War is over. Are you comfortable now?

War is over, war is over, war is over. That is the chant moaned by the government and its associates
through the last 11 months. But we would like to ask one question. Is it all right now? Or is it comfortable
now? The simple meaning of this is “you think it’s all over after the war is over?" We clearly remind you
about one thing. Though the war is over, the problem is not over. It’s in its primary stage, or it is worse
than that.

People made many commitments to defeat the separatist terrorist front. All the people from north and
south queued up together for that. Tamil people from north left Prabhakaran alone and fled, trusting the
government army. At that time the Muslim people from the east trusted the government too. All the
Sinhala, Tamil, and Muslim people from the south put up with a bunch of ministers extending to
hundreds, their thefts, their rowdyism, with the price of goods, many kinds of defense taxes and also the
so called strength of the government doing war. How did the government pay them back? What did the
government do for the people who queued up for patriotism, and who thought of the country rather than
their tummies.

Now the people of the east sigh as they look at foundation stones and light posts abandoned all over the
place. The people of the south watch on television the way the next prince of the Rajapaksha generation
is being dressed with kurahan satake by using the votes looted from them by hammering the dead tiger
skin.

Today the people of north have been put into misery that cannot be explained in words. They
have been made into beggars. They have been made into a situation where they are worse
than the dust of the A-9 road.

Take this road….

We would like to request you to come walking

along the A-9 road consciously if you want to
see with your own eyes the sufferings faced by
the people of the north. We especially have to
refer “consciously”, because we have seen many
times the ridiculous things done on trips by
people who have been lost because of the
synthetic dreams of government, like Uthuru
Wasanthe. Our mothers who pose for
photographs in many gestures beside the

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devastated Kilinochchi water tank would not think for a moment that because of the broken water tank,
the children in Kilinochchi are without water to drink.

Think of when the female devotees who are overjoyed with Buddha’s enlightenment because of the
opportunity to worship Nagadeepaya travelling to Jaffna through A-9 on their noses’ directions, and it
would not come to their minds of the 15 year old mothers in the slums on both sides of the road who
feed their children of three years with their under-grown breasts.

This is not a fault of our country’s people. This is the result of the hypnotism carried out on the people by
the government. The Uthuru Wasanthe is on one side. The train for your hearts is on another side.
An advertisement on the North showing massive developments is on one side. The news on the
kethumathi reign is on another side. We would like to request from you again to come walking along the
A-9 road not in dreams, but in reality. The government
boasted of finishing the resettlement of the people in the IDP
camps of the north by January
in the election times. But all of
IDPs who still remain our
brotherly people are still
suffering in the IDP camps
including Settikulam. Their
children do not have even the
lowest facilities needed to
study. And also many schools
haven’t been opened. Or they
are used as school IDPs. And
also the devastated schools
haven’t been built yet. And they
are also used as schools for
rehabilitation camps.

As an example, Periyakulam
college of Kanagarayankulam is still a collection of four white walls. It hasn’t been built. And also
Omanthai central college is still a rehabilitation centre rehabilitating LTTE suspects. Therefore school
children have to study in the nearby slums made with coconut branches.

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The Periyankulam college of Kanagarayam Kulam still only has four walls.

The students of Omanthai central college who study under trees and slums of coconut
branches for a year because of their schools have been maintained as rehabilitation camp.

Re orphaning alias resettlement

Resettlement is a mere bunkum. It is not a

resettlement. It is re-orphaning. What the
government did as resettlement is to leave
the people of slums on the two sides of the
road. They are given only 9 corrugated metal
sheets and 10 pieces of wood in this so called
resettlement. Some houses haven’t been
given even that much. They have been given
only a tent sheet by
the NGOs.

Can you ever

imagine the lives
spent by these
Tamil people in
these small huts
just like children’s
playing huts. No economic mechanism is made related to their families. The protection of the children
and women, and their confidentiality are still critical problems. The student called “Krishna” who met us
in Kilinochchi said that some person entered into her camp many times in night and ran his hands on her
body.

Both mother and child are children

A critical problem in these IDP camps is that many under aged children became mothers. “Sharmila” who
we met at Mankulam was 15 years old. She has a daughter aged 2.5 years. Her husband and the father
of child is 16 years old.

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 This is not a misery inherited only to her. The reason is that they had
been prompted to marry with somebody and make children, to prevent
LTTE from taking them to their organization. The reason is pregnant
women or women with small children were not taken by the LTTE. The
result of this social conflict is visible in front of our eyes. There is a critical
need of implementing a brisk mission related to them on education and
health. But this problem has not even been identified properly by the
government.

IDP camps without rehabilitation.

And also there are many centres introduced as rehabilitating centres of LTTE suspects are in Vaunia.
Among them there are Pampalu, Punthottam, Nellukulam, Marambikulam, Vavuniya Muslim
College and Omanthai central college. Especially many Tamil children still have been imprisoned in
Pampamadu camp for 12 months.

