Background to Chandran’s murder
Chandran is poor fishermen, married with three children, all under the age of 12. He lived in Pallikudiyiruppu, a border village between the LTTE area and GoSL controlled area in Trincomalee. His daily routine is to catch fish from a lake in his village and take it on his bicycle across the border to Toppur, a border village in GoSL controlled area to sell his catch. He will return home before night. This means everyday Chandran crosses the SLA checkpoint at Toppur twice.
On 23 May Chandran left with his fish catch as usual to Toppur. He did not return that night. Next morning at 7.00 am Chandran’s wife and their seven year old youngest daughter went looking for him. They saw Chandran’s bicycle just 10 metres from the SLA checkpoint. When they went near the bicycle, they saw the fish catch still in the box tied to the bicycle. The fish naturally has gone rotten and flies were all over the fish. Chandran’s wife noticed blood on the road. As she looked beyond, just 5 metres from the bicycle into a paddy field she saw Chandran’s body. She attempted to take away the bicycle which is one of their priced possessions. The SLA men at the checkpoint came with the stick and chased away the mother and child. 
Mother and child ran away and went to the ICRC. Mother was able to recover the bicycle and the father’s body with the help of ICRC. Chandran and his wife through their hard work have kept up the education of their three children in spite of the hardship. With the loss of Chandran and his income, the mother cannot send the children to school any more. In fact they will struggle just to feed themselves. With no other choice the two older children of Chandran, aged 12 and 10, are now working as stone breakers.
05 June 2006
|
Europe which has a total population of 800 million is made up of 45 language based nation states. South Asia which has a total population of one billion, (1000 million) is comprised of four states. Who is preventing and therefore benefiting by limiting new nation-states in South Asia?
Print this
Email this
more
