On July 13, 1989, the entire country came to a standstill when news of the assassination of veteran politician, senior legal luminary and the first Tamil Opposition leader Appapillai Amirthalingam, and his fellow TULF Parliamentarian V. Yogeswaran started spreading like a wild fire.
Amirthalingam and his colleague Yogeswaran were brutally gunned down at their well-guarded Buller’s Road residence in Colombo at point blank range by two assailants. This year marks the thirty sixth anniversary of the shocking assassinations of Amirthalingam and Yogeswaran.
It was the period when the LTTE had engaged in talks with then President R. Premadasa’s government, despite the warning of his predecessor J. R. Jayawardena, who had alerted President Premadasa not to engage in any form of talks with the LTTE and pointed out that the outfit was not trustworthy.
However, President Premadasa had treated the LTTE delegation led by the outfit’s theoretician Dr. Anton Balasingham lavishly, according them five-star hospitality.
What President Premadasa and his intelligence network had failed to understand was that the hardcore LTTE’s intention was not to engage in talks with the Government but to work out their roadmap for the assassination, as well as to carry out destructive explosions in Colombo in the future.
During this period the LTTE had ample opportunity to establish its terror network extensively by allowing its cadres to penetrate deep into various places in Colombo and the suburbs, as well as to study the landscape of the capital city to carry out their lethal activities.
Amirthalingam and Yogeswaran were the first victims of the LTTE’s ulterior motive in Colombo. Thereafter they carried out a series of killings of several veteran politicians in the South as well as carrying out destructive attacks on premier locations such as the Central Bank of Sri Lanka, the Sapugaskanda oil refinery, and even targeting the Bandaranaike International Airport.
The thirty sixth death anniversary of Amirthalingam was commemorated on 13th July in various parts of North and East this year. Several politicians, irrespective of their political parties, paid their tributes in memory of late Amirthalingam and the print media had carried articles on the life and times on the late Tamil leader.
In his capacity as a refined politician, Amirthalingam even defended late Prime Minister Sirimavo Bandaranaike when her civic rights were removed by late President J. R. Jayewardene in 1980.
The lengthy speech articulated by Amirthalingam defending Sirimavo Bandaranaike in Parliament was very much admired and appreciated by several Southern politicians, including those who were from the ruling party.
In the 1977 Parliamentary election campaign, the TULF led by Appapillai Amirthalingam had campaigned extensively, emphasising on a separate state for North and East Tamils, called Tamil Eelam.
As far as unity and integrity as well as peace and reconciliation were concerned, the Eelam campaign launched by the TULF and led by Amirthalingam paved the way for Tamil extremism and to a ruthless arms struggle resulting in the bloodiest civil war, which even devastated the country’s economy.
It was very much later in his life that Amirthalingam realised the blunder he made in misleading the youth of the North and East towards a meaningless arms struggle, which had not only led to his assassination but to the untimely deaths of several Tamil politicians of his era.
Therefore on his thirty sixth death anniversary, Amirthalingam will be remembered as a veteran politician who made a wrong move in his political career by chanting a deadly `mantra’ called Tamil Eelam.
Amirthalingam was born August 26, 1927 in Pannagam, a hamlet in Vaddukottai in Jaffna. He was educated at Victoria College, Chulipuram. Later, he entered the Ceylon University College during the period of its first Vice Chancellor, Ivor Jennings. Thereafter, he joined the legal profession, becoming a highly successful advocate.
Amirthalingam began his political career entering the Illankai Tamil Arasu Katchchi (ITAK) soon after its formation in 1949. He was ITAK’s candidate for Vaddukoddai at the 1952 Parliamentary polls. However he only entered Parliament in his second attempt in 1956. Thereafter he was elected continuously at the Parliamentary elections. Later he stood for reelection in 1970 in Vaddukoddai, but was defeated by an All Ceylon Tamil Congress candidate.
In 1972 the ITAK, ACTC and others formed the Tamil United Front, later renaming it as the Tamil United Liberation Front.
Amirthalingam was delivering leaflets along with other Tamil politicians in 1976 against the Sirimavo Government and they were all arrested for sedition. All the defendants were acquitted after a famous trial at bar case in which 72 lawyers, including S. J. V. Chelvanayakam and G. G. Ponnambalam, along with several leading Sinhalese lawyers such as H. W. Jayewardene who was the brother of former President J. R. Jayewardene, appeared for Amirthalingam.
Following the death of ITAK leader S. J. V. Chelvanayakam in April 1977, Amirthalingam took over the leadership of ITAK and the TULF.
Amirthalingam was the TULF’s candidate for Kankasanthurai at the 1977 Parliamentary election. He won the election with the TULF becoming the opposition party in Parliament and Amirthalingam became the first Tamil leader of the Opposition in the political history of Sri Lanka.
