ltte’s annihilation of tamil brethren...:
IDPs - Tamil diaspora can help and undo their wrong
by Shanika SRIYANANDA
Though feeble and fragile, they did not abandon their journey to freedom. Their immense courage made them to walk that ‘long, long’ march to step into a land of peace. One by one, the last batch of hostages held by the LTTE, crawled like ‘black creatures’.
From the disabled to former LTTE cadres, the old, sick and wounded, they did not walk, but crawled along the causeway of the Nandi Kadal lagoon that connects the one square km land of the No Fire Zone and FDLs of the 59 Division.
Wearing rags and starved for days, they only begged for a few drops of water from the soldiers who were there to rescue them. Seventy-five-year-old ‘Eswari’ was among the few lucky civilians to cross the lagoon.
Seen this old mother crawling through the 300 metre causeway even the eyes of the battle scarred soldiers were filled with tears. She collapsed as she stepped into the FDL where hundreds of soldiers were there to treat the injured and sick medically.
After receiving first aid, her pale eyes became a little clearer. With three children living abroad, ‘Eswari’ was trapped in LTTE captivity for months from where she escaped death miraculously.
“Emmidam ippodu edurume illai” (Now we do not have anything) she murmured. The tears were dried up, but she was weeping.
A retired government teacher begged: “ Please do not quote me. My children are living abroad”.
I met some more hostages whose kith and kin are living abroad. And it struck me they had contributed their hard earned money for this agony and destruction of their own people.
Those who willingly or unwillingly made their contributions to the LTTE might not dream of hearing or seeing this tragic scenario again.
Murugesu too crossed the lagoon at last. He had big dreams for his children. But when the offensives were getting tougher and the terrorists were getting more fierce on those fleeing, he dropped those dreams and lived only to see a day that he could cross the lagoon of Nandi Kadal.
The attempts to flee were not fruitful as the terrorists kept them prisoners under their tight security. From Akkarayankulam the family was chased step by step until they were boxed in Puthumathalan. They were on the run and sadly witnessed how their belongings packed in a lorry were reduced to a mere hand bag. Murugesu, who owns only the birth certificates and IDs of the family, cries in pain.
Along with thousands of civilians, who found no where to run from Puthumathalan, he ran back to the military who were there to welcome them that morning.
The very sight of it was sickening and very moving to a point of wanting to get lost from it all.
I felt that no human on this earth could be able to witness such a misery. It was a journey through sorrow, weeping and blood. Mingling with them and talking to them, would render any human being breathless, terrified and ashamed of humanity. I closed my eyes trying to repress tears.
Young mothers with tiny tots were crying as they were unable to feed their restless babies. With breast milk dried up due to fear and malnutrition they begged for a few drops of water.
The dead body of the pregnant mother whose foetus had come out of the womb due to shooting by the Eelam police was still haunting my mind. Some of the scenes that I had unfortunately witnessed would not be erased from my mind and I know that more than the Tamil diaspora whose a part of this destruction we would be haunted by these scenes.
The small baby girl was holding her mother’s hand and crying in pain. The body was bathed in blood, but the little girl oblivious to the fact still held her mother’s cold hand trying to wake her up. But the pregnant woman was dead, the bullet ripping through her womb killing the baby inside. Flesh was strewn all around, and the head of the baby had come out when the bullet pierced through the woman’s belly. A travelling bag with tiny baby shirts and a milk bottle lay near the body. The small girl, covered with mud, was screaming “amma ... amma... elumbunga...” (Mother get up... get up).
The young woman, whose husband was killed by the LTTE when he was trying to flee with the family, had escaped with thousands of others when the troops of 58 Division broke through the LTTE’s last earth bund at Ampalavanpokkanei in the No Fire Zone. Carrying her little daughter, she too had crossed the lagoon. But she was felled dead by the LTTE’s Eelam police that started indiscriminately shooting at the fleeing civilians.
They were running for life and did not have time to bother about the little girl who was lying near her mother. Later, the soldier rescued the girl who is now with her aunt. She still calls out for her `amma’. A soft drink by a kind soldier revived the child.
How could a human being hide tears in front of a tiny tot screaming in hunger ... an old man screaming in pain with a shot gun injury... a mother screaming in front of her son’s dead body...
It is a saga which any human being should not dream of experiencing. I was speechless when these people, who once lived like you and me and had lived somewhat of a good life, pleading for just a few drops of water or a tiny piece of biscuit.
The Northern part of the NFZ, where the LTTE held over 180,000 civilians is really hell. Tents were erected in every tiny space and these civilians were compelled to live virtually like slaves. Civilians were made to live in small huts along the Puthumathalan beach. Recent rain water had made small pools around the huts and people were forced to live in these huts filled with water. Some had converted vehicles into makeshift adobes. The awful smell emanating from strewn dead bodies as well as carcases of animals polluted the air.
Fifty-two-year-old Chandrakanthi from Dharmapuram cursed the LTTE for making their lives miserable. “Our lives are worse than beggars who have a cup and a plate of their own. We do not have anything”, she broke out with tears. The mother of three children - two nurses and a graduate teacher- she recalled the happy days of a by-gone era. She had resided at Dharmapuram. They all had enjoyed life’s comforts and had a good income from vehicle hiring. The LTTE had destroyed their lives totally.
“When the fighting was going on, the LTTE asked us to move to Puthumathalan”, she said. When asked why they did not think of fleeing, she replied that the LTTE shot at those who tried to and when caught they were taken to build bunkers or thrown into FDLs.
“We have only the clothes we are wearing”, wept Chandrakanthi. She said her family waited until the soldiers rescued them. Passupathi Rasaratnem (48) was chased to Puthumathalan from Puthukuduiriyuppu. Being a labourer, he said the families survived with one meal - kanji (porridge). The LTTE had stolen the food sent by the government and distributed a kilo of rice per family.
“No increase of ration to large families. We had to manage with the ration. No spices or vegetables. We only had kanji. They tried to take me to fight, but my wife, who was bedridden, pleaded with the cadres and they dropped me and took the elder son of my neighbour”, said Rasaratnem who appreciated the military move to rescue them. Though people were not aware of the exact day of rescue, they had prayed to see the soldiers.
He further said that two days prior to the Army’s arrival, the LTTE, using loudspeakers announced to the civilians not to escape and they also pronounced the penalties for those trying to escape.
“So, we did not try to because we saw how people were punished and shot at when they got caught. But we had hopes that soldiers would come and rescue us”, he said. There were lots of dead bodies due to LTTE’s shooting.
Most of the young females were pregnant or having infants. “We had early marriages and when the LTTE was forcibly trying to enlist girls they got themselves pregnant in order to avoid the LTTE. The young men lived in bunkers to escape the LTTE. The sole representatives of Tamils and Prabhakaran are no more. The LTTE Leader died in a more decent way than he deserved, thanks to professional soldiers who observe certain norms. The destruction that he created to achieve his childhood dream has come to an end with a mass destruction brought by the monster upon his own people. The Tamil diaspora that pumped their hard earned money to make the LTTE grow with fighting power is partly responsible for the misery and destruction wrought and therefore should now help their own people to rise from the ashes.
`As Eswari says, “ Vidathalai Puligal emadu valvai sambal akki vittargal” ( The LTTE had reduced us to ashes). There is nothing these people can possess other than the evil memories under a terror filled regime. With empty hands these people are now looking forward for a better tomorrow. Now it is time for the Tamils living abroad to pump more currency to see their own people stand on their own feet.
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sundayobserver.lk
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