දේශප්‍රේමී ජනතා ව්‍යාපාරය

දේශප්‍රේමී ජනතා ව්‍යාපාරය (Patriotic People's Movement) ශ්‍රී ලංකාවේ පැවති යනු මිලිටරි සංවිධානයකි. එය මාක්ස්වාදී-ලෙනින්වාදී ජනතා විමුක්ති පෙරමුණේ හමුදා ශාඛාව ලෙස පුළුල් ලෙස සලකනු ලැබූ අතර ශ්‍රී ලංකා රජය විසින් ත්‍රස්තවාදී සංවිධානයක් ලෙස නම් කරන ලදී.

DJV 1987 සිට 1989 දක්වා සන්නද්ධ සංවිධානයක් ලෙස ක්‍රියාත්මක විය. මෙම කාලය පුරාම, එය ශ්‍රී ලංකා සන්නද්ධ හමුදාවන්ට සහ එය 'ඉන්දියානු නියෝජිතයා' ලෙස කියා සිටි අයට පහරදීම් සිදු කළේය; ජනතා විමුක්ති පෙරමුණට ආරෝපණය කරන ලද ප්‍රහාරවලින් බහුතරයක් DJV ට අයත් ගරිල්ලාවරුන් හෝ ඝාතකයින් විසින් සිදු කරන ලදී.

Operation
සමන් පියසිරි ප්‍රනාන්දු, කීර්ති විජයබාහු යන අයගේ නායකත්වයෙන් යුත් බොහෝ මූලාශ්‍රවලට අනුව, DJV යනු ජනතා විමුක්ති පෙරමුණේ හමුදා ශාඛාවක් විය. මෙම ව්‍යාපාරය නාගරික නගර පදනම් කරගත් කලාපීය අංශවලට බෙදා තිබුණි. දිවයින පුරා සංවර්ධනය කරන ලද කලාපීය විධානයන් තම හමුදාවන්ට සතුරු හමුදා වාරිකවලට පහර දෙන ලෙස නියෝග කරනු ඇත. දේශප්‍රේමී මහජන සන්නද්ධ හමුදාවන්ගේ ඒකාබද්ධ විධානය හරහා අණ දෙනු ලැබේ. එය ශ්‍රී ලංකා හමුදාවේ සේවය කරන අයට මරණ තර්ජන ද නිකුත් කරනු ඇත.

Early activity and recognition

The first attack attributed to the DJV was the grenade attack that took place in the Sri Lankan parliament. An assailant hurled two grenades, which killed two and wounded 14 including then prime minister Ranasinghe Premadasa, and Lalith Athulathmudali. In the immediate aftermath, the term 'DJV' started to appear in booklets distributed at Colombo, the most populated city of Sri Lanka.

The term 'Deshapremi Janatha Vyaparaya' first got international recognition following its call to the BBC correspondent, John Rettie. The caller who represented the DJV, claimed that it consists of 2,000 active militants. The caller expressed ultranationalist ideals, he claimed "JR must be killed for his autonomy to the Tamil people" The caller further claimed the organization is an independent organization and is not affiliated to the Janatha Vimukthi Peramuna. The president back then, J.R Jayawardene, however, said that this is nothing but a cover organisation of the JVP, he further predicted possible affiliation between it and the Tamil militants in the North Eastern regions of Sri Lanka.

As a guerrilla organisation
The DJV was made up of youths trained in certain rural areas. These militants were uniformed similarly to the soldiers of the SLAF. The militants patrolled towns at night and attacked politicians mostly from rightist parties and rival leftists. The major target was military bases of the SLAF. Military installments of Sri Lankan Army and Air Force were attacked alongside police stations, these attacks mostly ended in success.

Several weapons recovered by the Sri Lankan Army was stolen from bases in the central province where the JVP had its headquarters.

