Conflict leads to revelation of party secrets:
JVP Rebel Leader's aliases, subversive past exposed

(By Saman Indrajith)

The on-going clash between the current JVP leadership and its rival faction led by Premkumar Gunaratnam has led to the revelation of many a party secret such as the identities of its underground cadres, clandestine operational centres and safe houses. Last week's assault by the Gunaratnam faction on a Somawansa loyalist at Madiwela exposed the location of a JVP safe house used by hardcore JVPers whose identities are not known even to some of the senior members of the party active in mainstream politics. Within hours of the clash, a posse of police intelligence personnel descended on the place, ascertained as much information as possible and took into custody all the computers the JVP leaders had used there.

Aliases of some underground cadres known only to the members belonging to the party's inner cells are no longer secrets, The Island learns. JVP founder leader Rohana Wijeweera introduced a system of assigning pseudonyms to senior party members and thus the JVP became known for faces without names and vice versa. Wijeweera's actual name was Patabendige Don Nandasiri Wijeweera. He adopted nom de guerre 'Rohana' as he was from the south. The incumbent leader Somawansa Amarasinghe has been known as Siri Aiya to the JVP's rank and file and the party General Secretary Tilvin Silva is called Aiya. Its parliamentary group leader Anura Kumara Dissanayake is known as Aravinda to the JVP membership. The media spokesman of the dissident group, Pubudu Jagoda, is known as Lasith. The Colombo District Leader of the party is known only as Marlon and only a very few JVPers know him as Ranjith Shantha. The leader of the JVP security wing G. Kularatne is known as Sarath.

The JVP leadership tussle has resulted in the aliases of the rebel leader Gunaratnam, details of some of his forged documents and his violent past being exposed. According to a dossier prepared by a State intelligence outfit on him based that information-seen by The Island-Gunaratnam, affectionately called Kumara Mahattaya by his loyalists who claim him to be the real leader of the JVP, has several aliases such as Daskon, Dayalal and Gunda. It was some senior members like Gunaratnam, Nandana Gunatilake (who has defected to the SLFP) and another known as Opatha Mahattaya, who helped revive the JVP after it was beheaded by the UNP government in 1989. Opatha Mahattaya, whose real name is Withanage Senadheera Gunatilake, has remained ever loyal to Kumar Mahattaya, working behind the scene. Somawansa Amarasinghe and several other members formed the party's public face for electoral purposes.

The Somawansa faction consists of the known faces of the party and commands the backing of the JVP trade union wing. The rebel group has secured the support of the JVP student wing, women's wing, education wing, propaganda wing and the security wing. Party sources claim that hundreds of fulltime hardcore members have sided with Gunaratnam. An influential group of 136 members known as the Bolshevik Party within the JVP has thrown its weight behind Kumara Mahattaya; it is all out to oust the incumbent leader and close associates.

Wijeweera designed the JVP with three levels. The top level consists of the national level leaders and the bottom one comprises leaders at the grassroots. There is a very strong middle level whose members work underground and remain anonymous. Their mission is to maintain a low profile and swing into action to rebuild the party in case of a military crackdown. They have ensured the survival of party despite its two abortive revolts. The size of the middle level is anybody's guess as the party does not maintain records of them for security reasons. This group is looked after by the party. These hardcore elements of the JVP have sided with Gunaratnam, according to party insiders.