Stories of Survival, Sri Lanka Edition: "They dropped bombs on us here."

by Michelle

category: Stories of Survival

Published February 02, 2009 @ 05:53PM PT

A special edition of "Stories of Survival" tonight, to follow up last night's mostly macro-level political post on Sri Lanka with a sobering look at the suffering of Tamil civilians. The stories are from People for Equality and Relief in Sri Lanka (PEARL).

Singarasa Mary Josephine, on the murder of her son, who worked for the humanitarian NGO Action Against Hunger (ACF):

"We know very well that it was the Army that killed him. The Army is working for the government, they're the ones who killed him. They took all the documents in the office and all their hand phones. Their morning tea was just like that on their desks. Some people's tea was just like that, half drank. They were killed wearing their sarems, early morning, even before they had put on their clothes for the day. But they were all wearing the ACF symbol on their shirts because they thought the Army wouldn't hurt them with the ACF logo..."

Rajeswary Selvanesh, 19 years old:

"I got up and was walking away, and then other girls were calling to me, ‘Big sister, you're wounded, stop and lie down.' Blood was pouring down my body. The other girls wouldn't let me get up and walk anywhere, so we were all lying down together. If we had gotten up we would definitely have lost an arm or a leg because they just kept bombing us. When they came to carry me and go, that's only when I saw how much blood there was around me. Throughout the whole grounds, everyone was dying. They were all wounded but otherwise it looked like they were sleeping."

Thavarani Selvarasa, on why her daughter joined the LTTE:

"Our daughter joined after seeing the Army's torture of Tamil people. Especially after she saw the difficulties of the internally displaced people, she wanted to join. They were studying A level and O level when we were displaced. It was because of the Sri Lankan Army torture that we were displaced to Vanni. But even when we fled to Vanni, they dropped bombs on us here. Our kids saw this directly. With that they couldn't continue their education. They only felt they had to do something for the struggle. My last daughter was very affected by this, and so she joined the LTTE. Though I was very sad about this, I didn't go and search for her because I knew she left to serve the country....I cried only after she left, but for so long before my daughter left, in her heart she went through much difficulties and struggled to make this decision..."

A young woman, on an attack on her school:

"I was wounded in my stomach by the bombing. What I can't forget is that after I was wounded, I was running and I didn't even know I was wounded, and then I saw another girl lying down. A tree branch had fallen on her arm and her leg was attached only by a little tissue. She was screaming for someone to also carry her and go, so I carried her out and we escaped. She's alive now and she doesn't remember me, but other girls told her it was me who saved her and we met each other later."