Is this an instance of Tilvin Silva torturing a young man during the 88/89 period? - Fact Crescendo Sri Lanka English

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The political party Janatha Vimukthi Peramuna (JVP) and its activities during the 1988/89 period are mostly discussed facts through social networks. Such a social media post including a photo was circulated on social media for some time stating that it is a photograph taken of the JVP general secretary Tilvin Silva in the 1988/89 period. Here is an investigation we did regarding that.

Social media posts:

A Facebook post was shared showing a photo of the current JVP General Secretary Tilvin Silva harassing a young Tamil man during the 1988/89 period.

The post was shared with the statement “a torture chamber headed by Tilvin Silva to torture those who opposed to the JVP ruling” (“88/89 කාලෙ, ජෙප්පොංගෙ පදේට නැටුවෙ නැති අයට වද දෙන්නට, ටිං සිල්වාගේ මූලිකත්වයෙන් පවත්වාගෙන ගිය වදකාගාරයක්!”). “In order for the knowledge of the new generation who do not know about the JVP ruling” (“බොරු උපාසක පාට් දමා ජෙප්පන් විසින් අන්දා ඇති, ඒ කාලෙ ගැන අත්දැකීම් නැති, නව පරපුරේ දැන ගැනීම පිනිසයි”).

Facebook | Archived

These posts were circulating on Facebook, especially during election and politically significant time periods and this is how it was circulated in 2018 along with a photo of Tilvin Silva.

It was posted with the caption denoting the meaning of “The guarding deities of democracy”( ප්‍රජාතන්ත්‍රවාදයේ මුර දේවතාවන් එදා”).

Facebook | Archived

We decided to do a fact check regarding this.

Fact Check:

We first checked this photo with the Google reverse Image Search and there we found out that this image was not from the 1988/89 period, but rather from the Black July in 1983.

On July 23, 1983, the LTTE killed 13 army soldiers in north, which was followed by a wave of racist attacks targeting Tamils across the island for several days. Tamils living in the Colombo became the main victims of the attack.

This photograph has been taken by the photographer Chandragupta Amarasinghe, who was working as a journalist for the newspaper “Aththa”, at the time. This incident recorded in the photograph has occurred near the Borella bus stand in 1983. A group of racists has stripped the Tamil man shown here naked and attacked him, and some reports state that the Tamil youth died as a result of the attacks by the group gathered around him.

This photograph, which was in the possession of photographer Chandragupta Amarasinghe for a long time, was first published in the Rawaya newspaper in 1997. The location of the incident is given as near the then bus stand in Borella, Colombo.

You can refer to the articles published regarding this here, here, here and here.

Archived | Archived | Archived

Here is a X note published regarding this.

Archived

However, we were unable to definitely identify the person wearing glasses and a white shirt along with black pants, i.e., the person who is claimed as Tilvin Silva in social media posts.

Veteran journalist Victor Ivan

Rawaya is a national newspaper published under the journalist Victor Ivan, founded in 1987. We inquired him regarding whether Tilvin Silva is featured in this circulated photo which was published in 1997.

He mentioned that this photograph was taken by photographer Chandragupta Amarasinghe during Black July and that the person in it is not Tilvin Silva.

Although we attempted to contact the photographer who took this photograph, Mr. Chandragupta Amarasinghe, we have not been able to obtain any proper information about him.

Here is an interview with the BBC Sinhala news website where Mr. Victor Ivan recounts his memories of Black July. Archived Link.

Tilvin Silva

We also inquired about this from the General Secretary of JVP, Tilvin Silva. He said that he did not know the people or the location of this photo, and that it is being used for some time to slander him.

He further stated that he was born in 1956 and he was around 27 years old when the Black July took place in 1983. He has started wearing glasses at the age of around 40, which means in 1990s.

We also requested from him to submit us a photograph of him from his youth, but he stated that he did not have a photograph from that time, as photography was not common during that time as they are today.

However, this photograph was not taken during the 1988-89 JVP riots, but rather during the Black July of 1983.

Moreover, we also noticed that the person in this photo is relatively taller that Tilvin Silva. Below is a comparison of that photo and a photo taken in the 1990s of Tilvin Silva.

Also, upon clear observation, it is apparent that some of the facial feature of the two (such as the shape of the ears) are different. The comparison is below.