University of Jaffna
Government launched a big advertising process during the presidential
election that about 1750 students in these camps
had been released. But on April 8th, less than 500
had been released. Among them there were few
students. Although there were more than 200
students of Jaffna University in the Pampamadu
camp, only 43 female students were released. Not
even one male student of the Jaffa University was
released. Today there are still more than 150 male
students who are imprisoned in Pampamadu camp.
And no information was even revealed of those
students.

The facilities in those camps are below standard.

The students were sent to those camps from IDP camps. We asked those students what were the steps
taken for rehabilitation in those camps. They said that they were trained to how to make rings using
coconut shells. We asked what were the reason for giving training on making rings of coconut shells to
people who have bee selected to universities to study commerce,
arts, medicine and engineering degrees. The government should
explain the rehabilitation coming out of it. Shouldn’t we go against
the wrong doing of the government which is imprisoning, wasting
and destroying young Tamil lives?

And also there are 12 disabled female students among those female
students. Among them some are critically disabled who have lost
their hands, legs. But no facility was provided by the university. A
building is provided as the only facility to them for their living.

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 But it is strictly forbidden for anybody of them
to go outside university premises. They weren’t
allowed to go out even on New Year days.
Therefore they have been imprisoned in the
university in addition to their imprisonment of a
year.

Among the female students imprisoned in the

Jaffna University, there are female students of
other universities. As an example, a female
student called “Peter Sathgunarasan Anusha”
was chosen for Kelaniya University according to
A/Ls. Her course was Peace and Conflict
Resolution. But she is in a hostel of Jaffna
University. Her course is not conducted in Jaffna University. Likewise there are female students who have
been chosen for eastern University and south-east University.

Ranked 2nd in the district but the university is prohibited.

We got to know of better examples of lives of Tamil students being destroyed in this Pampamadu camp.
She is Puwanenthitan Thasmida. She faced her A/L in 2009 in maths stream. Results came and she
was ranked second in the Mullaitivu district. Therefore she was chosen for the engineering faculty. But
she was not allowed to register in the university by the Pampamadu authorities. She is still in her camp.

All the factors show the misery faced by Tamil people. Many Tamil students have become victims of this
misery. 5 students have died since the war in Jaffna district. 4 out of them are students of Jaffna
University. And three of them died by hanging themselves.

Balasingham Karunanidhi who committed suicide on 2010/04/02 was a third year student of the
management faculty of Jaffna University. The reason for his death was the harassment faced by him in
the past wartime and after wartime. He and his nine family members had been suffering for months in
IDPs and in those camps; Balasingham was not treated for his illnesses. After that he came back to
Jaffna University and was not treated. And also his nine family members spent a worse life. All of them
had been given only 07 tin roof sheets. That pressure affected them too. The last result was his death by
hanging himself.

A male student of the management faculty of Jaffna University Ravindradasan Victor Aruldas and a
female student called Velayandan Piruwali jumped to Kopali lagoon and suicide on February 10th. They
were lovers. Ravindradasan was shot in the wartime and had a neural illness. But he was not given any
treatment. At last they wrote letters and commit suicide themselves together.

And also Tiruchelvam Kapilanath of Jaffna was abducted for a ransom of 30 millions and killed on 14th
of March. An LTTE cadre of Jaffna has been accused for that. And also three months ago a female
student of Jaffna University died having Dengue flu. These suicides show the pressure faced by north and
east Tamil people today. They happened because of the pressures got critical more than they could bear.
The government should be responsible for this. These show that the government does not care about the
Tamil people. And also about 10000 Tamil people are still detained in government prisons as political
prisoners. It is a critical situation and also about 140 Tamil students in Jaffna and east universities have

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vanished. That is since the war but the government doesn’t reveal any information on that. Because of
these conditions, Tamil people have to suffer many pressures. The pressure is so high that some persons
choose suicide themselves. Therefore their rights should be given immediately. The development should
be taken forward briskly. Devastated schools, buildings, houses, transportation should be restored.

But the government is playing the fool. The former transport minister Dallas Alahapperuma’s frauds like
“A ticket to heart” to build a railway track to Jaffna should be stopped. Because they are deceived the
Tamil people again.

In the last year minister Dallas couldn’t build a railway any kilometre beyond Vavuniya. The results will be
terrible if no brisk intervention is made. The reason is the pressure among Tamil students before the year
1983 ended with a terrible terrorism. The prime minister is talking nonsense of terrorism’s three phase
arrival. The youth problems should be solved to prevent youth conflicts from emerging. People’s rights
should be given to prevent people’s rise. Therefore to prevent armed conflicts again, the problems of
Tamil people should be solved by giving their rights.

Otherwise, the rise of the youth cannot be prevented by accusing all the Tamil youth in the prison camps
that they are LTTE terrorists and keeping them in prisons or by addressing false arguments of keeping
and curbing laws such as the law of emergency. The people should be given rights. The people
should be given democracy. The people should be given freedom. That is the way to build
real national harmony.

Udul Premarathne (0777-357124)

Convener, Inter university students’ federation

Email: udulpremarathne@yahoo.com

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