At an audience last year with his Holiness Pope Benedict XVI, the Sri Lankan President Mahinda Rajapaksa had stressed the need to establish a safe route to the pilgrims visiting the Madhu Church and to restore the religious atmosphere that prevailed in that area, which is a historic place of religious worship of the Catholics, and his plan to declare the Madhu Church area a Peace Zone.

On his return to Sri Lanka, he met the Catholic Bishops who were delighted with his plan to declare the Madhu Church area as a Peace Zone. The Government declared the Madhu Church area as a Peace Zone. The Bishop of Mannar mediated between the State and the LTTE and convinced the LTTE to follow suit.

The LTTE, however, infiltrated into the Madhu Church area to build terrorist bases and attack Government troops. The Madhu Statue has now been moved into an Uncleared area controlled by the LTTE. It is clear that the LTTE is using a place of religious worship of the Catholics, which has already been declared as a Peace Zone by the Government, to attack Government troops and promote propaganda in the international media, putting the blame on the Government.

The BBC news broadcast in the first week' of April 2008 gave a distorted history of the Madhu Shrine. It stated that because the Dutch Protestants has persecuted the Roman Catholics, who were converts of the Portuguese, that resulted in the Madhu Shrine. I was surprised, disgusted and amazed to listen to this BBC Broadcast. The BBC has now become another media to promote LTTE points of view, discarding historic facts.

I will therefore recapture the history of the Madhu Shrine.

The Negombo Catholics were the first converts to Catholism. They were the Kurukulasuriya clan from Grand Street and the Warnakulasuriya clan. They proceed to the Gulf of Mannar during the North-East monsoon on coast guard duties to watch for foreign invaders and inform the King of Kotte. These coast guards brought with them their families. They took with them the wooden statue of the Blessed Virgin Mary and housed it within their camp to perform their religious rites. During the calm season this bay is normally invaded by the South Indians.

In the 16th Century, some subjects of the Jaffna Governor Sankili had seen this devotion and sent word to Fr. Francis Xavier indicating their willingness to be converted. He sent a layman and converted a few. The Hindu Governor Sankili, on hearing this was furious that some of his subjects were converted, and came with a large army of around 7000 troops and massacred over 600 Catholic men, women and children. A few of the coast guards that escaped this massacre proceeded with the Statue of the Blessed Virgin Mary to the territory of the King of Kotte in Madhu and hid it in the hollow of a forest tree and returned to the Southern coast of the island of Mannar to continue their coast guard duties after Sankili and his troops returned to Jaffna.

The Portuguese, infuriated by the martyrdom of the Catholics, proceeded to Mannar. As there was no infrastructure to house them, they used the ruined building materials of the horse shoe fortress at Mantota to build the Mannar Fortress and other infrastructure, including a Church, to mark the place of Martyrdom at Patim in the Mannar Island. (Rev. Fr. Antonyus conducted an archeological survey and found the ruins of the Church at Patim built by the Portuguese and found the evidence which is described in his book 'the Martyrs of Mannar').

The Statue that was hidden in the hollow of the forest tree' in the territory of the Kingdom of Kotte was installed in the Madhu Church built for this purpose.

The Annual feasts were celebrated by the Warnakulasuriya and Kurukulasuriya clans of Negombo in July and August every year in remembrance of the martyrs of their clans, with the bands of these communities in attendance. These feasts became sacred and popular and important to these communities not only for Negombo but also for others from Chilaw to Moratuwa.

The regular pilgrims requested permission to build small cottages in the Madhu premises to attend the feasts as there was no accommodation available. Permission was given to build small cottages in close proximity of the Church, on the condition that when those who built the cottages do not use it, it could be rented for a nominal fee which could be used by the Church for its use.

These cottages were regularly used till the insurgency in the area by the LTTE prevented the pilgrims from going there as they feared that there would be -a repeat performance of what occurred in the 16th Century.

The Statue has now been moved to an Uncleared area in control of the LTTE where it does not serve the purpose of the regular pilgrims to Madhu, it is best located, at least temporarily, at St. Mary's Church, Grand St. Negombo from where most of the regular pilgrims come. Its proper place would be at the Church at Patim in the Mannar island where the martyrdom occurred in the 16th Century. But a new Church would have to be built at Patim, in the Mannar island and that would take some time.