Liberation of East: A great relief to all communes

by Shanika Sriyananda

Liberating the East from the paws of the LTTE is not only a military victory but also a great relief to Sinhalese as well as Tamils and Muslims in the Eastern Province. Day to day life has now begun in the threatened villages where families spent days in forests and bunkers to escape death.

Pulawala, which is located in between Pillumalai and Badarekke, is a small Sinhala village with 200 families. Hidden in a forest patch, the village was constantly under the threat of LTTE artillery attacks. They never had a comfortable life, the villagers lived a nightmarish life - day and night. When the LTTE terrorists started artillery attacks, the families in the village ran for safe hide outs and they had to spend days and days in the same place to protect their lives. Their fear stricken 'saga' did not end in months ... years and even not after decades.

These villagers, some young girls and boys, were born and bred in bunkers and forests.

W. A. Lalitha was cooking a pot of rice in a temporary hearth in a corner of her garden. She said the family breathed fresh air after so long and felt that half their fears were over with the presence of the military in Thoppigala.

Lalitha, a mother of a two year old daughter had lost her education due to war. Never had she have the privilege to step into the school she said.

The children in her family were uneducated as they suffered due to war for the last three decades. "Since 1980s we are experiencing this terrible war. This is the third generation at living the shadows of this deadly war", she said.

Many ran away from the village several times in fear of LTTE attacks. They never found shelter in the neighbouring villages. "We decided to live in our village as it was difficult to find shelter in other villages", she said.

While attacking the army the terrorists had abducted several villagers in the Pulawala village. Women have become bread winners as men were abducted and killed by the LTTE. "When the LTTE started artillery attacks we run to the bunker", she said showing the place of their survival for the last so many years. Life in a bunker, especially a bunker underground, is not easy as it sounds. In the majority of their houses, a bunker is built permanently.

Lalitha, her children, a mother neighbouring family and her 80-year-old father sort refugee in that small room underground. It was just another hole dug underground and they had spent nights and nights until the terrorists stop attacks. "I can not remember the number of days we just spent in hunger. When the artillery attacks stopped we, the women come out of the bunker and just boiled some thing and run again to the bunker", Lalitha recalled.

They have built their houses some years ago and many had been destroyed due to LTTE mortar attacks. These mothers were helpless when their children were crying in hunger as they were too small to understand LTTE's atrocities. But her little daughter knew well who the LTTEs were. The small children who saw their fathers being beheaded and their uncles and aunts stabbed to death, cry in fear at night. With the recapturing of the Thoppigala, Lalitha's husband has started his three-wheeler job at Maha Oya.

Lalitha's sister and her nine-year-old son lives with her. Her husband, who was a home-guard was killed by the LTTE some years ago.

W. A. Baby Nona is another woman who has become the breadwinner of the family after the death of her husband who was a solider, who was killed by the LTTE. She has a 13-year-old daughter who has started her studies after a lapse of few years.

The school bells of the Ammaha Madduma Bandara Primary School, the only school in Pulawala, have begun ringing now and the only temple 'Pulawela Rajamaha Vihara' is to commence religious ritual with the arrival of the new Buddhist monk.

Slowly life has begun in the Pulawela but people who had lived in fear for decades still live in fear as they have not heard of a peaceful life for years. But they say that they saw the real war this time when the Sri Lankan military attacked the terrorists and chased them away from Thoppigala.

"As small children we had run to forest for years to protect ourselves. We saw how our elders were murdered by the terrorist. We never experienced the joy of a peaceful life. We suffered and now our children are experiencing the same fate that we had. We are very unfortunate to be born in villages under the threat of the terrorists", Lalitha said in a shivering voice.

The only wish that these women who underwent severe hardship during the war is a world free of war for their children.

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