The Nation: Rohana Wijeweera cremated alive!
Eyewitness account of how the JVP Leader was killed
The Janata Vimukti Peramuna (JVP) was proscribed by the UNP government after the Black July of 1983. It was one of the classic examples of unethical political expediency of putting the blame for the riots on the JVP though the UNP itself was responsible for perpetrating violence on Tamil people in the south. JVP founder leader Rohana Wijeweera and other members went underground. An unprecedented spate of violence followed till 1988-89 at the instance of the JVP as well as the R.Premadasa UNP regime of the time. Rohana Wijeweera disguised as a proprietary planter lived at a tea plantation near Gampola under an alias “Aththanayaka” for a few years. On a tip off from a former JVP member he was arrested and brought to Colombo on the evening of November 13, 1989, without the media and the public being made aware of it. The secret operation was known only to the Deputy Defense Minister Ranajan Wijeratne and a few senior army officers and probably to the then President R.Premadasa. Wijeweera was shot in cold blood after his arrest and he was thrown into the crematorium chamber while he was still alive, but hardly conscious at the time and was cremated alive. Unknown to the senior and junior army officers there remained a single member of the JVP Indrananda Silva from Polonnaruwa who witnessed the crime and he related the tale to The Nation after all these years.