CEYLON MINISTER BLAMES CIA

• Document Type: CREST
• Collection: General CIA Records
• Document Number (FOIA) /ESDN (CREST): CIA-RDP80-01601R000400250001-3
• Release Decision: RIFPUB
• Original Classification: K
• Document Page Count: 6
• Document Creation Date: November 17, 2016
• Document Release Date: July 25, 2000
• Sequence Number: 1
• Publication Date: May 2, 1972
• Content Type: NSPR

Approved For ReleaseTHCF6161131 Ertrairaigan 1601R00p401934WK13?,_
410041?1140104.0.?????????.-..--
CEYLON MINISTER
KAMM, CIA
Dy Our Colombo Correspondent
The American Central Intelli-
gence Agency was accused yes-
terday of being behind the
attempt to overthrow Mrs
llandaranaike's United . Front.
Government in, Ceylon in April
last year, .
The accusation was made by
Dr N. Perern. the Trotskyite
Finance Minister. America 1vct9
among the countries that -came
to Ceylon's help during the re-
volt.?
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CLEVFLAND, OHIO
PLAIN DEALER
M ? 409,414
8 ? 545,032
MAY 1 2 WI
-17s Off Tip of India
17.41 The rebellion in Ceylon is turning out to
I4e an embarrassment for the Communist
isZorld. Like a glaring floodlight it is expos-
itg the diStmity and duplicity. among Com-
trjunist countries and parties.
In that glare the Soviet Union shows up
As the one giant in that Communist world,
','?panding now into the Indian Ocean, flying
WGs just a few miles off the tip of India.
W',hen Mrs. Sirimavo Bandaranaike won
ceylon'S election last year, she proclaimed
her left wing government a ritinber of the
i'Orld brotherhood of fled countries. lIer
government promptly extended diplomatic
cognition to North Korea, North Vietnam
d the Viet Cong.
Sa; .threw out United Stales Peace
(IirPsinen. She teviled Am,Tin,
imperial-
Irn, old colonial powers such as GreA Brit-
the West.
When the guerrilla "national
wising came, Mrs. Bandaranaike first
41.1spected that the U.S. Central Intelligence
Agency -(CIA) was behind this band of "Che
(1,rilievati7rtn'''"'"4
Zig But ?then she had to squeal for help
fibril the West she had been Condemning.
Great Britain sent ariny scout cars, ammu-
nition and small arms. Via Britain the Unit-
4 States sent helicopters. India too sent
helicopters and took up naval patrol duty
6ffshou.
And the least revolution thirsty member
among the Red ranks; the Soviet Union,
4ned up to send 1\41G47 fi.ghter planes, a
IC1IG trainer plane and an air corps training
.
igoup (not in uniform) to show Ceylonese ?
! aviator's how to fly them, against a `Teo-
? 's
Itis now fairly well established that the
Oalprits'Were not the Americans or ex-colo-
ralist Briti5b.. but some far, far left wing-
s. The finger of suspicion now points
straight at.North Korea, which is accused of
gnding Chinese arms to the guerrillas
tipugh Albania.
China " is a major trading partner of
s.Tandaranaike's Ceylon. It would be
awkward for .China to side with the rebels.
Et to give help openly to the government
? e,Ceylon would put China in a son of loose
egiance with the Soviet Union and the
t.-British bloc.
Soviet Union has been moving into ,
the Indian Ocean, asserting its intention to
becqine the principal naval power there as
Wfl as a major naval power in the Mediter-
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ranean, Arabian Sea and Persian Gulf.
This local struggle in Ceylon put in the
Soviets' lap an opportunity to play a role in
that sector?which once was an unques,..
tioned preserve of Great Britain's. And the
Russians 'aren't likely to pull out if Ceylortrs '
civil war ends.
As the Economist of London says:
"Russian military aid programs tend to be
singularly open-ended. If this is not a foot-
hold on the flank of the Indian Ocean, it is
at least a toehold."
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c A-i_ -
. Cy ?
8 IIPR 1971
?
