Richard de Zoysa
Another number of the dead from Sri Lanka’s War Years.
All rights acknowledged.
The 18th day of this month of February 2024 marks the 34th death anniversary of a journalist of international repute, writer, poet, human rights activist, stage and screen actor Richard de Zoysa.
Richard de Zoysa who was 32 at that time was found murdered on Feb. 19th 1990 after being abducted from his home by Police officers led by Ronnie Gunasinghe on the night of 18th Feb 1990.
Gunasinghe served as the personal body guard of President Ranasinghe Premadasa.
In the dead of night, Officers called over at the home of Richard’s mother, Dr( Mrs) Manorani Saravanamuthu around 3 am on that fateful day.
She having told them that they look like police officers had asked for their identity cards.
They told her that they have information that there are some outsiders in her House.
They had refused to give an Identity and instead pointed their guns as if to open fire, following which the doctor had opend the door.
They had gone searching the house and on seeing Richard sleep upstairs had forcibly brought him down.
The police officers, some in uniform and others in civics had then taken Richard away against the wailing protests and attempts by his mother to hold him back.
He was pushed into a police vehicle in only a sarong and driven away.
Following this incident Dr( Mrs) Saravanamuthu had lodged a complaint at the welikada police station following this incident.
Body found on the beach identified as her son’s at the kalubowila hospital
On the night of the 19 th February, on being informed by the police who called over at Mrs.Saravanamutu’s residence saying, that there was a body found on the beach which could be that of her son and she could call over at the kalubowila hospital mortuary.
She rushed to the hospital mortuary and identified it as her son’s.
The journalist of the ‘Divaina’ newspaper Mr.Keerthi Warnakulasuriya heard of this body on the beach and went to the kalubowila hospital.
Mr.Warnakulasuriya saw Richard’s mother at the mortuary but didn’t speak to her, instead rushed back to the office to write the news for the next days papers.
Immediately then he received a call from the then State Minister of defense Mr. Ranjan Wijeratne, inquiring if he had heard about a dead body on the beach or gone to the kalubowila hospital for which he said NO.
Shorty thereafter a police officer called over at the office of the Island newspapers and asked him if he went to the kalubowila hospital or heard anything about a body found on the beach,he once again said NO .
This police officer, Mr.Shanthi Kumara was known to th editor Mr. Warnakulasuriya. This officer told the Divaina editor, – “Ronnie is furious that someone from the Island newspapers had gone there” and warned him not to write anything in the papers if he had a ‘love for his life’.
This was the way journalists were threatened and information suppressed.
Mr. Ranjan Wijeratne was blown up and died instantly at the Havelock road bomb blast near police grounds on march 2nd 1991.
The writer remembers this day and the injuries of the general public caught in the blast which was extremely horrifying compared to that of casualties of other bomb blasts which was common in that era.
This blast created a huge crater on the road where the vehicle was blown up.
This crater was by evening closed up and even the road was carpeted! .
Postmortam findings show torture, mutilation and smashed soles of feet and gunshots on Richard’s body
Richard’s body had gruesome signs of torture , the type unimaginable and unmentionable.
Postmortam on Richard’s mutilated body showed a fractured jaw and gun shot injuries to the head and throat.
Such was the mindset of the perpetrators of this heinous crime.
Dr( Mrs) Saravanamuthu and her lawyer receives death threats following them making a Police complaint
Richard’s mother had identified Ronnie Gunasinghe with President Premadasa on a tv news clip few weeks after the killing.
She rushed to the Police station to inform she could identify who abducted her son but the Police NEVER made any attempt at investigation!
Instead, Dr.Mrs.Saravanamuthu and her lawyer Mr. Batty Weerakoon received chilling death threats over the phone and In writing following their complaint to the police and to the human rights commission seeking Justice.
Why was Richard de Zoysa killed in the most horrendous manner
Richard, was not a political activist nor a secret service agent from whom classified information could be extracted . He was none of that but a passionate journalist, a stage and screen actor. At the time of his abduction and murder, Richard was the Head of the Colombo office of Inter press service, which had it’s headquarters in Lisbon.
It was believed that he had in his procession very sensitive information of atrocities relating to the extra judicial killings and state terrorism of the government of that time.
He was scheduled to leave the Island one week from the date of his killing to take office as the bureau chief of the IPS office in Lisbon.
Another highly probable reason for his killing was that Richard was the writer of a satirical play highly critical of the then President .
The name of this play ” Mae Kawda , Monawada Mae Karane” ( who is he, what is he doing) The curtains never went up .
The producer of the play Mr.Lakshman Perera who was a member of the Dehiwela Mount lavinia municipal council went missing three weeks before Richard was killed, never heard of thereafter and is believed to have been killed.
Such was the impunity with which people who stood for truth , freedom of expression and who dared to defer in their opinion were dealt with by the regime of that time .
They were both oppressive and ruthless under their lilly white ‘national’, quite the contrary to the images portrayed on state TV and newspapers carrying ‘Mal Vatiyas’ to temples across the length and breath of this island.
Thankful the sea had brought her son’s body to her
Richard de Zoysa’s body was dropped off a helicopter far into the sea as witnessed by fisherman who were out at sea that nigh, in the hope it will never be found.
It is only the state machinery that had access to an helicopter.
However, fate had it that his mother was to see her son’s body and she was thankful ‘the sea had brought him to her’.
The then head of state was the first to call over at the home of Richard de Zoysa to condone with his mother!
A sorrowful and heart broken mother’s prayer to God
The heart broken physician mother of Richard who served a very poor segment of the population formed the ‘ Mother’s front ‘ which drew much support and attention from civil organisations at home and abroad.
The ‘mother’s front’ comprised of mother’s who had lost their children in great numbers both in the North and south of the country.
Dr.( Mrs) Saravanamuthu walked on the streets with a large number of mothers who lost there sons and daughters of that era.
Whilst she walked , she raised her hands up onto the sky calling
for divine intervention and punishment for the killers of her son.
Few years later , at the national hospital, weak and fragile, with a fractured hip that was fixed, she whispered to the writer, that she pleaded to God for two things-
1. Blow the killer of her son into ashes so that the earth is spared the stink of a cowardly killer .
2. May not another of the killers progeny be born to breathe the blessed air on God’s Good earth .
Day of deliverance
The writer remembers the first of May 1993, at the then recently opend Finish built accident and orthopedic unit.
The dead bodies began arriving along with those with injuries from the Armour street blast.
The bodies were neatly laid in a row on the right of the entrance Inside the accident service.
The bloodied body of Ronnie Gunasinghe was the fourth on that row, that of the President’s valet Mohideen lay just next. Everyone there on seeing these two corpses awaited for the “other” which however did not arrive since divine intervention had answered Mrs.Saravanamutu’s prayer to the very letter.
Dr( Mrs) Saravanamutu passed off peacefully on Feb 14th 2001 .
All rights acknowledged.
