Black Pages of my Life - Eelan Elanko

My Bitter Experiences back in Home Land


It was 1977, I was 6 years old, the first time I remember the life threatening experience. We were in Colombo, the capital of Sri Lanka. We had restrictions to go out of the house, there was a curfew order, but people were beaten, killed & their properties were burnt. People’s businesses were destroyed. Our neighbors were a Sinhalese. I saw they were happy as normal, “why not us”?, I asked my dad, “because we are Tamils” My dad replied. My elder brother asked, “can’t we tell the cops”?, “they are the one backing the riots” He replied. Then I asked, “who is going to help us”?, “our fate” was the answer I got. “why don’t we call our uncle, he was in Army”, my brother asked him again, “He is in the Military Prison for firing in the air to stop the riots” My Dad replied with a critic smile. The same day, one of my dad’s friend, who was a police officer, came home in a police vehicle and took us to his house to save our lives, it was a police quarters. Few days later we got the news that our house and car were burnt. It took a while for my parents to rebuild our lives. It was a must that every Government servant should pass a Sinhalese efficiency exam. Two Government servants called Kodishwaran & Surendren were dismissed as they refused to do the Sinhala Efficiency exam. They appealed the case in Privy Council, London as they were the one ruling Sri Lanka. Judgment came in favor of them, and the Government had to cancel the dismissal order. After that Sri Lankan Government took away the rights to appeal on Privy Council, bringing new laws, using their Majority as a weapon. The Tamils reacted, so did my Dad. He was a Professor, he experienced discrimination by the students and staff. He refused to do Sinhala efficiency Exam, and he was threatened with an un blast Bomb in his class room. My mum was scared and requested my dad to quit the job. He applied for a voluntary retirement at the age of 37, He stopped going to the uni, stayed back home for a while. My mum was a Teacher in a school. My dad started working in a private concern. We bought another car. In 1979 there was a riot again . I remember we were travelling in the car, and saw Tamil’s Shops were burning; my dad stopped the car to fill water in the radiator. We were scared that we will be killed if they find out that we were Tamils. We played Sinhalese songs in the car, we started talking in Sinhalese, my mum erased her bhindhi called “Pottu” in Tamil, it’s a symbol of Hindus, the women have a red color round on their forehead with a special powder called “ Kungkumum”, We pretended as Sinhalese to save our lives. The fear for life, wherever we go made my parents to take a decision to go back to our own place, Trincomalee. In 1982 we moved to Trincomalee leaving our belongings behind to move later, later we came to know, they were stolen and destroyed. My dad started a business and established in no time. My mum got transferred and we had a happy life. But it didn’t last long. In 1983 there was another riot. My Dad had many Sinhalese clients, one day, it was mid July, a Sinhalese client came and wanted to talk to my dad in person, my mum was scared to leave dad alone. Then he said “ it’s ok” my mum also can stay. He requested my dad to move from our area as early as possible, as there’s going to be a mass attack on Tamils around Trincomalee. Since we lived in a place next to an area where most of them were Sinhalese. He did so because my dad had saved his life so many times. My dad passed this news around the Tamil Community and we were on alert to save ourselves. Since my dad’s business place was attached to our house and it was on the main road we moved our movable property to another house, it was bit interior. One day afternoon we saw the same person who requested my dad to move, was walking in front of our house with a knife along with many other thugs and they were guarded by military forces. At nights people gathered in separate groups and had different signs to inform the other group to be alert like temple bell, if we hear a temple bell everyone will go and hide in the places allocated to them.
