JANUARY 2019 : SRI LANKA : Memories of a volunteer : Postscript

Two weeks after I flew home to Australia the Boxing Day tsunami hit the east and southern coast of Sri Lanka, devastating communities in its path.

Kilinochchi, with its limited resources, became a safe haven for so many displaced families.

Soon after, in late 2005 hostilities were ignited again between the Tamil and Singla forces, which lasted until 2009.

During this time I was in contact with several of the students from the English College and followed their tragic stories.

Sutharsiny

Sutharsiny suffered much in the following years. She lost her daughter in the tsunami and was displaced several times from her coastal village of Vempady. In 200her family, her husband and another daughter born in 2005, were placed in a camp in Jaffna, where they lived until the end of the war.  Her poignant letters reflect the hardship and sadness of a community craving for normality and peace. Her final letter in 2009 finished with “There is a school opened in the IDP camp. There are 1500 students and 84 teachers. I am teaching English and Maths. It is difficult to teach here now because we have nothing with us. Only the knowledge in mind.”

Gobi

killed in 2009

Piraveena

Piraveena married a Tamil man in Zurich, and now has a daughter, and was able to escape the deprivations of the war.

Boby

Boby lived in Kilinochchi until she was married and lived most of the war on the border town of Vavuniya. She, her husband and son were able to receive refugee status and immigrated to the UK after the war. She has a job in a migrant centre teaching English.

Uthaya

A letter from Uthaya in 2009

“The war came to an end this year May 17th and we entered the SL army controlled area May 19th. We were in the IDP camp from May 19th until 30th October. In the camp we can’t get enough water. It was very hot in the tents where we stayed. Most of the people suffered from many diseases. We couldn’t go out from the IDP camp. We had no freedom. I have two sons. Both of them had many difficulties in the camp. My son at 8 months injured on his knee (gun shot) in Wanni. Now we are very happy. We were released on October 30th. We were there for six months. Now we are in our ancestral home which is in Chulipuram, Jaffna. We had lost everything. Many valuable things. But I bought the Grammar Book (Raymond Murphy) which you sent.”

Komathy

The last I heard from Komathy, as her brother lived in Canada,she was hoping there might be a possibility to follow him there.

After the tsunami, in early 2005, and when tensions were rising between the Tamil and Singla armies, Kofi Annan, the then Secretary-General of the United Nations, was refused entry by the Singla government, to assess the damage. He sent this conciliatory message. 

By 2009 many more than the 64,000 people had been killed and displaced.

M