File photo: Vincent Florence Joseph
Former Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE) member and famous scholarly translator, Vincent Florence Joseph, passed away due to illness at his home in Kurunagar, Jaffna on Sunday.
The 71-year-old, also known by his nom de guerre of “Arulalan” was attributed to completing more than 80 translation of liberation-related literary books, including Sun Tzu’s – The Art of War and published a collection of African poems entitled, “Lets Fall on the Field”. His work has been published on multiple English and Tamil websites.
Joseph also translated multiple statements on behalf of organisations, such as the "Erasing the Past" report by People for Equality and Relief in Lanka (PEARL) - which detailed the repression of memorialisation in the North-East - from English into Tamil.
During the final stages of the war in Mullivaikkal, Joseph was detained and tortured by the Sri Lankan Terrorism Investigation Division (TID), in Boosa Detention camp. He returned to his hometown of Kurunagar, where he became a teacher of English and computing. He then aided in the rehabilitation of ex-LTTE cadres, in a bid to empower and better their lives with his teaching.
Despite his release from Boosa camp, Joseph was subject to multiple incidents of Sri Lankan military intelligence taking him to Colombo for enquiries.
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