Wail of tears in Vavuniya

Nightmare for 50 children cut away from their parents and other agonizing stories

While hundreds of people are trying to flee war-torn Jaffna, some 2000 people who want to return to Jaffna are stranded in Vavuniya and many are their stories of anguish and suffering such as the 50 schoolchildren who are going through a nightmare because they are unable to get back to their parents.

Vavuniya’s Additional District Secretary P. S. Charles said that since August 13, more than 700 public servants who wanted to return to Jaffna after work elsewhere were stuck in Vavuniya. In addition there were more than 150 students and 83 patients who had gone to Colombo or elsewhere and were unable to return to Jaffna. Ten people have come from abroad and want to get back to their homes in Jaffna. They were being accommodated in churches, kovils and other places while some were living with relatives and friends till they found a way of getting back to the northern capital.

The official said more and more people were coming in and the Vavuniya District Secretariat did not have enough funds to provide basic needs for them.

She said that cooked meals were being provided as far as possible because the stranded people did not have provision to cook dry rations. NGOs were helping in this relief venture.

As the fighting continues in Muhamalai, most of the stranded people are losing hope and fear they might have to stay on and suffer as refugees.

Among those stuck in Vavuniya are 50 school children who had come to Colombo accompanied by their teachers for sports events. They have been accommodated in Vavuniya schools but these children who are below the age of 13 often go through nightmares and wake up screaming for a reunion with their parents, their teachers said.

Another tragic story is that of a girl and her mother. Her father died in Jaffna and they were hoping to go there to kiss him goodbye but they are still stuck in Vavuniya and the father has probably been cremated. They will cry for the rest of their lives.

Among the stranded people was a pregnant woman who had to go through the agony of giving birth to a child amongst strangers with no family members anywhere near her.

Ms. Charles said the District Secretariat, though handicapped, was trying to do its best and trying to help the stranded people to at least get telephone calls to their families in Jaffna.