Disabled, no son:

Ramya depicts fleeing civilians

by Shanika SRIYANANDA reporting from Vavuniya

Ten-year-old Vasan - a victim of LTTE brutality

Her voice, with vigour is echoed in every corner of the hospital. Perhaps, her curses are powerful enough to penetrate through the thick jungles of Puthukuddiyiruppu to reach the ears of the LTTE leader for making her disabled.

Apart from the pain that Ramaya is undergoing due to an anti-personnel mine that blew her left leg, burned the right leg and injured her from the waist downwards, the swollen breasts are an added pain. More than the severe wounds on her body, the 26-year-old mother is suffering mentally and physically as she could not breast feed her tiny son. Ramya does not know the whereabouts of Yelarasan (one year-old) who was taken by her sister before her leg was blown off.

Unable to think how to weave their lives, Ramya's husband Janarthan (29) grieves and prays for the God to let them see their little son. The young man Janarthan, who escaped the LTTE cadres who surrounded their makeshift hut many times to hunt him, had spent day and night in jungles. He came only to see his son and to get some food.

Decided to cross

"We heard that the troops had reached near us. With over 100 civilians and with their parents and sister we had decided to cross. It took three days to cross the LTTE FDLs as we only could walk at night", they recall.

Janarthan's family have been displaced several times. Being the residents of Udayarkattu, with the fall of Akkarayankulam, they were ordered to move from place to place by the LTTE, which became tough to civilians whom they keep as human shields. Their journey from Akkarayankulam to Sudanthrapuram took over 45 km.

"We lived in huts like animals. We did not have food for days. His friends were taken by the LTTE to fight the Army. I pleaded with the LTTE cadres but they ordered Janarthan to surrender", Ramya cries.

The couple, grew and did schooling under LTTE control and know nothing about the outside world. The only mantra they learnt was that Sinhalese and Sinhala military were babarics and if women were caught they get raped and the males would be tortured and killed. But the moment the Army soldier lent his hand to Janarthan to lift his badly injured wife, the misconception faded and new hopes emerged. If not for the soldiers who were just a few metres away from the LTTE's FDL at Irrattumadu, the young man would have lost his wife due to high bleeding.

Ramya, her leg amputated with her husband Janarthan by her hospital bedside.

"The LTTE did not spare any one. They shot at the young and the old equally. They asked us not to leave. We could not bring the seriously injured civilians", says Janarthan.

Both do not know about there future as they still want to find out about their little son and the in-laws.

"I do not know how I could look after my son. I am now disabled", Ramya grieves while pleading to find her son. Janarthan is not allowed to stay near Ramya, but he spends day and night at the hospital corridor staring at the ward.

Meanwhile, 10-year-old Tirimalei Vasan only knows that his head is paining. He can vaguely remember how the LTTE shot them.

"We ran here and there. I was with my two sisters and small brother. We all held our hands and ran with our father. But they shot at us while ordering us to stop". That is all Vasan can remember. His voice is shivering and he looks around frightened. They were threatened that if they step an inch further they would be shot to pieces. But in their `walk to freedom' they ignored those orders and crossed the LTTE FDLs.

Gunaratnam, the boy's father who is there to look after him sleeps under the hospital bed. His other children are in the IDP camp with a relative.

Abducted children

"We lived in Pallai. As my children are too small the LTTE did not come to take them. But they abducted the children who are older than 13 years. We know that the Army is close to us and the villagers got together and walked until the LTTE surrounded us at Irrattumadu. They threatened us. We did not listen to them and then the LTTE started shooting at us", he recalls.

Before his own eyes, Vasan fell down after the LTTE fired at them indiscriminately. The pale eyes of both the father and son hold no hope. "Enadu Thalai Valikirathu", (My head is paining), Vasan constantly complaints. The helpless father cries.

It is pathetic to hear their tell-tales: Their rights for decent lives were breached under the rigid LTTE rule and spans over three decades.

They had never enjoyed the true meaning of development though the government pumped in billions of money to enlighten their lives. They tolerate the broken promises of their so-called sole representatives who had built roads running to LTTE military camps where they abuse the drugs sent to innocent people. While they were drowned in poverty and lived in makeshift huts, the LTTE used huge amounts of money to build under ground bunkers for their safety. But, the day the troops stepped in to liberate Vanni people, the LTTE's hell hole cracked and exploded as thousands of civilians flee the LTTE controlled areas.

The saddest episode of this saga is that still the LTTE terrorists, who are now boxed into a small patch of land, hold whom ever civilians under their custody for the sake of their survival.

According to sources, over 36,000 civilians have fled to government controlled areas since January 1, despite warnings by the LTTE to stay behind.

From Ramya to Gunaratnam to Thangamani, the 76-old- whose leg too was blown by an AP mine to Thurairaja, the 20-year-old who suffers gun shot injuries to an arm and legs and warded at the Vavuniya Hospital, utter only few words. That is "Andawane Prabhakaran Aliyawendum" (God, Prabhakaran should get destroyed).