by S. J. Anthony Fernando
Looking through some random collections of my memorablia , I fished out a paper cutting which gives an insight into some noteworthy and revealing events of recent history.

What prompted me to search for this paper cutting is because the name of Chandra Perera, the Senior Superintendent of Police who was killed in the recent bomb blast along with the Mayor of Jaffna, the Jaffna Brigade Commander and a few others rang a bell.

I remember having met Chandra Perera who was SSP Trincomalee when the Presidential Mobile Service was held in the Trincomalee District in February 1993 . This was soon after major parts of the Eastern Province was liberated from the control of the LTTE by the Police and the Armed Forces under the Presidency of Ranasinghe Premadasa after the LTTE had recaptured the area with the start of Eelam War II in 1990 following the breakdown of Premadasa-LTTE talks.

SSP Chandra Perera on that occasion met President Premadasa and briefed him about the situation in Trincomalee District and the programme he had carried out to restore peace and normalcy in the region after liberating the area from LTTE. The newspapers carried a picture and description of the meeting and I knew I had stored away the paper cutting somewhere , mainly because I too happened to be in some corner of the picture.

And sure enough it was SSP Chandra Perera in the picture meeting President Premadasa in February 1993 barely two months before the President was assassinated by an LTTE suicide bomber. The picture and story published in the Island of 3rd February 1993

(reproduced alongside) tells the story of the big role played by the amiable SSP in restoring peace and normalcy in the area by winning the hearts and minds of the Tamil, Muslim and Sinhala communities of the region.

He was widely regarded as a police officer who is loved by the people of all communities. On SSP Chandra Perera fell the lot of promoting racial and religious harmony in the Trincomalee District after the East was liberated in 1990.

It is because of his experience and commitment in promoting racial and religious harmony that he was undoubtedly chosen to carry on the good work in Jaffna after the area was liberated from the clutches of the LTTE under the P.A Government.

The flash back to the Presidential Mobile Service in Trincomalee also serves as a reminder of some events of recent history when LTTE reneged on the Premadasa-LTTE peace agreement and launched Eelam War II and the manner in which President Premadasa and the late Ranjan Wijeratne prosecuted the war with help of Police and the armed services to liberate the Eastern Province in 1990.

It also was the first time that the Government adopted the strategy of winning the hearts and minds of the Tamil speaking people in the area, alienating them from LTTE, by restoring for them the essential facilities and amenities to lead their normal day to day living, destroyed by the LTTE war.

It was for this purpose and consolidation of restoration of civil administration that President Premadasa held mobile offices in Trincomalee and Batticaloa Districts. This was the stand he took at the time of his death, though his detractors would like to cloud the issue to make the people forget the initiative he took to restore peace in the East by only mentioning the assistance he gave to LTTE during the talks held and not the manner he prosecuted the war and freed the Eastern Province.

But now history had repeated itself with P.A. holding another round of talks ignoring lessons of the past and having to fight an Eelam War III at a cost of further colossal loss of lives, military hardware and funds.

Though some would want to fault Premadasa for helping LTTE during the talks many tend to forget the manner in which he pursued the war against the LTTE while moving to win the hearts of Tamils by attending to their human problems - a strategy adopted by the present government too in a bid to alienate them from the LTTE.

(The writer severed as an Asst. Secretary in President Premadasa's press office.)