A. Thangathurai

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Ceylonese Parliament
for Mutur
In office
1970–1977
Preceded byM. E. H. Mohamed Ali
Succeeded byM. E. H. Maharoof
Member of Parliament
for Trincomalee District
In office
1994–1997
Succeeded byR. Sampanthan
Personal details
Born(1936-01-17)17 January 1936
Died5 July 1997(1997-07-05) (aged 61)
Political party
Sri Lankan Tamil

Arunasalam Thangathurai (

Sri Lankan Tamil
lawyer, politician and Member of Parliament.

Early life and family

Thangathurai was born 17 January 1936.

Mutur in Trincomalee District, along the bank of Allai tank.[2][3] His father was a rural register and a land-owning farmer.[2][3] Communal tension in the Allai area grew in the 1950s after Sinhalese were settled in the area.[2] However, Thangathurai's family had good relations with the Sinhalese villagers, particularly those from Dehiwatte, many of whom would come to Killiveddy to buy curd and register with his father.[2] Thangathurai was educated at Mutur, Government College, Batticaloa and Stanley College, Ariyalai.[3]

Thangathurai was married to Sathyashri.[4] They had two daughters (Dharmini) and one son (Ahilan).[4]

Career

Thangathurai's family's financial situation meant that he did not pursue higher education but opted instead to join the clerical service.

Illankai Tamil Arasu Kachchi's (ITAK) (Federal Party) and All Ceylon Tamil Congress (ACTC).[3]

Thangathurai's family's agricultural activities increased as they purchased and leased more land.

Divisional Revenue Officer.[3]

Local people in the Killiveddy area were alarmed at the state-sponsored colonisation schemes.[2] The ITAK was critical of the colonisation schemes and as a result Thangathurai joined the party.[2] He was in charge of ITAK's Youth League.[3][5] He and his younger brother Kumarathurai started establishing Tamil settlements in secure border areas.[2]

Thangathurai stood as the ITAK candidate in

Tamil United Front, later renamed Tamil United Liberation Front (TULF).[7][8][9][10] A delimitation committee reduced Mutur from a two-member constituency to a single-member constituency by carving out the Sinhalese dominated Seruvila Electoral District.[3] As a result Thangathurai did not contest the 1977 parliamentary election.[3]

Before the 1977 parliamentary election a

bo tree was cut down in Killiveddy resulting in minor communal violence.[3] Thangathurai was believed to have been behind the felling and was questioned but being an MP wasn't arrested.[3] Kumarathurai was however arrested over the incident.[3] Communal violence resumed after the election but this time Thangathurai and Kumarathurai were both arrested, detained and released after a while.[3] After 1977 Thangathurai started studying law and qualified as a lawyer.[3]

In the late 1970s/early 1980s, as Sinhalese settlements started to encroach onto Tamil lands in Trincomalee District, Tamils, led by Thangathurai, started organising themselves to protect their traditional homeland.

patron was Thangathurai.[3] Following the 1981 District Development Council (DDC) elections, Thangathurai was made chairman of Trincomalee DDC.[3]

After the

Madras, India after Minister of National Security Lalith Athulathmudali ordered Thangathurai's arrest for "spreading false rumours".[2][3][11] Kumarathurai was released in 1986 and, as by this time Killiveddy had disappeared, moved to Denmark.[2]

Whilst in India Thangathurai had contacts with

V. Prabhakaran.[3] Thangathurai returned to Sri Lanka in 1988 to serve the people of Trincomalee District during a difficult period.[3] Thangathurai was one of the TULF candidates for Trincomalee District at the 1994 parliamentary election. He was elected and re-entered Parliament.[12] Following the massacre of 24 civilian in Kumarapuram on 11 February 1996, Thangathurai blamed the army for the killings and called for an independent public inquiry.[13] Important information about the perpetrators of the massacre, including Colonel Nihal Silva, was provided to Thangathurai by the Sinhalese villagers of Dehiwatte.[2]

