A SAD STORY OF A TAMIL GIRL!

Eelam war as seen by ‘Lieutenant’ Subramaniam Priya

By Cheranka Mendis

“A decision was made. My life was altered.

All because I am a Tamil; a Tamil living in Mulankanvil, Kilinochchi”

For 18-year-old Subramaniam Priya, life was a flowing stream of hopes and dreams until one fateful day in February early this year. Life was a challenge for this bright eyed teenager with war spreading its claws towards Mulankanvil in the Kilinochchi area. Before the war extended to her hometown, life continued in a sometimes slow, sometimes fast pace. The village was filled with laughter and good cheer. Uninterrupted transportation led them to the hustle and bustle of street markets with the air filled with the screeches of street vendors.

The air is freakishly quiet now. No more children running around, no more constant honking of the buses. The air is stale…and life is an episode of a war-horror movie.“Everyone is afraid now. No one knows when the LTTE will come and take their children or parents away. No one knows when an air raid will assail our village. Everyone lives in fear,” says Priya. “We lived very happily before war tore into our village,” she continues, “people in the village hate the LTTE, they hate them because they come and tear apart families; forcibly recruiting them to the movement and taking away their children.” “They sometimes take away children who are small, some are not even 16.”

She is full of remorse about the harm caused by this never ending war and blames the LTTE for the lies woven about the Sinhalese and the Sri Lankan Army. She sees the futility of it, the stark ineffectuality of the Sinhala-Tamil clash.

“There were five members in our family. Now, with me here, in Colombo there’s only two left of our Subramaniam family,” narrates Priya. Her father was a Poosary (a Hindu priest) and her mother was a typical housewife, they were proud parents of three children - two girls and a boy with Priya as the eldest. They gave them education hoping that someday they will be able to leave the LTTE territory. She studied up to Grade 11. “I was all prepared to sit for the G.C.E. O/L examination in 2006 but was brought down with high fever. I was admitted to the Mulankanvil Hospital and therefore could not write for the exam.” She then got prepared to face the exam in 2007 but fate again double crossed her and on her way to the examination she got devastating news. “I was on my way to the exam when I got the news that my parents had been killed in an Army Kfir attack. I had to rush back,” she wails, and thus her education was hindered. “I did not get another chance as I had to join the LTTE in 2008. I had no other way.” With two small siblings aged 12 and 9, Subramanium Priya was the only one left to adhere to the laws of the LTTE.

With tears in her eyes she bid her old happy, carefree life goodbye and entered the world of the LTTE on February 23, 2008. Waking up at 4.30 a.m, her life unfolded before her under harsh and tiresome training. “The training was really hard; there was a lot of running and jumping about to do, but it wasn’t very hard for me,” said Priya proudly as she claims that she was quite a sports person in school. “I participated in a lot of track events; 800m and 1500m were my best.” she said. She had won numerous awards and certificates to prove this. Unfortunately they are all at Mulankanvil today. Her joy and pride is a certificate she has received for winning first place in the 800 or 1500m at a sports meet held at Trincomalee in 2001 with the signature of the president. “President Mahinda had signed my certificate,” she smiles.

Therefore, the training wasn’t unbearable for her; “Some others used to always cry. They couldn’t keep up with the atrocious training.” All LTTE fighters undergo a programme of rigorous training. A typical training schedule is spread over a period of months, which, according to Priya is merely two months; during which they receive training in handling weapons, battle and field craft, communications, explosives and intelligence gathering, as well as an exhausting physical regimen and rigorous indoctrination. Priya says that one month of vigorous training and another month of all round education in military and political field of study wrap up the training and education period. “They had to prepare us soon for battle.” The women allegedly endure the same tough training as men and are broken up into combating, intelligence gathering, political and administrative entities. She had also received Sea Tiger training.

All cadres are carefully indoctrinated on the authorised position; they are fighting against an unresponsive and discriminatory Sinhala majority for a separate State – Eelam; the cadres must banish all fear of death from their minds and be prepared to lay down their lives fighting the Government forces, or consume the cyanide pill fastened around their necks when capture is imminent. The LTTE places immense emphasis on the cult of martyrdom. Thus every morning at 6.30 am they are sworn in, when they pledge their lives for the safety of the movement and protection of ‘their earth and land’, said Priya with an impish grin with eyes cast down.

She is full of remorse for joining in the movement and says that if she had any other choice she would even have thought about it. While she was a cadre, the LTTE had showed uncanny video tapes of how the Lankan Army treats the LTTE cadres who are taken into their custody. “It was torture. They showed us clips where the army was persecuting our members who were caught in a village close to Jaffna. They made us hate the Sinhalese race; and our hatred made us unafraid to battle. They taught us to fight for revenge,” says Priya adding that however she knows now that they were explicit lies. “I wish they know that the Sinhalese are not like that. They have treated me very kindly, given me new clothes and they look after me well. I don’t ever want to go back,” said Priya.

