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Vetrimanai – home of mentally ill women affected by SLAF bombing

Sri Lankan Air Force carried out two sets of bombing raids yesterday on two separate locations in the LTTE area, in Puthukudiyiruppu and Kilinochchi. Several homes were damaged in both air raids.

Vetrimanai is located very near the civilian settlement in Kilinochchi that was bombed yesterday. The walls of the new Vetrimanai residence for the mentally ill women were cracked, an indication of the shock waves caused by the bombing.

The women, already traumatized, have been severely affected and many continue lie frozen in the same place where they stood when the shock waves hit their residence.

Vetrimanai has appeared in many of the video coverage of western media. Female journalists who have visited the place have been moved by the tragedies that have befallen these women, which include rape by Sri Lankan military, loss of loved ones in the war and the tsunami, and deception by men whom they trusted and married.

The Vetrimanai building was completed in 2005 with Royal Norwegian Government aid. The foundation stone for the building was laid by the then Norwegian Ambassador Vidar Helgeson.

27 November 2007

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