On 5 July 1997 Thangathurai was attending a function at

Sri Lankan military.[5][14] As he was leaving the function at around 7.30pm, a grenade was thrown at the group and shots fired.[4][5][14] Thangathurai and six others (Sri Shanmuga principal Rajeshwari Thanabalasingham, Namagal Vidyalayam principal S. Joseph, principal K. Seevaratnam, civil engineer V. Retnarajah, social worker P. S. Ganeshalingam and a police bodyguard) were killed.[4][15] Hundreds of people, including school children, attending the function witnessed the incident.[4][5] The LTTE was blamed for the assassination.[16][17] However, TULF leaders such as V. Anandasangaree and M. Sivasithamparam have cast doubts over this, stating that there were many armed groups and that the TULF had opponents amongst the Sinhalese, as well as Tamil, population.[4][15]

Several people with alleged links to the LTTE - including rickshaw driver Muttiah Koneswaran alias Babu, ports authority security guard Satkunanathan Nijanthan alias Nijan, Manikkam Murugathasan alias Jerome and Sivaprakasam Akilarupan alias Ahilson - were quickly arrested by the police.[4][15] According to the police the suspects had confessed to the assassination and claimed it was as result of Thangathurai's co-operation with the Sri Lankan government.[4] In October 1999 seven people - Sivaprakasam Akilarupan alias Ahilson, Navaneethan Jeevakumar alias Jeyanth, Muttiah Koneswaran alias Babu, Manikkam Murugathasan alias Jerome, Satkunanathan Nijanthan alias Nijan, Ratnam Yogambal and Karthigesu Yogaranee - were charged with the murder of Thangathurai and six others.[18] According to the lawyers for some of the suspects, they had been tortured by the police.[19]

Electoral history

Electoral history of A. Thangathurai
Election Constituency Party Votes Result
1970 parliamentary[6] Mutur
ITAK
 19,787 Elected
1994 parliamentary[12] Trincomalee District TULF 22,409 Elected

References

  1. ^ "Directory of Members: Arunasalam Thangathurai". Parliament of Sri Lanka.
  2. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m n o p Hoole, Rajan. "Murder in Trincomalee and the Tamil predicament". University Teachers for Human Rights.
  3. ^
    ISSN 0266-4488
    .
  4. ^
    ISSN 0266-4488
    .
  5. ^ a b c d Kamalendran, Christopher (6 July 1997). "Top TULF MP assassinated". The Sunday Times (Sri Lanka).
  6. ^ a b "Result of Parliamentary General Election 1970" (PDF). Department of Elections, Sri Lanka. Archived from the original (PDF) on 9 December 2009.
  7. ^ Ross, Russell R.; Savada, Andrea Matles, eds. (1990). Sri Lanka : A Country Study (PDF). Library of Congress. p. 51.
  8. ISBN 81-85880-52-2
    .
  9. ISBN 978-1-105-01908-1
    .
  10. ^ Rajasingham, K. T. "Chapter 23: Srimavo's constitutional promiscuity". Sri Lanka: The Untold Story. Archived from the original on 13 February 2002.{{cite book}}: CS1 maint: unfit URL (link)
  11. ^ a b c "Information Bulletin No.10 - Trincomalee District in February 1996: Focusing on the Killiveddy Massacre". University Teachers for Human Rights. 2 March 1996.
  12. ^ a b "Result of Parliamentary General Election 1994" (PDF). Department of Elections, Sri Lanka. Archived from the original (PDF) on 6 October 2010.
  13. ^ "Independent Probe Sought". The Sunday Times (Sri Lanka). 18 February 1996.
  14. ^ a b "Trincomalee TULF MP assassinated". TamilNet. 6 July 1997.
  15. ^ a b c Selvanayagam, S. S. (13 July 1997). "Who killed Thanga?". The Sunday Times (Sri Lanka).
  16. ^ Jeyaraj, D. B. S. (16 March 2008). "Assassinating Tamil Parliamentarians: The unceasing waves". The Nation (Sri Lanka). Archived from the original on 20 February 2014. Retrieved 20 December 2015.
  17. ^ "World Report 1998: Sri Lanka". Human Rights Watch.
  18. ^ "Thangathurai accused charged". TamilNet. 11 October 1999.
  19. ^ "Date set for Thangathurai trial". TamilNet. 19 October 1999.
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