LTTE leaders have established a new method of encouraging the recruits by illustrating the fact that all are important. And every one is a huge asset to its community. They have no rank called ‘soldiers’, their ranks start from ‘lieutenant’ to show that they are all holding important positions. Eighteen year old Subramanium Priya was also a lieutenant. She was forced to the Pooneryn defence line on October 31. She says that there were both males and female Tigers in the Pooneryn line but most were females. “There were about 150 of us in a few bunkers spread close to each other; out of which about 100 were female cadres. But we were not treated specially by anyone. We were all regarded as the same. We were all there to fight.”

She was injured and caught in her first battle itself and she praises the Lord for taking her away so soon. Priya explains the capture illustratively by marking their bunkers and the army bunkers on the back of her new book given to the army; “there were 3 LTTE bunkers within a short distance of each other. Each had 4 women cadres. We were in the middle bunker, and the thick forest was around us,” explains Priya. Around 4.30 in the morning, a woman from the bunker situated at her right hand side was bitten by a snake and all 4 of those occupants came to her bunker. “There were eight of us in our bunker that night,” recalls Priya. “Around 5.30am we heard some noises from the jungle; we called out ‘Anna, anna’ (brother, brother) but got no response,” it was then that they knew they were not brothers from their LTTE family. “We panicked but soon got the message across to the others in the left bunker.” But, says Priya, they were too late. The Army had ambushed them by then. “I saw our leader fall. And then I was injured. I fell and did not want to get up and fight again.” Instead she ate her Cyanide as ordered and remained where she fell until all the chaos decreased around her. “I heard gun fire, heard some screams of pain but I did not open my eyes. I was surprised I did not die.” Subramaniam Priya, a Hindu girl who worshiped and believed in Lord Hanuman praises the Lord for her escape. “I know He is the one who ate the Cyanide, not me,” says Priya pointing at the pendant around her neck. “He protected me. Didn’t let me die and gave me a second chance and left me in the safe hands of the army.” Later she was carefully carried by an Army personnel, even then she pretended that she was dead. “I didn’t want to get tortured like what we saw on the tapes,” she said.

However, the Sri Lankan Army not only gave her the necessary medication she needed, looked after her and carefully nursed her back to life. When we met Priya, she was all bright-eyed and easy going. Her enthusiasm for having someone to converse with was evident. Her shyness seemed to wither away in a few minutes and she was happily chatting away. She is not so different from any of us. The only difference is that she is a Tamil who turned out to be an LTTE cadre, without her voluntary consent. Her hope is to become a good sportswoman and be fluent in both Sinhala and English languages and she asks shyly if I would be kind enough to drop in some books in all three languages. She wants to turn back her life, to relive every moment from now on. And for her, the Army has given her another chance. “I got my new clothes from them,” she says silently but proudly, “We were not allowed to wear pretty clothes in the LTTE.”

She then reached under her pillow and withdrew a small exercise book which contained poems she had written. She read them to me while our translator decoded it for us. She has written about the futility of war. How no one will be able to attain victory as this is a worthless cause. “There can only be one ruler. One government,” she says, “either a Sinhalese President or Prabhakaran; but not both.” Her intelligence overwhelms us. She continues, “All men and women have the same blood. It’s red blood that flows in our veins. Killing another is killing yourself. So how can one win over another’s death?” she questions. “We will all die if this war continues.”

“I don’t want to go back. Even if I do they will kill me for staying with the LTTE. And my family will lose all benefits,” she declares. Benefits as in the privilege of having a fence around the compound, the ability for cultivation and being given ration cards. “We are poor and these little things means a lot. Anyway if they know I am alive they will harm my family.”

“I only saw them thrice since I joined the LTTE but I hope they are doing well. I wish they were here with me, because I am being looked after well here,” says Priya, “I wish they all know that the big brothers and sisters in the LTTE are spreading only lies about the Sri Lankan Army. They are good people, fighting for what is theirs just like us; they are not brutal or harsh. In fact I am happier here,” she says.

“I want to say something to my brothers and sisters in the LTTE, but I know they won’t believe me. I want to say, not to be afraid of the Lanka Army. They are only human like us, and they treat you better than the LTTE,” concludes Priya.

After fully recovering from her scars at battle she will be enrolled at a rehabilitation centre, where she could pursue her interest in sports and bilingualism. She will then be put out to society with employment. “We will help her rebuild her life and give her the proper guidance and help needed to give her a promising future,” stated Captain Hemantha Dayarathne of the Sri Lankan Army Media Centre.
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