-
Ceylon's Student Revolt W i
Was Years n the
their homes, and many of these,lestimated that 10,000 liberal
The author Jf the follow,
were seized, 'arts graduates are jobless in
? ing dispatch left Ceylon on There had been at least oneiCeylon.
Saturday. fie filed this article earlier sign of the movement's! The movement began slowly
from Jakarta, Indonesia, be- close coordination. . Last iNo-with small meetings on corn-
cause Ceylon censors
vember, when Mahinda 1,Va-Ipuses. Later the students
news
j.eskara, a movement leader, imoved their lectures into the
dispatches. . was arrested, leaflets of pro- 'countryside, where they found
? ' By JAMES P. STER,BA test- were distributed through- lithat villagers, often the victims
Spectat to The Se., '1 erk 1":mci out the island within several of economic mismanagement by
April 24 hours after his arrest, long be-'
COLOMBO, 'Ceylon, the Government, listened sym-
-Ultraleftist revolutionary stu- fore it had been announced pathetically. '
over the radio or in the news-
dents plunged Ceylon into a The security branch of the
guerrilla war this month after Papers. national police began in late
,years of careful organization The movement was born 1969 to issue warnings to Gov-
and planning. While they were aftera riotous strike at the ernment officials about the
planning their attempt to seize University of Ceylon in 1964, movement and before the elec-
ap., according to knowledgeable ob-
power, Government leaders tions last May, Dudley S. Sen-
pear to have viewed the stu. servers here. At that time the anayake, the Prime- Minister,
dents as harmless idealists at youth wings of the various had seVeral student lesaders ap-
best and as juvenile delinquents Communist party factions split prehended.
At worst: from their adult leaders, accus-
- . The" students'- emergence as ing _thorn of being both corrupt
a- cohesive -movement named and irrelevant to the needs of
the Peoples Liberation Front Ceylon's peasantry.
began to develop as early as Departure From Ideology
1964, and their aims and meth-
ods have been 'subjects of botha- ; The students argued that h t
as, curity risks, the leaders of the
newspaper articles and police their adult leaders assumed police security branch which
dossiers since than. But until power and position, they de- had been warning of the move-
very recently, most - politicel parted from their ideology and - ment.s potential threat. The
leaders were too busy fight.; became as courrupt as the "cap- new police leaders had to be-
ing among themselves to take itaiisteimperialists" whom they gin intelligence operations from
much notice. - were opposing. "Pure Social- the start.
ism," they argued, had been According to a former mem-
Signals on the Radio
.continually compromised, and bar ce` the movement who is
When the nationwide attacks regardless of a welfare system now a student outside Ceylon, ,
came April 5 the police, as that includes free education, the students supported NIrs. Surrender Day Decided ? ,
i
Prime Minister Sirimavo Ban- health care, low-cost transpor- Bandaranaike because they COLUMBO, April 27 (Reu-
But when Mrs. -Bandaranaike's market money transactions, and
into power, she released
left-wing coalition was voted-
military officials have said that
the;
sonie captured !nsurgents, were
students because their move-
!carmeng much more money and
ment had supported her coati-
in much larger denominations
tion. She also dismissed, as se-
thanwould be normal.
The military officials have also
ireportedly found Korean litera-'
Iture and manuals among the in-
surgents.
However, the North Koreans
arrived in Ceylon only last
summer, after Mrs. Ban-
daranaike's election.
Planning*
In a speech last week, Mrs.
Bandaranaike said that she had
warned "one foreign embassy"
that "the effect of certain ac-
tivities carried on by them
was giving strength and sup-
port to these terrorists" and
that the embassy should "de-
sist from these activities,"
"As they did not do so in
accordance with my request, I;
had to ask the ambassador to'
close the embassy and leave
the country," she added. Thei
North Koreans have been the
only diplomats to leave recent-
They were accused of black-
daranaike later admitted, wereetation and even free rice, the thought she would be easier to,
caught off guard, although they leadership was not in tune, with topple from power than would
said that an explosion in what the needs of the masses. a right-wing government. Their
turned out to be a bomb fac- It was also argued that most reasoning, the former member
tory in Colombo in March had of the adult Communist lead- said, was that because they
given them an early lead to ers?whether of the Trotskyite, supported her, she would con-
the conspiracy. Marxist-Leninist or; Peking fac- sider them to be under the
The attacks were carried out tions?v.mre descendants of the wing of the Establishment and
with precision. Code signals, rich and not of the peasants. not take them very seriously.
for example, were carried in
obituary notices over the Gov-
ernment radio station?a pro-
cedure that must have taken
months if not years to develop.
