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‘LTTE deprived us of everything in life’

Tears rolled down Ishwari’s cheeks as she went on recalling the horrible incidents that still haunt her memories. Being displaced from her native place in Mannar, Ishwari was left with very few fortunes in life. Undergoing severe malnourishment during this entire period, this twenty year old looked extremely fragile and forced conscription by the LTTE would be the last thing she can ever dream of. A life in which she lost more than what she could gain. “I fell severely sick and was under medication for several months. When the LTTE gang came my mother covered me with a large cloth and hid me inside our tent. Yet the LTTE forcibly entered the ‘house’ and tried to drag me away,” she said in her weak frail voice.

To her mother’s tears and screams the LTTE had to leave her that day but returned the next afternoon. Her poor mother could do nothing but hide her inside the ‘kitchen’. “We can’t hide in the bunker since it is easy for the LTTE to locate us,” Ishwari said. The LTTE gang, with several well built men and women including the LTTE ‘Police’, dragged her out of the house without letting her collect a dress or slip into her rubber slippers. They dragged her on the severely heated up sand to a cab while her mother came after her screaming, “please don’t take my daughter away.” The mother and daughter, being frail, were completely defenceless in front of these marauding Tigers.

“If you want your daughter, you’d better come to our leader and discuss with him,” the LTTE gang had told Ishwari’s mother. Trying to cling on to that tiny hope Ishwari’s mother got into the vehicle as well. Half way, the mother was forced to get out of the cab and since she refused she was beaten up and was thrown into the street in broad daylight in front of a large crowd. They pushed Ishwari into another truck loaded with 150 forcibly recruited teenagers and taken into a jungle in Vellamullivaikkal. “We were given only kanji (porridge) for breakfast around 10 a.m. and a little rice with dhal around 3 p.m. for lunch. And around 10 in the night either ‘pittu’ or stringhoppers with gravy,” Ishwari said.

This was just a single story of the few lucky ones who managed to escape the iron grip of the ruthless Tigers. According to military sources over 9000 LTTE cadres have surrendered, either self confessed or identified, while fleeing for their lives with the other civilians and most were teenagers.

“Did you try to escape?,” I asked Ishwari. “No!,” she said, “Its horrific how the LTTE punish those who try to escape. I was really scared. They would first shave the heads and sometimes they beat them or torture them.”

The escape

During the last few days of the battle the LTTE leadership was desperately trying to save their lives and escape hence less attention was paid to pinning down their cadres. Thus, many lives of youth were saved as they mingled with the civilians and escaped to the cleared areas. The Sri Lanka Army 53 Division had 485 LTTE cadres surrendering within three days. On May 15 a group of 241 LTTE cadres surrendered, on May 16 the number was 165 and on May 17 another 79 surrendered. “ We made announcements telling the LTTE cadres to surrender and be assured their safety. And we did get a good response. I strongly believe they were willing to trust the Army after seeing how humanely people were treated by our soldiers,” Major General Kamal Gunaratne, General Officer Commanding 53 Division said explaining their entire humanitarian mission to save the truly innocent people.

“When we were collecting their data during the registration process it was clear that they were all born and brought up during the LTTE rule. It was obvious that they were brain washed and their exposure to the rest of the country was negligible,” Maj. Gen. Gunaratne added.

Under his command and direct supervision the military officials of the 53 Division took the responsibility of the welfare and protection of these youth until they were handed over to the respective Government Officials in charge of the rehabilitation process.

Breaking the backbone

Savithri was just seventeen and longed to see her G.C.E. Ordinary Level examination results. This courageous little girl never wanted to give up her education even under adverse conditions of her life. They were chased away from their homes by the LTTE as the Sri Lanka Army was advancing from Nedunkerni and Oddusudan towards the A35 road. Savithri, her parents and her four younger brothers were pushed further away from the cleared areas. Fascinated over ‘Bharatha Natyam’ Savithri’s competitor at school was her aunt’s daughter. It gave her such joy to remember those wonderful days. “When the LTTE came to take me we just moved into Pachchapulmoddai being chased away from Irranappalai. I was cleaning outside our tent,” she said.

By this time this little girl was given in marriage by her parents to a distant relative simply because the LTTE would not take away married girls. “I didn’t like him at all.

But, since it would save my life I agreed. But I stayed with my parents I didn’t live with him,” Savithri said and paused for a while.

The dreadful past, missing the family and all those factors made her weep. “ I just want to go on with my life. The Tigers made us lose all our chances in life,” she said.

All these girls and boys had their own dreams in life and were forced to believe that one man could make their dreams come true. It is only at the end they realized that it was a mirage; an illusion.

The so called sole saviour of the Tamils, Prabhakaran, made his own people lose their next generation and at the end lost his own.

 

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