society has become brutal said Attorney-at-Law Kalyananda Thiranagama. He also claimed that illegally obtained weapons are prevalent as a spin off from the war. “It is not possible to say with certainty that the deterioration of society is the sole reason for the brutality of murders. I see the 1971 insurgency as the benchmark for this. Then again in 1988/89 violence was unleashed. That affected society by and large. Political and private grudges were paid off. Then the war topped off that. We saw how much that affected Sri Lankan society,” he said.
Thiranagama agrees that the insurgencies and the war were contributory factors to brutality. “Children born during a war are not stable. Movies and even cartoons depict the background of that period. In 1956 the Harmful Publications Act was enacted. Now this law must be amended. Today television programmes for adults and also children’s programmes show violence. Children are very impressionable and are as a result affected,” he said. He added that the people have little faith in the law and this too has contributed to the frequency of the murders.
“When law takes time to resolve disputes the people lose faith in the system. We live in a society where the AG withdraws legal action against an alleged murderer. This results in criminals losing fear of the legal system,” Thiranagama said. Prof. Harendra De Silva believes that the political system in place grants some admiration and acceptance to murderers and criminals. “The leaders of this nation do not set a good example to society. There is a saying that the garden will be in accordance with the devil. That is why crime is forever on the increase,” he said. It is a fact that murder has become a normal occurrence within our society. Whether sections are poor, rich, educated or otherwise crime has pervaded all. Even a small disagreement can result in murder. It is almost as if the Wild West has arrived on our streets. “These murders show that Sri Lankan society is sick. We have to accept that truism. The Police may not be able to cure this by themselves. It is within the responsibility of the government,” said Dr. Jayan Mendis.

 

Murders Reported In The Kahawatte Area
July 21, 2008 : Sellama Mariyani (56)
November 19, 2008 : U. Ariyawathie (52)
June 04, 2010 : D Baby Nona (48)
December 21, 2010 : S M Heen Menika (80)
May 30, 2011 : Mudiyansalage Bandara Menike (85)
April 03 2011 : O Karunawathie (66)
June 19, 2011 : S Jayanthi (54)

First double murder
February 02, 2012 : P Nayanma Nilmini (52) and K C Sellahewa (19)

Second double murder
May 31, 2012 : Sethuge Dayawathie (61) and Sethuge Thilakaratne (51)

Third double murder
18 July 2012 : Premawathie Hewagamage (63) and Pushpa Kumari (32)

Last murder as at date
October 31, 2012 : U D Chandrawathie (66)
Kahawatte has become synonymous with the killing of elderly women who lived alone. There have been 15 homicides in the last three years. It all started on July 21 2008 when Sellama Mariyani (56) in Kahawatte who was mentally unsound was raped and strangled to death. Following this on November 19, 2008 Ariyawathie (52) living in Kotakethana, Kahawatte was killed while on her way to her sister’s residence and was buried near the river. Another woman Baby Nona (48) was attacked on June 4, 2010 when bathing in a nearby stream. She was raped and strangled to death and her body was dumped in the river. Six months later on December 21, 2010 Heen Menika from Dimbulawala was also attacked and killed. She was raped and had deep wounds on a body made by a sharp knife.
All the victims were single elderly women who lived alone. They were all raped and brutally attacked by a sharp weapon and their bodies were dumped in the river.
In the year 2011 there were three killings.
This time the killer changed his modus operandi and torched all his victims. Karunawathie (66) of Niladura, Kahawatte was attacked on April 13, 2011. Her body was dragged from the scene of the crime on to a bed and set ablaze. The worst killing was on May 20, 2011 when Heen Menika (82) was killed while asleep. Her body was torched and the murderer escaped through the window
Following this, on June 20, 2011 Jayanthi Menika (54) also from Niladura was attacked when she was returning from the weekly market. She had been sexually assaulted before being murdered. She was living with her elderly father. Here too all the women were single and were brutally attacked.
In the year 2012 Kahawatte reported three double murders. On February 2, 2012 Nayana Nilmini (52) and her daughter K. C. Sellahewa (19) were found dead in their home in Kahawatte. Their decomposed bodies were found stripped naked and had marks made by a sharp instrument on the body, neck and head.
Two sisters – Sethunge Dayawathie and Sethunge Tilakawathie (52) in Kotakethana were brutally murdered on May 31, 2012 and their house was torched.
On June 19, 2012 Premawathie Hewagamage (63) and her daughter Pushpa Kumari (32) were killed with a sharp weapon. The bodies were dragged to the bed and set on fire.
The last and 15th victim was U. D. Chandrawathie (66) from Warapitiya, Kotakethana a village in Kahawatte. She was found dead in the compound of her house with wounds bearing the mark of a sharp weapon.

Canada this week, introduced a bill that will tighten its asylum laws and seriously penalise human smugglers, following the arrival of some 500 asylum seekers from Sri Lanka earlier this year, the Indo-Asian News Service (IANS) reports.
Canada’s Ministers for Immigration and Public Safety on Thursday unveiled the new act, titled Preventing Human Smugglers From Abusing Canada’s Immigration Systems, in order to crack down on those that seek to take advantage of the country’s generosity.
Speaking at the event, Public Safety Minister Vic Toews had revealed that it cost Canadian taxpayers as much as $ 30,000 a year per refugee. Canada is currently processing as many as 80,000 refugee cases, the latest of which were 500 Tamil asylum seekers that arrived aboard the MV Sun Sea in August.
Under this act, human smugglers will be detained for up to one year until their identities are proven and will not be allowed to live freely in Canada until then. It will also ensure quicker prosecution and tougher jail terms for those firmly identified as human smugglers.

By Ranee Mohamed

Perumal Pavaranjani of Gonadikawatte area down Gampola road in Kadugannawa was found dead on September 28, allegedly after being attacked by her father with an axe.
Pavarajnini (7) had shouldered the responsibilities of cooking and cleaning and caring for her older brother and younger sister after their mother left to the Middle East.
Their father, a labourer, according to police sources assaulted the girl with the axe because the food that she had cooked was not ‘tasty.’
A team from the Kadugannawa police inquiring into the death of Perumal Pavaranjini (7) say that the three children aged 8, 7, and 5 were assaulted by their father the previous day too with the same axe.
Kadugannawa OIC Rohana Wanigasekera when contacted by The Sunday Leader said  they are looking into reports that the children were constantly assaulted by their father.