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Revisiting Nagarkovil, a traumatized sleepy hamlet in the North coast - 22 of September, 1995

Ten years that rolled away had not helped to erase the tragic memory in this sleepy hamlet. It was on the 22nd September in the year 1995, a dark period in the Tamil nation's history when the government was prosecuting a 'war for peace', that the Sri Lanka fighter jets were flying ominously over this hamlet, terrorizing the innocent peasantry.

It was noon time on a Friday, a holiday for the mostly Hindu farmers in this village. Parents were getting ready with the lunch for the children they expect would arrive after school. The kids were playing around in the compound of their school, Nagarkovil Mahavidyalaya. The usually terrorizing Sri Lankan Air force jet fighters loomed large over the school building and frightened children started running hither and thither in that sandy plain. Not a minute passed and there the bombs were landed on the heads of these kids. Twenty of them perished, most of them mutilated beyond recognition. A village cut off from the main town Point-Pedro, 15 miles away, did not have any motor vehicles to take the scores of injured. Many of these children were found limbless. Some of the parents who came to fetch the children after school too were severely injured. A good Samaritan carried this message to the district hospital in Point Pedro, where a contingent of medical doctors attached to Medicine Sans Frontiers (MSF) were based. A formidable lady doctor rushed with her station wagon and picked up the injured kids. Ironical though that this whole village is now displaced and the area is a fortified military complex, classified as a High Security Zone made inaccessible to its own peasantry. A sleepy hamlet is now a hive of activity by the occupying Sri Lankan military. The innocent villagers, including those who were injured losing limbs are all languishing in refugee camps in the neighboring harbour town of Point Pedro.

22 September 2005

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