Resettled survivors of Vanni onslaught languish

Resettled survivors of Vanni onslaught languish in Batticaloa

[TamilNet, Monday, 30 December 2013, 17:14 GMT]
95% of the 1080 families of Batticaloa Tamils who survived the 2009 genocidal onslaught in Vanni and resettled back in Batticaloa district have been completely neglected from any help and still languish without basic facilities. When the families displaced from Batticaloa to Vanni in 2004 from different places of the district, Karuna group paramilitary destroyed their houses and their possessions were robbed. When they returned to their district, surviving the genocidal onslaught, Europe-based NGOs and UN agencies provided temporary huts to these families. All support stopped there, and these huts became the ‘markers’ for these families to get isolated from further aid, the families complain. They have also been sidelined from the Indian housing assistance.

These families are systematically discriminated in the provision of humanitarian aid in the district through the influence exerted on the civil administration by the SL military operated paramilitary elements.

Of 4,000 houses to be constructed in the Eastern Province under the Indian housing plan, 2,000 units are allocated to the victims in Batticaloa district. The Vanni survivors are neglected also from the provision of housing scheme due to various interferences in the selection of beneficiaries, the affected families complain.

The families of Vanni survivors, who were originally displaced from Koa'ra'laip-pattu North (Vaakarai), Koa'ra'laip-pattu South (Kiraan), Vavu'natheevu, Koa'ra'laip-pattu, Paddip-pazhai, Poara-theevup-pattu and Ma'n-munaip-pattu were resettled into 10 DS divisions when they came back to the district surviving the genocidal onslaught, barbed-wire internment and SL military detention.

Chronology:

30.12.13  Resettled survivors of Vanni onslaught languish in..

28.12.13  No Indian houses for uprooted Batticaloa Tamils fr..

Mu’l’li-vaaykkaal survivor speaks out

[TamilNet, Saturday, 18 May 2013, 11:51 GMT]
Mrs Ananthi Sasitharan, who personally witnessed Sri Lanka military taking away her husband, Mr Elilan, a political leader of the LTTE, at the end the Vanni War in May 2009, speaks out her experience from a civilian point of view and as a mother caring for her children during the war and the genocidal onslaught. Still living in Vanni, at Ki'linochchi, the 46-year-old mother of three is also running an organization that seeks to establish what had happened to their beloved ones. The SL State is still refusing to reveal the fate of those who were filtered away from the civilians and taken into buses to undisclosed detention camps. The narration of the survivor of the genocidal massacre, told with courage from Ki'linochchi, brings out the spirit and courage of a people who stood with their liberation fighters until the last moment. TamilNet brings out a 40-minute recount by Mrs Sasitharan.



Ananthi tells how the people were displaced, from place to place, into the No Fire Zone; how they were systematically targeted using Kfir fighter jets, Multi-Barrel Rocket Launcher artillery and 5-inch shells that scorched the people momentarily following the explosions; how the firepower of the advancing SL military targeted the people from all the directions and where the LTTE positioned itself.

Her account is a slap on the face of the Establishments, their outfits and the authors seeking to create and sustain the myth of the so-called ‘human shields’, ridiculing a people who stood up with a courage and hope.

It also reveals the trust the people had in the humanity of the world, including their expectation that the United Nations would intervene to bring about a just solution.

The people were not aware that the International Community of Establishments was experimenting a genocide-bomb in Vanni.

“None among the Tamil people [who stood at Mu’l’livaaykkaal] thought that we would face total destruction. Even on 17th and on 18th May, we were hoping for a just solution through an intervention by the United Nations or any other country,” she says.

Even at the last moment, people were longing for freedom. There was a hope among the people that under the leadership of the United Nations, the USA would not abandon them, she says.

“But, the people waiting for outside intervention were slain even at the final hours.”

During the times of the Tigers, we didn’t think about castes or religions. We were all Tamils. That is how were used to be, she tells.

“Now, the entire society is under destruction,” she feels.

The account also brings out how the Tamil fighters took care of their people when world humanity of 21st century failed in comprehending the nature of the genocidal war.

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