Female LTTE ex-cadre seeks mom

VAVUNIYA

Feb. 24: Clutching her stomach in pain, the ex-Tiger cadre is worried she might die before meeting her mother. Chinnathurai Pushpa looks weak from malnutrition and perhaps a serious abdominal ailment acquired from years of hard life in north Lanka, where years of bloody war has wasted thousands of young lives like herself in the Tamil community known for a high degree of intelligence and enterprise.

"I was in the movement (LTTE) for a little over 18 months. After the training and field work (battle), I was transferred to the administrative wing due to my illness. I was taken by force (by the Tigers) from my home in Batticaloa (eastern province) and so was always looking for a chance to slip out. My chance came when the LTTE was engaged in fierce battle near Iruttumunai and I escaped," recalled the 22-year-old woman, searching the stranger’s face for any sign of sympathy that could translate into help to reach her mother. Actually, Pushpa joined her mother for a brief period when she reached home at Moongilaaru in Vanni. The family quickly packed up a few clothes and began its perilous journey across the firing line to reach the Army checkpost at Omanthai (in Vavuniya district). When she confessed to her innings in the LTTE, Pushpa was retained at Omanthai Army camp for a day "for quarantine and questioning" and sent to the crowded camp at a Vavuniya school while the family had been allocated space in Settikulam school a few miles away.

Pushpa is not the only LTTEer to have crossed over. "There are about 250 persons in the relief camps who have confessed to have been involved in the LTTE in some way. Thirty six hardcore fighters who have crossed over to us have been housed in rehabilitation centres for counselling and the rest were allowed to be with families," said military spokesman Brigadier Udaya Nanayakkara.