Holding their breath to safety

by Shanika SRIYANANDA reporting from Visuamadu

At last, the teenage mother gained entry into a safe territory where they are treated as 'human beings'. Her torn and ragged attire and piece of sarong draped around her 12-month old infant to protect him from the unbearable heat, and the muddy patches on her body tell the nightmarish story journeying through a land of terror. Twenty-year old Nadaraja, Malathi's husband narrowly escaped the LTTE Tigers who came to snatch him.

Carrying the little belongings they had and few tiny shirts of their baby and his milk bottle, the couple, together with some neighbours, started out their 'march to freedom' at dusk, that was barely a day before their 'sole representatives' - LTTE- exploded a human bomb killing their own people who were fleeing from the clutches of terror in search of peace. "I kept my son tight on to my chest as I feared of a 'thakolai porali' (suicide bomber). We do not want to die and we do not want to fight", Malathi, who was a victim of the LTTE's human shield, said.

The couple has been displaced several times. The LTTE took them from place to place from Madhu until they escaped from Suthandrampuram to Visuamadu.

Joy

Starting their walk at dusk and running through a rain of bullets and hiding in jungles, their joy was when they met the troops of the 58 Division.

The Tigers did not spare Rasaiah's old mother, who ran at last in the group to cross to Visuamadu. They shot at her spine disabling her.Rasaiah and his wife, with their two daughters, walked carrying their sick , old mother while the terrorists were shooting at the civilians continuously.

Like them, thousands of dehydrated civilians were caged under LTTE custody caught up in the epicenter of the battle by the Security Forces to liberate them and destroy the terrorists, have by now started crossing to liberated areas. They said that there were thousands of families who were still trying to flee. Another woman Ranjini said, "While we were running, the LTTE cadres shot at us. My husband died. They shot my brother and his leg is severely damaged. I saw another next to us losing her limb to an AP mine" Twenty-two year old Ranjini couldn't control her tears. She was 'unloading' the hand luggage before the woman Army officer, who checked the female IDPs thoroughly following the suicide attack at Visuamadu.

Daily, thousands and thousands of civilians braving the bullets, mortars and land mines, cross the FDLs hiding by day and crossing to liberated areas by night. They are happy with the efforts of the military for providing them with safe shelter.

"Still the risk of suicide bombers entering here with the IDPs are there. But we cannot ignore the plight of civilians who are coming from LTTE held areas. Terrorists can illtreat these civilians, but they are fully safe once they step into our area, "the GOC of the 58 Division Brig. Shavendra Silva said.

Facilities

He said that apart from attacking the terrorists, the soldiers of the 58 Division had taken the responsibility of providing facilities for the fleeing civilians. "They will be given food, water and other refreshments while a special medical team is deployed to treat the sick and wounded civilians", Brig. Silva said.

The ill-fated suicide bomb attack by the LTTE, killing soldiers helping the civilians and two dozen of innocent IDPs has made the 58 Division take extra precautions in checking the IDPs coming from the FDLs. "We have information that the LTTE is planning to send more suicide bombers disguised as IDPs. We have taken precautions to face them", Brig. Silva, who strongly condemned the suicide attack on innocent civilians, assured.

The soldiers, who screen all the IDPs - from infants to the very old said that the LTTE suicide bombers could not stop the military exercise to provide facilities for IDPs, taking them to safe areas and providing them maximum security while they are in the IDP camps.

Another escapee Mahendraraja marvelled at how he had made it. "Though the civilians were bruised and bleeding, the terrorists did not let some go." I am happy my family reached Army safety. I begged of the Tigers who saw us walking. But they opened fire. As I believed in God so much I think he helped me, my wife and my children to come here", blurted. Mahendraraja, who saw the indiscriminate firing at the civilians.

"We wanted to cross but they guarded all the pathways where civilians can cross. We were helpless", his wife, who still mourned for her relatives, said.

She related the harrowing memories of how her cousins breathed their last after the LTTE shot at them. "Some were severely injured, but we could not taken them with us", she sobbed.Most civilians who fled the LTTE, carry gun shot injuries on their heads, spine and legs.

They cannot figure out how many are still under LTTE custody. They believed that the LTTE is still holding thousands of civilians.

"They search for the civilians who lead the groups to cross here and have instructed to kill them", they said.

The severely injured die on roads as the Tigers are not interested in treating them, and some due to lack of medicine. "Over 15 people die helplessly a day there, but still the LTTE does not want the civilians to flee", they said.

A father of two infants, sped in his C-90 motor bike breaking the LTTE's FDL beating their shooting. His wife was shot at her spine, but her husband did not stop driving until he reached the Army controlled territory of the 58 division.

The soldiers, who suspected a suicide attack fired at the tyres of the oncoming motor bike. The family landed safely and the soldiers rushed the wife to the nearest medical dressing centre where she was given immediate medical treatment.