'Where have all our lost ones gone?'
by Manjula Fernando
'I feel my child is living somewhere and she may come home one day',
Ponniah 54, from Mulankavil told the Sunday Observer.

Chinnaiya Selvarajah and his wife |
He was among the 804 people who lined up at the Harmony Centre in
Kilinochchi to participate in a mobile camp that was organised by the
State to help missing persons' families. Families who lost children and
dear ones to the LTTE.
Ponniah is still searching for his missing daughter who was abducted
by the LTTE at the age of 15, to be trained as a child soldier and to be
sent to the battle front. 'Manjula' was abducted as a 15 year old school
girl in 2007.
The parents following her conscription pleaded with the LTTE to send
her home to sit for the GCE OL examination. She was getting ready for
the examination at the time the LTTE conscripted her.
As a result of their constant pleas, she walked home one day, in time
to sit for the examination. But the joy did not last long. The LTTE took
her away again to fill their depleting ranks.
The parents not wanting to give up, intensified their campaign to
free Manjula. This vigorous attempts led to UN intervention to release
her. She was then a child soldier. The next day the brutal LTTE 'hands'
came back, to reclaim their prey. They beat up the child in front of the
parents before vanishing with her. Manjula's parents and siblings could
only cry in the face of such heartlessness.
Once the war on terrorism ended Ponniah visited a rehabilitation camp
in Vavuniya looking for his daughter. He had walked in to the Children
and Women's Bureau more than 10 times in the recent past seeking any
news of her.
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The mobile camp at the
Kilinochchi Harmony Centre |
I have three more children, two daughters and a boy. " I was so
scared that they would also be taken away. It was a terrible time," he
recalled of the time before 2009.
The mobile camp held on January 20 from 8.00 am onwards at the
Kilinochchi Harmony Centre was organised under the direction of the
Terrorism Investigation Division Director DIG C.N.Wakista.
It was attended by 804 people representing 321 families of whom
children or a near family member was abducted by the LTTE.
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Sivamalar |
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Ponniah |
Officials from over five ministries and institutions provided their
services for the family members who were there to get numerous needs
fulfilled. Some were there seeking news of missing persons, others to
obtain national IDs, medical care, livelihood support or financial
assistance. The social services Ministry registered the war widows at
the camp.
Sivamalar, 58 from Paranthan had six children, four of whom are
girls. She had come to look for her daughter Indumathi. She was abducted
by female cadres of the LTTE on her way to school. Indumathi was just 14
and was in grade nine at the time.
When the news reached her, Sivamalar ran to the nearest LTTE camp and
pleaded with them to release her daughter. The answer had been a firm
'no'.
Sivamalar received financial assistance at the mobile camp. She broke
down while recalling the memory of her daughter.
Her husband is a small time fish vendor, he has his business set up
near their home by the roadside. The two sons, who are older were
married and lived separately. The three remaining girls live with the
mother.
The family was in a camp for the displaced after May 2009, following
the end of war on terrorism.
The mother made inquiries from the ICRC and other officials to find
her daughter. " I lodged a complaint with the police on July 12, 2010,
after we were resettled by the Government."
She is still living with the memory of her daughter. Though poverty
stricken she is not ready to give up hope.
Chinnaiya Selvarajah, 67 of Kumarapuram, Paranthan was looking for
his son Selvarasah aged 25 years. He was abducted by the LTTE in May
1989 while working in a store.
"He was our only son, we had a daughter and a son. The pain is
excruciating when I think of what might have happened to him," Chinnaiya
said. He was among the many who were there and looking for some solace.
He and his wife Aranthanayagam, 55, had walked miles and miles seeking
answers hoping that someone would lead them to their only son.
Chinnaiya is a pavement vendor. He sells plantains. "I went
everywhere possible to hear any news about my son. No one helped me and
I kept pestering people looking for him and made inquiries from those
who, I thought, may know something about my son. But no one gave us any
hope," his wife said.
Their faces mirror the pain they struggle to contain and get on with
their lives sans their near and dear ones.
To make a living and to make ends meet and to feed their reduced
families. However, their pain becomes contagious the moment we see the
efforts they make, even after so many years, to hear, perhaps, the way
their loved ones 'perished' if not 'lived' during those missing years.
Among the represented ministries at the mobile camp were the Divi
Neguma Department and Samurdhi Authority of the Economic Development
Ministry, Child Development and Women's Affairs Ministry, Labor
Ministry, Social Services Ministry and Ministry of Rehabilitation.
There was also a medical camp, police mobile unit, counselling
service and services to obtain National IDs for the people among other
things.
The Northern province Governor Rt. Major General G.A.Chandrasiri,
Security Forces Commanders Jaffna Maj.Gen.Udaya Perera and Kilinochchi
Maj.Gen.Sudantha Ranasinghe, Kilinochchi GA Rupawathie Ketheeswaran and
Health Services Regional Director Dr. P.A Karthikeyan attended the main
meeting of the mobile service presided over by MP Namal Rajapaksa, later
that day at the Kilinochchi 'Nelum Piyasa'. |