Rehabilitated LTTE cadres:

Back on their feet...

By Shanika SRIYANANDA

It was Mulliyaweli junction. Tamil songs were blaring from the three-wheel park with over 10 ‘tuk tuks’ creating a mini musical show. I wondered if any passersby didn’t have the urge to dance to the music. People were busy doing their last minute shopping before the boutiques closed for the day. It was 8.30 pm and a Honda bike, which came at high speed stopped close to us.

“Mama Gunaratnam Sabesan. Sorry. Parakku vunada Danne nee (I am Gunaratnam Sabesan, Sorry don’t know whether I got late)”, the youth clad in a white shirt and neatly ironed black trousers and wearing polished black shoes said in fluent Sinhala, while removing a matching tie.

His voice pulled me out of my reverie, and I recalled the horrific situation three years ago, where soldiers of the 59 Division attacked this town which was a stronghold of the LTTE close to Mullaitivu.

In a 36-hour deadly gun battle, infantry soldiers, with the help of the close-combat air support provided by the SLAF jets and MI-24 helicopter gunships, captured Mulliyaweli after destroying the LTTE’s strong points on December 26, 2008. The LTTE made this town a ghost town by herding thousands of civilians into Puthumathalan, where they were held as hostages by terrorists.

The A-34, Mankulam-Mullaitivu road, was one route that the soldiers entered to capture the town. It now looks beautiful with heaps of fresh brown layers of soil levelled to expand the road after decades. The power supply has been restored after many years and darkness has been chased away with new street lights dotting the town. After many years, people of Mulliyaweli like many other parts of Mullaitivu are rising again erasing their bitter memories.

Sabesan, before chatting with us gave his visiting card: “Gunaratnam Sabesan, Supervisor Mullaitivu”, it stated. What a change in life; the former LTTE cadre who was left to fight in the Forward Defence Lines (FDLs) is now become a sales representative of a soft drink company in Mullaitivu.

It only took three-years for him to change his destiny. Youth surrendered to the Army after burying his T-56 on the banks of Nandikadal lagoon on May 17 2009. He came to the checkpoint shivering and crying and with no hopes of life thinking the soldiers would torture him and kill him when he revealed that he was an LTTE cadre.

Sabesan	Nawaratnam

“They separated me from the others and put me into the bus full of LTTE cadres who had surrendered that morning. We were taken to Vavuniya”, Sabesan recalled his story as an LTTE fighter.

Sabesan was returning home after a tuition class. He saw LTTE Police cadres dragging his 25-year-old sister into a Van packed with teenagers - some in their school uniforms. He couldn’t bear to see them conscripting his elder sister who was crying and pleading with the terrorists.

“I took the decision to go with the LTTE to free my sister. I gave my books to her and got into the van. Most of the others in the van were crying and pleading with the LTTE to let them go. They took us to a training camp in Suthanthirapuram, Puthukkudiyiruppu and I was enrolled into the artillery regiment. After six months training we were deployed at FDLs to attack soldiers. During the last six months of the final battle, we were ordered by the leader Maniwannam to attack artilleries of advancing soldiers. We had positioned our guns in Puthumathalan under the cover of civilian makeshift huts”, he said showing the scars of a hand injury caused due to a backfire attack.

He said that the LTTE didn’t announce their defeat but ordered them to fight till the last minute to achieve Eelam. “They also instructed us not to surrender to the soldiers as they would torture us to get information and kill us later. After our FDLs were often pushed backward we thought we would die soon, as the soldiers kept on attacking us. But we couldn’t run away as there were LTTE police to kill those who flee”, Sabesan said.

The experienced artillery cadre taking a bold decision fled the FDLs while they were shooting at him. He came to his family at Kurusaadi Puthumathalan, the last patch of land where the LTTE held displaced civilains hostage. He managed to hide in a bunker for over three months while the LTTE police was on the hunt. His family tried to cross the Vattuwal bridge but returned as the LTTE shot at people who tried to cross the lagoon. However, he joined his family to cross the bridge the moment thousands of hostages fled Puthumathalan together while the LTTE was firing from a paddle gun.

“Many LTTE cadres, who were deployed to prevent people crossing the lagoon hid their weapons and joined civilians to surrender to the soldiers. Even the LTTE’s pistol group fled the LTTE. There were six of my friends in the artillery unit who surrendered with me”, Sabesan said.

He obtained two Bs and a credit pass at the Advanced Level examination while undergoing rehabilitation at Muslim Maha Vidyalaya Vavuniya.

The Army helped him to attend extra classes for the A/L examination. After a one-year stay at the Centre, he returned home in September 2010. Sabesan can speak fluent Sinhala thanks to the soldiers who taught him and encouraged him to learn Sinhala by speaking and reading books. Being an ambulance driver at the Mullaitivu hospital, his father received a loan to repair their house which was badly damaged.

