Tears Of A War Victim And The Cruelty Of Sri Lankan Forces
By Kishok Jeyachandran -August 7, 2014
Kishok Jeyachandran
The following account is based on survivor interviews to Tamils against Genocide. Personal details of Ainkaran (not his real name), place names and dates have been changed to protect his identity.
Ainkaran volunteered in a hospital in the contested North East of Sri Lanka when the government began its final offensive on the Tamil separatists. It was 2009, and the outlook was grim for the LTTE. The cadres had set up fortified settlements far behind the frontline in order to escape the artillery of the Sri Lankan Army, but there were some shells, with a range of 3-5km, that could still reach even these safe havens.
As the fighting intensified and the shells began to fall, Ainkaran helped to spread the sign of the International Red Cross across the roof of a school building that they had converted into a hospital. From up on the roof, you could already see the smoke rising over the trees, and hear the distant thud of the artillery.
When artillery fired, you first heard a deep boom far away, and then after just one second, you knew the shell would be falling. On other days, you could see the sharp shadows of the Israeli-made Kfir jets flying in squadrons of three, swooping in low and dropping their bombs. There were helicopters, too, spraying bullets and rockets into the trees.
The army declared Puthukudiiruppu, Mullaiththeevu and Mulliavalai as no-fire zones, but people said shells were landing even there, so no one went towards them. When a shell fell through the roof of the Ainkaran’s hospital, about 50 people died on the spot. Ainkaran helped to carry the wounded, and drive them to other makeshift hospitals being run by volunteers. One woman had her intestines spilling out of a wound.
When people died, they were laid out in lines outside the hospital, and relatives could come and identify them. If no one came for them after two days, they were buried all together. Many people were too afraid of the shells to come and look for their relatives there, so many were buried without their names.