2
One day one of my cousin sister came yelling on the road towards our house saying “ my dad got shot” , she could not speak much as she was heavily breathing and crying. We understood something went wrong. My dad also had a Motorbike, he just jumped on it and went towards her house. Her father, my uncle had a Post Shop near Sinhalese area. When my dad went there, uncle was bleeding and said a Sinhalese guy came and asked him for a stamp, he did bend down to pick the stamp, and when he stood, the person did shoot him, luckily the bullet entered into his mouth and came through his cheek. My dad took him to the hospital, he was saved. In another few days, I saw an army truck coming to our area in search of a youth who reacted against sinhalese thugs attacking a Tamil person. He was not at home so the army found his younger brother from inside the toilet of his house and got him beaten until he went unconscious. I can still visualize the scene, the army throwing him in to the truck brutally. That day I realized, no matter we directly involve or not, we will be punished for being born as a Tamil. It was 26th of July 1983; I can never forget in my life, I was sleeping in a hut next to a Coconut farm in the beach. It was nearly 9.00pm I woke up with a bomb blast on the road. My dad came in to the hut, grabbed me and ran out. The bomb continued with Truck breaks and firing sounds. My dad left us, me ,my little sister and mum under a coconut tree along with few others and he went back to help other people settling down safely. My three elder brothers were gone in different directions and found a place to hide on a dirty bush with broken bottles. They had noticed a few Uniformed Army approaching them but they couldn’t see my brothers hiding in the dark. They just fired in to the bush next to the bush where my brothers were hiding. My third elder brother fainted on the spot with fear. We could not even cry louder, all we did is hugged each other and prayed to God to save us with tears. We saw few helicopters on the air firing everywhere. We were almost dead, no one thought we would survive. The whole town was burning with loads firing and bombing. It continued till 4 am in the morning, but we didn’t move till 6am . After 6 slowly people started coming out and searched for their relatives and friends so we did for my brothers. Two of my brothers came to us; my mum fainted asking for my third brother. She thought he was no more, he was safe but was not in a state to walk. A friend of my dad carried him to my mum. We saw our car was burnt and still with flames, House & Business place were burnt. The house where we kept our movable properties was burnt to the ground. But it was not a surprise for us; in fact we had a smile in our faces for being alive. That smile didn’t last for long. We heard people yelling and running, saying, “they are back”. We thought that was the end. A van came and stopped near our burnt house, it was my dad’s friend, Shouted us to get in to the van. He took us to a village , it was almost a forest. We lived there for a month still with fear. No one could come out of the shock, specially my third brother. He started running in no direction, fell down and screamed whenever he heard a helicopter or flight sound. We had no school or any other activities. We do go fishing, fruit picking and hunting along with others as we had no other means to survive. We learnt making hunting weapons for hunting, and they can also harm human. After the riot eased a bit, we rebuilt the house and business again. One day me and my brother were returning from the town, there was a check point by the Sri Lankan Army. We saw 4 men were kneeled down in line with their hands tied to the back; one of them was my uncle who had two little daughters. Army filled their neck with big tiers, and burnt them alive. My uncle was a normal man who had no connections with any political or freedom fight organizations. His daughter joined LTTE when she became an adult, what any one would have done in her situation, and she also died in a fight.
3
It was 1985; I was doing my year 8. I was in the class; a teacher came to my class and asked for me. A van was waiting for me, my brother and mum where in the van. I asked, “ why you are taking me back home”. My mum said we were leaving Trincomalee, I asked “But where” she said “don’t know”, I asked where is my dad, she said “He is safe, but there is a threaten for our life”. We left to Jaffna and stayed with our relatives in different places like, Valvettithurai, Koppai, Thattatheru. We lived, then we came back to Trincomalee after nearly 6 months, with some enquiries and hoping to be safe in Trincomalee, though it was not sure.. My dad did send my first 2 elder bothers to India to save them as there is more danger for the youths of their age. I was 14 years old, all my bitter experiences even made me to think of punishing the main people involved in the riots, and who supported the Tamil Genocide. Three of us from the my class, decided to punish those people, wrote letters to our parents that we were leaving for the welfare of Tamil people. We left home, picked some arms, and went to Batticaloa to get a few more arms and came back with one more person from Batticaloa, we 4 of us well planed the actions. All we want was to punish them; we never thought what would happen to us, although we knew well that our life was in danger and we were not going to live for long. Apart from the Family, few others know that we have left home for this reason; it was kept secret as it may affect the other family members. Particularly, now called Kabillamman, knows the story as he was very close to my grandma. He was one among the youths who were reacting against Tamil Genocide, later he became one of the team leader in LTTE. Before we left home, we asked him that we wanted to join in LTTE, but he refused as they don’t take children of our age. While we were walking on the rail way track, He saw us and he convinced us not to involve in any sort of activity in that age and took us back home. In the mid of September 1985 the riots began again, we left all the properties and moved to a village called ‘Sampalthivu”. The connecting Bridge between the city and the village was destroyed, and we had to walk on wooden pieces arranged to walk with risk. Me, my brother and my little sister, mum and dad with our grandparents aged above 80, not only us also our pet dog “Danny” came along with us. I was so sad that we left our cat back home as we could not find him in a hurry. The first time I saw LTTE, our saviors, and felt proud of them. They taught me to handle some the weapons. When I asked them I want to join them, they said I got time to do so. I was waiting for the day to serve my people, as my heart was severely wounded. My dad engaged in helping displaced people, Medical help, collecting food and distributing. One day in a vehicle behind my father was a Tamil Family; they were stopped by the Government forces and burnt alive inside the car. The Forces then forwarded in to the village, we know we will be killed for no reason. We want to leave the village, but there was no way, only way we had was a river. I remember my dad carried me on his shoulders and crossed the river. There was not much water in the river but to the level of my dad’s chest. With great difficulty we reached town and took a bus to Colombo, got the news that our properties were burnt again. We left to India in October 1985. New country, new friends, New life with same thirst. We could not come out from the pain caused by the Sri Lankan Government and “Government backed “ Sinhalese Thugs. it is not revenge, it is our rights, our lives. Yes, we need Tamil Eelam a separate land for Tamils as we lived before the arrival of British in Sri Lanka. These are only few black pages from my life, but there are more which cannot be explained. I thank my Father for making me a genuine, true Tamil, so did I, My son knows my History. There is no end, till we Tamils get a permanent solution. Even now I’m ready to die for my country, for my people.