'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.

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.

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.

Sivamalar

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'.