ltte’s annihilation of tamil brethren...:
IDPs - Tamil diaspora can help and undo their wrong
by Shanika SRIYANANDA
Though feeble and fragile, they did not abandon their journey to
freedom. Their immense courage made them to walk that ‘long, long’ march
to step into a land of peace. One by one, the last batch of hostages
held by the LTTE, crawled like ‘black creatures’.
From the disabled to former LTTE cadres, the old, sick and wounded,
they did not walk, but crawled along the causeway of the Nandi Kadal
lagoon that connects the one square km land of the No Fire Zone and FDLs
of the 59 Division.
Wearing rags and starved for days, they only begged for a few drops
of water from the soldiers who were there to rescue them.
Seventy-five-year-old ‘Eswari’ was among the few lucky civilians to
cross the lagoon.
Seen
this old mother crawling through the 300 metre causeway even the eyes of
the battle scarred soldiers were filled with tears. She collapsed as she
stepped into the FDL where hundreds of soldiers were there to treat the
injured and sick medically.
After receiving first aid, her pale eyes became a little clearer.
With three children living abroad, ‘Eswari’ was trapped in LTTE
captivity for months from where she escaped death miraculously.
“Emmidam ippodu edurume illai” (Now we do not have anything) she
murmured. The tears were dried up, but she was weeping.
A retired government teacher begged: “ Please do not quote me. My
children are living abroad”.
I met some more hostages whose kith and kin are living abroad. And it
struck me they had contributed their hard earned money for this agony
and destruction of their own people.
Those who willingly or unwillingly made their contributions to the
LTTE might not dream of hearing or seeing this tragic scenario again.
Murugesu too crossed the lagoon at last. He had big dreams for his
children. But when the offensives were getting tougher and the
terrorists were getting more fierce on those fleeing, he dropped those
dreams and lived only to see a day that he could cross the lagoon of
Nandi Kadal.
The attempts to flee were not fruitful as the terrorists kept them
prisoners under their tight security. From Akkarayankulam the family was
chased step by step until they were boxed in Puthumathalan. They were on
the run and sadly witnessed how their belongings packed in a lorry were
reduced to a mere hand bag. Murugesu, who owns only the birth
certificates and IDs of the family, cries in pain.
Along with thousands of civilians, who found no where to run from
Puthumathalan, he ran back to the military who were there to welcome
them that morning.
The very sight of it was sickening and very moving to a point of
wanting to get lost from it all.
I felt that no human on this earth could be able to witness such a
misery. It was a journey through sorrow, weeping and blood. Mingling
with them and talking to them, would render any human being breathless,
terrified and ashamed of humanity. I closed my eyes trying to repress
tears.
Young mothers with tiny tots were crying as they were unable to feed
their restless babies. With breast milk dried up due to fear and
malnutrition they begged for a few drops of water.
The dead body of the pregnant mother whose foetus had come out of the
womb due to shooting by the Eelam police was still haunting my mind.
Some of the scenes that I had unfortunately witnessed would not be
erased from my mind and I know that more than the Tamil diaspora whose a
part of this destruction we would be haunted by these scenes.
The small baby girl was holding her mother’s hand and crying in pain.
The 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, the bullet ripping through her womb killing the
baby inside. Flesh was strewn all around, and the head of the baby had
come out when the bullet pierced through 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).
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 58 Division broke through the LTTE’s last earth bund
at Ampalavanpokkanei in the No Fire Zone. Carrying her little daughter,
she too had crossed the lagoon. But she was felled dead by the LTTE’s
Eelam police that started indiscriminately shooting at the fleeing
civilians.
They were running for life and did not have time to bother about the
little girl who was lying near her mother. Later, the soldier 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.
How could a human being hide tears in front of a tiny tot screaming
in hunger ... an old man screaming in pain with a shot gun injury... a
mother screaming in front of her son’s dead body...
It is a saga which any human being should not dream of experiencing.
I was speechless when these people, who once lived like you and me and
had lived somewhat of a good life, pleading for just a few drops of
water or a tiny piece of biscuit.
The Northern part of the NFZ, where the LTTE held over 180,000
civilians is really 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. Recent
rain 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. The awful smell emanating from strewn dead bodies
as well as carcases of animals polluted the air.
Fifty-two-year-old Chandrakanthi from Dharmapuram cursed the LTTE for
making their lives miserable. “Our lives are worse than beggars who have
a cup and a plate of their own. We do not have anything”, she broke out
with tears. The mother of three children - two nurses and a graduate
teacher- she recalled the happy days of a by-gone era. She had resided
at Dharmapuram. They all had enjoyed life’s comforts and had a good
income from vehicle hiring. The LTTE had destroyed their lives totally.
“When the fighting was going on, the LTTE asked us to move to
Puthumathalan”, she said. When asked why they did not think of fleeing,
she replied that the LTTE shot at those who tried to and when caught
they were taken to build bunkers or thrown into FDLs.
“We have only the clothes we are wearing”, wept Chandrakanthi. She
said her family waited until the soldiers rescued them. Passupathi
Rasaratnem (48) was chased to Puthumathalan from Puthukuduiriyuppu.
Being a labourer, he said the families survived with one meal - kanji
(porridge). The LTTE had stolen the food sent by the government and
distributed a kilo of rice per family.
“No increase of ration to large families. 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 the cadres and
they dropped me and took the elder son of my neighbour”, said Rasaratnem
who appreciated the military move to rescue them. Though people were not
aware of the exact day of rescue, they had prayed to see the soldiers.
He further said that two days prior to the Army’s arrival, the LTTE,
using loudspeakers announced to the civilians not to escape and they
also pronounced the penalties for those trying to escape.
“So, we did not try to 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. There were lots of dead bodies due to LTTE’s
shooting.
Most of the young females were pregnant or having infants. “We had
early marriages and when the LTTE was forcibly trying to enlist girls
they got themselves pregnant in order to avoid the LTTE. The young men
lived in bunkers to escape the LTTE. The sole representatives of Tamils
and Prabhakaran are no more. The LTTE Leader died in a more decent way
than he deserved, thanks to professional soldiers who observe certain
norms. The destruction that he created to achieve his childhood dream
has come to an end with a mass destruction brought by the monster upon
his own people. The Tamil diaspora that pumped their hard earned money
to make the LTTE grow with fighting power is partly responsible for the
misery and destruction wrought and therefore should now help their own
people to rise from the ashes.
`As Eswari says, “ Vidathalai Puligal emadu valvai sambal akki
vittargal” ( The LTTE had reduced us to ashes). There is nothing these
people can possess other than the evil memories under a terror filled
regime. With empty hands these people are now looking forward for a
better tomorrow. Now it is time for the Tamils living abroad to pump
more currency to see their own people stand on their own feet. |