Further, the insurgents had col-
lected lists of most people on
the island who kept guns in
This argument was an obvious That apparently is what attraction to to many college stu- pened. ,
dents who were sons of peas- A Certain 'Foreign Power'
ants and who took advantage The movement seems to have
of free college education only begun actively planning's its at-
to find that there were no jobs tempt to seize power last year,
for them when they graduated. and it has been alleged that
This year, for example, it is it had the support of leaders
-
.c
'in Ceylon and aid from a cer-
tain "foreign power."
The Government at first ac-
cused the United States Central
Intelligence Agency of involve-
ment, and has not rescinded
that accusation. Since then,
however, it has expelled North:
Korean diplomats, who were;
indirectly accused of supplying;
both moral and material sup-
port to the plot..
tars) ? The Government to-
day fixed Saturday as the day
for insurgents to surrender and
accept the Prime Minister's
pledge of "reasonable" treat-
ment.
The surrender arrangements
were discussed by Mrs. Ban-
daranaike and her Cabinet to-
day at an emergency meeting.
Insurgents will be urged to
give up at police stations,
revenue offices and court-
houses or to any local judge
betWeen 9 A.M. and 4 P.M. on
Saturday.
They will be asked to lay
down their arms at some. dis-
tance from the surrender
points, according to informed
sources. They added that an
extension of the surrender
deadline until May 4 was likely.
When she first appealed for
the insurgents to surrender,
Mrs. Bandaranaike said that
the alternative was an. ali-out
military offensive with inevit-
able bloodshed.
E In a speech last week, 5he
.said that those who gave up.
4ce,1" viffer no violence', but
:wouid *be tcl tated and- re-
'integrated into the community.
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NEWSWEEK
kLA -e 1 co tj\ 1
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CEYLON:
Macing \:
Friends
When she was elected Prime Minis-
ter of Ceylon last year, Mrs. Sirimavo
Bandaranaike lost no time in making her
political philosophy abundantly clear.
The ballots had barely been counted
when .she trumpeted Ceylon's brother-
hood with the Communist world and ex-
tended diplomatic recognition to North
Korea, North Vietnam, the Viet Cong
provisional government and East Ger-
many. Simultaneously, in keeping with
her campaign attacks on U.S. "imperial-
ists and their tools," Ceylon's lady leader
booted out the Peace Corps and the U.S.-
sponsored Asia Foundation and severed
Ap
Troops in Colombo: About face!
rean Communists, Washington officials
nonetheless took a serious view of the
Sinhalese uprising. Said one senior U.S.
official: "These people have had expert
training in guerrilla warfare and someone
is providing them with plenty of arms.
There's a hell of a lot more here than
meets the eye."
Whatever the sponsorship of the rebel
movement, moreover, there was no mis-
taking its goal?the replacement of Mrs.
Bandaranaike's government with one
even more militantly socialist. For that
reason, the U.S. answered Ceylon's plea
for assistance by providing helicopter re-
placement parts and also by the discreet-
ly roundabout sale of six new helicopters
to Britain on the understanding that they
would be passed along to Ceylon. Mean-
time, other non-Communist nations also
chipped in. India and Pakistan provided
additional helicopters and pilots; Britain
sent shipments of arms and ammunition,
and Indian ships began to patrol Ceylon's
territorial waters. And although she saved
face by not naming' names, Mrs. Bandar-
anaike gave public thanks "to all our
friends who have helped us out."