Intimidation tactics

The DJV caused violence to intimidate and kill those who supported infamous Indo-Lanka accord. Violence escalated during the 1989 general elections, mostly to intimidate the voters. With violent acts of sabotage and intimidation, it brought the country to standstill. Posters and death threats were passed on to both the public and targeted individuals calling for boycotts of Indian goods and clothing; those who denied the orders were targeted by specific assassins and were assassinated. Assassinations of this manner included the assassinations of film star Vijaya Kumaratunga, Gladys Jayawardene, and K. Gunaratnam. It furthermore targeted newscasters to intimidate the media which served propaganda against it. Sagarika Gomes and allegedly Premakeerthi de Alwis were some of the targeted newscasters. However Premakeerthi's family denies that it was the DJV who killed him,  instead they claim government assassins killed him.

Origin and allegiance
DJV was mostly made up of undergraduates from the University of Peradeniya, who made contact to the organisation through the Socialist Students' Union.

While there are multiple official accounts that claim the DJV was the armed wing of the JVP, there is no convincing evidence to confirm this, as the DJV members never swore allegiance to the JVP or any of its party organizations. However, the JVP claims: DJV was founded by JVP to operate as a frontal force.

According to Rohana Wijeweera, the DJV is a patriotic composition of multiple political parties and unions in the country.

Tamil militant support
As the JVP began its second uprising, many Tamil organisations started providing it arms, regardless of how nationalist was the DJV, and how would it operate against the Tamil minority. A majority of Tamil organizations feared getting overrun by the Indian Peace Keeping Force (IPKF).

Premakumar Gunaratnam and Wijeweera sent troops of the JVP military branch (believed to be DJV) to train in various camps used by Tamil militant groups, more importantly, People's Liberation Organisation of Tamil Eelam (PLOTE). The JVP military branch gave PLOTE a certain amount of lorry engines and was given claymores by PLOTE in return. These claymores were largely used against the Indian and Sri Lankan infantry vehicles.(#In the Northeast)

After 1989
1989

Following the arrest of Rohana Wijeweera, he was shot on November 13, 1989, either by a comrade, H. B. Herath, as they were on the way to the headquarters of the DJV / JVP, or by the armed forces. Following his death, the leadership of the JVP got transferred to Keerthi Vijayabahu. Herath was executed the same day. As Wijeweera may have revealed the location of the DJV safehouse, the military headquarters of the JVP, it was overrun following a gunfight between the SLAF and the DJV. The Sri Lankan government media released a report on December 29, 1989, as "the leader of the JVP military wing killed along with four other cadres due to the crossfire between security forces and the JVP at their military wing headquarters, a farm located at Piliyandala"

Aftermath
The DJV ceased to exist after 1989. The JVP however, returned to mainstream politics through elections; the organisation since then had major splits between revolutionaries and democrats.

List of Attacks

DJV attacks are also attributed to the Patriotic People's Armed Troops, also a frontal organization of the JVP, these include the attack on the SLAF detachment in Pallekele.

In the Northeast
In 1989 the organising committee of the JVP ordered Premakumar to attack the IPKF following the second anniversary of signing the Indo-Lanka accord. The attack was planned as a mine attack.

On 25 July 1989, the DJV planted two mines in roads where the cadre knew IPKF infantry troops travel through. Sarath Kule, an explosives expert, planted the mines. Watchers were kept to identify IPKF vehicles. The first mine didn't explode, however, the second successfully exploded, damaging the infantry vehicle. The cadre then rushed into the vehicle and stole an Indian Light Machine Gun. There were Indian troops outside firing at the cadre but none were shot. Fourteen IPKF jawans were killed in the attack.

A statement made later recalling the incident says:

Notes

Sources

Further reading

Matthews, B (1988). Sinhala Cultural and Buddhist Patriotic Organizations in Contemporary Sri Lanka. University of British Columbia.
Oruvala, B (2008). Lumumbāven bihi vū Rōhaṇa Vijēvīra 


External links
 Official Website

Sri Lanka Army
 Documentary of the Sinha Regiment by the SLA

Category:Factions in the Sri Lankan civil war
Category:Sinhalese nationalist organisations
Category:1987–1989 JVP insurrection