The world's largest humanitarian mission
By Shanika SRIYANANDA
"Can
you remember me? Thank you for giving water for my son that day",
the young mother clad in a shalwar said.
She had come to see her elder daughter at the state
rehabilitation centre for ex-LTTE cadre, in Vavuniya, where I was
interviewing some children under rehabilitation.
Yes, I can remember Devi, to whom I gave 'just' a
few drops of water after she had fled the LTTE-held Puthumathalan
with the massive 'human river' that flowed through the last earth
bund of the LTTE at Ampalavanpokkanei in the No Fire Zone on May 16
last year.
Her daughter Parvathi was dragged for military
training by the LTTE 'police' while she was looking after her
three-year-old brother. Devi is happy today as her family is
re-united. Her husband has put up a small boutique near their house
in Kilinochchi where they have now resettled.
She looks fresh and is brimming with hope. Devi has
plans for her children and a few months ago her son started
attending pre-school.
But a year ago, she ran for safety, a walking
skeleton. Empty-handed, the family ended the journey for freedom
with no hope for the future. The LTTE had destroyed everything they
had.
I can still remember how she begged for a few drops
of water when she saw the water bottle I carried with me. When I
gave some water to her, hundreds of others surrounded me, pleading
for water to drink. Knowing that one litre of water could not quench
the thirst of all of them, I distributed water only among the babies
who were crying in hunger and thirst. The dehydrated tiny tots were
crying for more water while the helpless mothers put them on their
breast; but all the milk had dried up due to fear and hunger.
This is the story of over 280,000 civilians who were
rescued by the military - Army and Navy-an year ago. The
humanitarian operation was launched with strict instructions and the
military had faced immense difficulties in their mission to save
lives trampled under the world's most ruthless terrorists. They
lived in hell and the iron gates which locked them in were not
opened until the LTTE felt that they were boxed in from all four
sides in the area where they caged thousands of civilians in a small
patch of land.
Until May 15, the LTTE had shot people to prevent
them fleeing. But, the people broke this hell-hole and fled to
Government-controlled areas despite the LTTE shooting them down with
paddle guns and deploying snipers to shoot fleeing civilians. People
poured in their thousands and surrendered to the 58 Division by
crossing the LTTE earth bund at Ampalavanpokkanei, to the 59
Division crossing the causeway connecting the Nanthikadal lagoon
along the A35 road.
At a time the Government is getting ready to
celebrate the first anniversary of the war victory, some of these
unfortunate scenes that I witnessed during the humanitarian
operations are still haunting me. Most of them were pain full
memories and difficult to erased from the mind.
I witnessed the immense courage of people who faced
terror while fleeing and the humane approach of the Sri Lankan
soldiers who cared for each and every hostage that came their way
seeking safety.
Following are some excerpts of my story which
highlight the plight of those people who defeated terror and all
other odds in their journey for freedom. At last they entered the
land of justice, where they were fed, sheltered and medically
treated.
The little girl was holding her mother's hand and
crying in pain. Her mother's 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, a bullet ripping
through her womb, also killing the baby inside. Flesh was strewn all
around, and the head of the baby had come out when the bullet
pierced 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).
All were running for their lives and did not have
time to bother about the little girl who was lying near her mother.
Later, soldiers 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.
Last earth bund
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 the 58 Division broke through
the LTTE's last earth bund at Ampalavanpokkanei. Carrying her little
daughter, she too had crossed the lagoon. But a few minutes before
her 'journey to freedom' ended she was felled by the LTTE's Eelam
police that started shooting indiscriminately at the fleeing
civilians.
Interviewed
one ... two... ten and more. The stories are the same. They had not
enjoyed the luxury of eating a plate of rice or drinking a glass of
water or milk or wearing clean clothes for months and months.
Overcoming the first barricade - communication- thanks to
Tamil-speaking soldiers, I managed to jot down their agony, with my
hands shivering and tears streaming down my face. How could a human
being hide tears in front of a tiny tot screaming in hunger....? An
old man screaming in pain with gun shot injuries....? A mother
screaming in front of her son's dead body....?
It was a saga which any human being should not dream
of experiencing. I was speechless when these people who once lived
their lives just like you and me plead for just a few drops of water
or a tiny piece of biscuit. The efforts of the soldiers to keep
these people alive and happy were commendable.
The Iranapalei-Puthumathalan gravel bumpy road
leading through the Ampalavanpokkanei earth bund to the North of the
No Fire Zone (NFZ) had fallen to the troops and people had started
pouring in.