Control: But neither these additions
to Ceylon's arsenal nor the government's
urgent eallup of reservists to augment
its 27,000-man armed forces were enough
to enable NIrs. Bandaranaike's govern-
ment to re-establish full control over the
country. At the end of last week Ceylon-
ese Government troops, who have never
before engaged in combat, and the
rebels, mainly unemployed young Sin-
halese college graduates who call them-
selves the "Cho Guevarists," were still
engaged in sporadic, bitter fighting. And
while most Ceylonese cities, including
the capital of Colombo, were relatively
calm, much of the countryside remained
under the guerrillas' influence, if not
their direct control. Indeed, one Western
observer in Ceylon maintained last week
that the authority of .\ irs. Bandaranaike's
government had been gravely weakened
in all save a few of the country's rural
- areas. And in seeming support of that
thesis, U.S. diplomatic sources estimated
that killing had been indiscriminate and
thousands of Sinhalese had already died
in the fighting.
The agony of the small Indian Ocean
island was compounded b.c' the certainty
that the rebellion will postpone even
further a series of desperately needed
reforms. The root cause of the uprising
was Ceylon's long-standing economic
problems (NEWSWEEK, April 19). One
out of seven Sinhalese is unemployed, a
sweeping cradle-to-grave welfare sys-
tem has driven the country close to
bankruptcy, the shocking ineiliciew:y of
the nationalized industries has created
shortages of goods and rising prices?
and most of the reforms Mrs. Banda-
ranaike promised during her -election
campaign are still unachieved. Worse
yet, any hope that this situation will
change in the near future is ruled out
12000/0431/VCIPyRanCr4q601R000400250001-3
put it: "With the guerri las mencting o
diplomatic ties with Israel. But last week,
with her island nation racked by Commu-
nistterrorism, Mrs. Bandaranaike had to
make a quick about-face and seek help
from the West.
Behind this embarrassing turnabout lay
the strong suspicion that the Ceylonese
rebellion had been inspired not by the
Central Intelligence Agency and other
"sinister reactionary forces"?as Mrs.
Bandaranaike at first suggested?but rath-
er by Ceylon's North Korean "friends."
When the Ceylonese Army and pollee
found North Korean pamphlets .on guer-
rilla warfare among the rebel caches, the
government responded by breaking dip-
lomatic relations with North Korea, or-
dering its embassy closed and its staff
expelled. Aud while American aplomats
were not AppromediFOrsRetease
had, in fact, been instigated by the Ko-
the countryside and the government
forced to put more and more power into
the hands of the army, the goal of a re-
formed Ceylon looks more distant than
ever."
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TAMPA, FLA.
TRIBUNE
Ei 1370
M 161,892-
S - 185,885
Curiouser in Ceylon i
Those who persist in seeing a of the first assistance to govern-li
,single-minded worldwide Commu- ment forces, it might be expected.;
'nist subversive movement directed that Moscow would be behind the
,by Moscow must find the current apparently liberal flow of small
:situation in Ceylon in the same arms to the rebels. Moreover, the
:state as Alice found Wonderland ? Kremlin's propaganda or
:curiouser and curiouser. should be trumpeting abuse against
Mrs. Bandaranaike and her gov-
The left-wing government of ernment as "reactionary lackeys of
!Mrs. Sirimavo Bandaranaike, a the imperialists" or some such.
coalition including the Ceylonese
,communist Party, is locked in But no. From Moscow has come
,bitter struggle with young revolu- the biggest single commitment to
:tionaries. The leader of the rebel- aid the Ceylongovernment ? six
;lion is no CIA stooge, however. MIG-17 fighters, plus crews, to help
;Rather, he ii-Ahana Wijeera, an crush the insurgents.
:alumnus of Moscow's Patrice Lu-
:mumba University, one of the
orld's leading institutions in the
:training of guerrilla warriors.
? Mrs. Bandaranaike, with a small
.army, little air force, and a deteri-
orating economy, is seeking help
:where she can get it. The U.S. has
:indirectly chipped in some heli-
copters and spare parts, although
:the lady Premier booted out the
Peace Corps and some other U.S.
agencies as "imperialist tools" after
she took office last year. India,
Pakistan and Britain are providing
military assistance of various
types, too.
