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Refugee voices from Batticaloa -1

“We are one hundred families staying here. There was shelling in our village continuously for three days. The shelling appeared to be directed deliberately on the civilians. It was not directed at the LTTE camps. We, the villagers were discussing among ourselves about displacing from our village. Before we could displace many Sri Lankan military vehicles arrived. There were many members of Karuna party in the military vehicles.

They got off and told us to go away from our village. They told us that Batticaloa is for Karuna party. They told us to go to Vanni and not come back to Batticaloa. They threatened to shoot us if we do not go away.

The entire village started to walk at 6.30 am and arrived at this school at 6.30 pm. No one has come to help us so far. We are sharing whatever food we brought with us. This is a small poor school. There are no toilet facilities for 100 families. We do not have enough clothes to wear. Hygiene is very poor.

People are still displacing from villages near our village. Those who are arriving here now are saying that the same pattern of attack that happened to our village is happening to other villages. First the military shells the civilian areas in the village. Then Karuna party comes and chases them away. Some of our families have been separated by the displacement.

I was farming 200 acres of rice field. I had to leave the crops which will be wasted now. I took a big loan to do this. How can I repay the loan when my crops are not cared for to maturity? It is better to die here than to face life after all this with the huge loan to be repaid.”

Kannappan aged 50 from Vadamaikkulam

“My family and I went to the lake, a little further from my village, to fish. I had spread the net and we were sleeping in a sand mound. Suddenly we heard explosions. Then we saw people from our village running away. People said that Karuna party is in the village and they are threatening the villagers to vacate the village. Some from adjacent village said that Karuna party has already shot dead two people, Namasivayan and Vijayarasa, in their village. People said that the Karuna party parked their vehicle in front of the Cooperative shop and emptied all the groceries in the shop into their vehicle and drove off. Once the Karuna party left, the Sri Lankan military started shelling our village from their camps.”

An ICRC official was listening to this statement as it was made.

Palipodi Thangeswari (Female aged 45)

“It has been raining a lot. We have no shelter. We are living under trees. There are mothers among us with one month old babies. They were forced to stay awake all night holding the umbrella over their babies.”

05 September 2006

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