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Voices of refugees from Batticaloa – 3

“Army is shelling our village constantly. A shell hit my leg. I was taken to Korathivu Venpura (TRO run artificial leg fitting organization). They gave me an artificial leg..

We left our village with what ever we could carry, that is all. People are waiting under trees. When it rains they put a cloth over their head. There is no roof here. It is hard. We have not much food. Water is hard to find.”

( (2) Ranee of Urkamam

“We have no medicine and we have no protection here. We are living under trees. We have been displacing over and over again. We left our half built home and came away because of the shelling. Now we are living on the road. There are 215 families here. Only about 5 families are still in Ulukamam. The Vavunathivu and Sengalady roads are closed. We cannot go back to get our things. People there cannot come here. We cannot see each other”

( (3) Urkamam

“We were living in Urkamam. Life was hard there. The Sri Lankan government and other organizations came and forced us to leave Urkamam and settle in Pullumulai. They promised to build houses for us in Pullumulai.

We shifted to Pullumulai. It was actually a forest with elephant. There were massive trees that were hard to cut. Government gave us Rs 25,000. We put many more 25,000. We put all our savings to create a home. Government gave money to some people to build houses. People put their own money as well and built houses. Our house was built by the government. It has far too many problems. Roof is bad, floor is bad.

Now there is shelling in Pullumulai all the time We ran away three times and then went back. Now the entire village decided to displace because we could not bear it anymore. There is severe shortage here. The Black Bridge has been closed for so long. We have no fuel, no water, no rice. We will die here.”

( (4)

“It is hard to bring things when we displaced. We left everything. No one came to look at our plight. Many children are here and they are in a sad plight. What can we do? Other countries must help us. No one seems to want to know about our misery. Only the people in this area give us some food. It is not much. How are we to share it? They are still shelling our village. We are too scared to go there.

Shelling damaged my home. Four children in my village were injured in the shelling. We could not take them to the hospital. Cows were injured too. Everything was damaged”.

14 September 2006

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