“Thanks to Lt. Col. Krishantha Peiris, Commanding Officer of the 23SLI, Sabesan got a new job as a supervisor. He earns a monthly salary of over Rs. 50,000 including commissions for his sales. He helped his family, the education of two younger brothers and also bought a new bike.”I want to build my own house before I get married”, he said brimming with new hope.

The Sunday Observer interviewed some rehabilitated ex-cadres in Mullaithivu to see how peace had changed their lives. “Balathkaramaga kondrusellapattavargal” (The LTTE took us forcibly), they all have a common answer when asked why and how they joined the LTTE. They were conscripted by the LTTE under its rigid policy - ‘one from one family’ to win Eelam’.

Baby Deepika was sucking her tiny fingers indicating that she was hungry. But her mother Mathiwathini (26), a former LTTE cadre of the Sothiya Regiment was revealing her story about motherhood.

“I was forcibly taken by the LTTE in 2006 while I was returning from school after attending the extra class for the Ordinary Level examination. I was trained in Mullivaikkal and I escaped the LTTE from time to time to see my parents. Every time the LTTE police rounded me up and deployed me at the FDLs as punishment”, Mathiwathini, tied the knot with her childhood lover Adakaladas when she reunited with her family after the completion of the rehabilitation process, she said.

Her husband does odd jobs to keep the family going. Mathiwathini said they were not frightened anymore as there was no one to drag them to fight.

“Our movements were restricted as the LTTE police was there to hunt people to fight. My husband hid himself for months to escape the LTTE’s forced conscription. Now we are free of terror. Today, the only thing we have to fight for is to earn”, she said.

At that time Mathiwathini didn’t have hopes for life and never thought she would have a family. Thrown to battle fronts she said many girls cried for their lives.

“Ennai balawandamaga porattaththil edupaduththiyadai pondradoru kalam ini enadu magalukku etpadak kudadu (I don’t want any one to drag my daughter and put her into a deadly battle field), she has plans for her daughter. The couple had a small boutique near Wattappalai junction but due to financial reasons they have closed it.

“If I have money I will start my boutique again”, she said they were struggling to find money to buy a packet of milk powder for their infant.

Twenty six-year-old Sumudini is full of feminine charm.

The ex-LTTE cadre is an expert in handling T-56 weapons and was trying to calm her son - Sajeewan, who was huddled on her lap.

She had given birth out of wedlock, Sumuduni was cheated by a Muslim youth who disappeared when he heard that she was pregnant. Now her son is eight months.

The LTTE ‘snatched’ her while she was returning from the Mullaitivu hospital with her sister. She was given special training on handling modern weapons and deployed to fight in FDLs. She fled LTTE control with the mass exodus of civilians two days before ending the final battle and surrendered to the Army.

With no income or place to stay with her family, which lives solely on her brother’s earnings as a farmer. Having been trained at a garment factory during the rehabilitation program, Sumuduni who has not completed the course aspired to open a small boutique to earn a living while looking after her son.

Nawaratnam Waideshan has opened a garage which repairs diesel vehicles from three-wheelers, cars to vans.

The LTTE rounded up the village and snatched the boys and girls in 2007 as the terrorist outfit needed manpower to fight with the Army which took a different approach and attacked the LTTE from all fronts.

As they have to deploy more cadres on many fronts to prevent soldiers entering their control, the LTTE intensified the recruitment drive without sparing children or even elders.

“The LTTE took my older brother who went missing while he was fighting”, Nawaratnam was given training and deployed to the Kattala padei (home guard unit) of the LTTE.

The 25-year-old surrendered to the Army at Pokkanai and was rehabilitated at the Nelunkulam Centre. He said the LTTE had misled all the Tamils in the North promoting a separate land for Tamils and also by propagating hatred towards other ethnic groups - Sinhalese and Muslims in Sri Lanka.

“We were passing time to flee. We couldn’t do it earlier as LTTE cadres were shooting fleeing cadres. If they caught us we would have had to suffer as they tortured us and sometimes shot at us to show others the punishment they get for fleeing the LTTE”, he said.

Nawaratnam who is waiting fully to receive a loan from the Bank of Ceylon complained about the delay.

All these cadres vehemently opposed violence and dropped the deadly weapons.

They have hopes and plans for a peaceful life in the future.

The Army and the Government are contributing their share to shed light to make their lives a better tomorrow.

Although some of the Tamil diaspora were pumping funds to make Sri Lanka an LTTE’s killing field - is saddled with a huge responsibility - to send a few dollars or pounds to make the lives of these youth who have survived the LTTE better.

If they can help Mathiwathini, Nawaratnam, Sumudini to start a small business or find a means of earning to stand on their own feet......