Wounded girl confirms Sencholai was LTTE training camp

by Prasanna Fonseka

Three escapees have now confessed to the security forces that Sencholai was a LTTE military training camp, in a dramatic turn of events over the controversy on the so called LTTE orphanage at Sencholai.

Sripathi Kasthuri (18) and two of her friends now in security forces custody after they were wounded following the air strikes on this camp on August 14 had told the police that they were trained in the use of AK 47 rifles and military tactics in that camp.

Contrary to these views, the SLMM and UNICEF earlier claimed that the Air Force bombed a school in Sencholai where 61 students were reportedly killed and another 152 wounded. Confirming it was the location, they were trained, the 18 year old girl accompanied by her mother Ms Sripathi Kumudu told the media that the LTTE forcibly took them to this camp on August 10.

“In the first week of the August, Mayuran of the LTTE and Ivan of the Mullaitivu Education office came to our school and instructed us to participated in a training program at their Sencholai camp,” Kasturi said.

“They also threatened us saying that if we did not turn up it would be the end of our school career,” she added.

Three girls, Kasturi, Thambimuttu Dayalini (20), Balasingham Sunethra (19) who were wounded in the air strikes were brought to the Vavuniya Hospital by the ICRC. They were later transferred to the Kandy Hospital. They had been given military training in the Sencholai camp by the LTTE female cadre named Venthila akka.

“She also taught us first aid and on how to evade security forces during an encounter,” she added.

Kasturi said two LTTE members working in the Mullaitivu Educational Divisional Office named Arul Master and Mayuran, Venthila Akka and Kalai Aral Akka were the course supervisors. She said they were in their fourth day of training when the Air Force fighter jets bombed the camp in the morning of August 14.

Following air strikes, Kasturi was rushed to the Kilinochchi Hospital, from where she was transferred to the Vavuniya Hospital.