Given both Wijeera's back-
dround and his role, and the source
_
Clearly, Wijeera and whatever
ideological kinship he may have
with Moscow are being sacrificed
for the opportunity to get Soviet
Russia an air base foothold in
Ceylon. The Kremlin has had de-
signs on filling the big-power
vacuum left in the Indian Ocean
area by the withdrawal of the
British, and apparently deems its
chances better by casting its lot
with Mrs. Bandaranaike.
What's going on in Ceylon, then,
is but another example that even
to Communists nationalism out-
ranks ideology ? a fact of inter-
national politics which explains,
many of the curiouser conditions
across the globe.
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fr
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Ceylon ,
Patience,
The first nine months. of each new
Ceylonese government is strangely ill-
starred. In March, 1965, Mr Senana-
yake formed a seven-party coalition
nd called it somewhat grandly a
" national government," Yet a few
days after the new year, he had to
declare an emergency in order- to hold
back rising Sinhalese agitation against
language concessions, to the Tamils.
That emergency lasted over 1,000
days. Now, . nine months after its
spectacular election victory, the united
front of Mrs Bandaranaike has pro-
claimed an emergency ostensibly in
order to crack down on, a band of
young insurgents who have been shout-
ing bloody revolution and manufactur-
ing bombs. -
Ceylon's young rebels are organised
into several bands, representing the
full spectrum of prevailing revolu-
tionary ideologies. The best known and
organised is the People's Liberation
Front, led by a graduate of Moscow's
Lumumba University. In the past,
revolutionary activities were limited to
campus marches and fire-eating
speeches or throwing stones at
" imperialist " embassies. But recently
there have been several explosions
and an attack on the American
embassy in which a policeman was
killed ; arms caches have been found
and top government officials and
public buildings have been threatened.
The left-wing .parties in the ruling
coalition claim ?that the liberation front
is not left-wing at all but a nascent
fascist movement nourished by vested
interests who arc dismayed at the
demoralisatiOn of the opposition. Inevit-
ably the CIA has also been assigned
its traditionally sinister role. Although
?
the prime minister has also accused
" reactionary forces " of misleading the
?young, she has stopped short of brand-
ing them as criminals. In a .nationwide
broadcast .she appealed to these " mis-
guided young men " for patience' and
understanding in the light of the
economic crisis which she, inherited.
In fact, Ceylon's accelerating
economic difficulties may be the real
reason behind the imposition. of the
emergency. The burden of servicing
huge debts combined with adverse trade
?balances have led to an acute foreign.
exchange crisis. The, consequences form
the familiar pattern of unemployment;
rising prices and consumer shortages.
All this has nem aggravated by a
workers' movement to seize control of
'factories which has resulted in a . 40
?per cent drop in industrial production
since the government came to power.
The government's policy of arbitrary
nationalisation has also reduced both
production and employment. ' -4
The worst hit have been those least
prepared to wait stoically for the mil:
lenium that many thought would auto-
matically accompany the election of a
socialist coalition. These are Ceylon's
educated jobless who are disgorged in
hundreds of thousands each year by
factories of free and compulsory
education. The government has
announced a aash work programme to
absorb tOo,000 of the estimated half
million, unemployed and will create
local development councils to take
economic growth to. the villages. But
all this will take time. Meanwhile the
economic situation worsens each day. .
The, government has shown no inclin-
ation to intervene in the mounting
industrial chaos, This week it decided
to deal with opposition protests by
abolishing the senate . where the
opposition has a majority. But it does
seem about to take one highly
unpopular but economically necessary
move. This is to reduce the rice 'ration
to its level under the previous govern-
ment. Mrs Bandaranaike's pledge last
spring .to double the ration is thought
to have been the key factor in her
landslide victory; A cutback now will
undoubtedly provoke a- strong reaction.
This soUnds like .the real threat the
emergency. was designed to avert.
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