A few days ago I was looking through old newspapers – clippings from the late 80s.
Back then, the JVP were referred to ‘subversives’ and the terrorists were – um – I guess they must have been fighting the IPKF and the SL Army.
But the JVP were the ‘subversives’ and in late 1989, their leadership was hunted down and killed. In the next couple of years, the Army and so-called vigilante groups killed tens of thousands of young men and women. A whole generation was wiped out.
I guess the violence by the State put an end to the violence being committed by the JVP. And now, the JVP are in the political system.
So, when the JVP advocate a military solution to the conflict between the LTTE and the GOSL, are they recalling what happened to them?
If the Army and their vigilante groups can wipe out the leadership of the LTTE, followed up by the murder of Tiger supporters and sympathisers, will we see the LTTE militarily crippled, re-emerging as a political party a few years down the track?