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Voices of refugees- 6

“How many times we have displaced since 1990. I am from Elalai in Jaffna.

From there we displaced to Kopay from there to Thannakillapu from there to Poonahari in 1995, from there back to Jaffna in 2002, from there back to Poonahari in 2005 and now from there here in Mukkomban. We moved to Poonahari in December 2005 frightened of the killing and disappearance in Jaffna. From Poonahari we displaced to here because of the Sri Lankan army artillery shelling.

One month ago, my brother was badly injured by an artillery shell in Poonahari. His children saw it happen. They were lucky because they have just gone inside the house. After that we did not want to stay in Poonahari so we moved here.

My husband cleared the forest here and put up this hut with burrowed money. My husband works for daily wages. He had to do this as well as work for our bread. What to do we need a place to live with three children. One of them is a baby. UNICEF and SOLIDAR came and gave us sleeping mats. They also built toilets. Water is a problem. We have to walk one and half Km to get water.

Because this is a forest there are lots of snakes, scorpions and centipedes. One day in the early morning as the children were sitting outside a cobra came. My nine year old son killed it. Earlier there was one inside the hut. My husband was here so he killed that. At night this is a worry. We sleep inside the mosquito net for protection.

People in this village say that we are fools to have built our homes in this forest. They say that when it rains water flows through this area with great force. We will have to wait and see.

How can the children study in this atmosphere? My children’s school is also displaced and is functioning here.

The cost of living is unbearable. Our hardships never seem to end.”

13 October 2006

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