The young solider, Corporal Ratnayake of 8 Gajaba
Regiment was cycling on this bumpy road, transporting a woman with
head and leg injuries. She was shot by the Tiger Police when she was
trying to flee. "Thanni" (water), requested 30-year-old
Chandrakumari Balasingham whose eyes told her agony. Being a nurse
at the Puthumathalan Hospital, she said that she was compelled to
work at the hospital and could not flee earlier due to threats.
"When I tried to come with others, the LTTE cadre
guarding the hospital shot at us", related Chandrakumari to the
soldiers, pleading with them to bring her mother to her.
Rescue mission
Corporal Ratnayake, ending his rescue mission,
paddled the cycle fast to transport another hostage.
Purugei Sellathi, the 80-year-old mother was feeding
her son a plate of rice with sambol, dhal curry and chicken given by
the soldiers of the Alpha Group of the 8GR. Her son was differently
abled.
"I had two sons. The LTTE killed their families. The
LTTE left us to starve and die". She threw some sand and cursed the
LTTE.
Hope you have heard of a place called hell. The
Northern part of the NFZ, where the LTTE kept over 104,275 civilians
hostage, was a real 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. Flood 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.
Fifty-two-year-old Chandrakanthi from Dharmapuram
cursed the LTTE for making their lives miserable. "Our lives are
worse than those of beggars who have at least a cup and plate of
their own. We do not have anything", she broke out in tears. The
mother of three children - two nurses and a graduate teacher- she
recalled the happy days of a bygone era. She had resided in
Dharmapuram. They had enjoyed life's comforts and had a good income
from hiring vehicles. The LTTE had completely destroyed their lives.
Passupathi Rasaratnem (48) was chased to
Puthumathalan from Puthukuduiriyuppu. Being a labourer, he said the
families survived with one meal - kanji (porridge) - per day. The
LTTE had stolen all the food sent to the people by the Government
and distributed only a kilo of rice per family.
"The ration to large families was the same. 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 them and they released me and took the elder
son of my neighbour", said Rasaratnem who appreciated the military
move to rescue them and added that though people were not aware of
the exact day of rescue, they had prayed to see the soldiers.
He said two days prior to the Army's arrival, the
LTTE, using loudspeakers, announced to the civilians not to escape
and pronounced the penalties for those trying to escape.
"So, we did not try to escape 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.
All those interviewed had one story in common to
relate. It was the saga of people living under the dictatorship of
the megalomaniac LTTE leader V. Prabhakaran.
Walking through a human river was not easy. Under
the scorching sun they were running for their lives. The risk of
suicide cadre mingling with civilians alarmed every one. A stray
bullet injured a woman soldier who was carrying out body searches
before giving permission for the civilians to enter the compound.
The next girl 'resumed' duties as her colleague was taken for
treatment.
Safe route
We went to the Wadduvakkal causeway connecting the
Nanthikadal lagoon along the A35 road, where thousands of people
poured in from the other safe route from Puthumathalan.
On May 16, the LTTE had indiscriminately shot at
people who fled Puthumathalan using ropes to make the crossing
through the lagoon safe. Civilians who had held on to their
belongings and with their small children on tyres had crossed the
lagoon despite the LTTE police shooting with their paddle guns.
The human flow increased on the morning May 17 and
the last batches from Puthumathalan crossed the causeway in the
afternoon, making this terror-filled land a 'land of ghosts'.
With no clue yet as to whether Prabhakaran was dead
or alive, the troops continued their search operations in the
remaining suspected hideouts.
All sick, old, wounded and crippled people crossed
the 800-metre long causeway at last. They were abandoned by their
kith and kin, but the soldiers at the entry point welcomed them
warmly and took all of them for medical treatment.
Darkness was looming and when it was confirmed that
there were no more civilians left, the military increased its
assault on Puthumathalan, the tiny stretch of land less than one
square km in extent.
On the evening of May 17, the military completed the
world's biggest humanitarian operation that rescued over 280,000
hostages with no harm to any of them.
The draconian era, in which a monster played with
human lives and herded his own community to a small patch of land,
had been stopped by the Government, which politically and militarily
strived and focused for a common goal - sweeping away the LTTE from
the Lankan soil.
Devi and all those who were rescued by the brave
soldiers have now been given a new lease of life after 30 years.
They witness the difference and experience the
development that is taking place before their eyes, after a year of
ending the war and terror.
The Tamil community who suffered under the LTTE is
rising from the ashes.
....................................
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