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Living a life of misery, ex-LTTE child soldiers battling to rebuild their lives
View(s):Text and pix by Wasantha Chandrapala
“It was in 1996 that the LTTE took me away while in Vakaneri. Fours years later, I was sent to battle in Elephant Pass. My legs were injured from a claymore mine [blast]. One was amputated and I became less-abled,’’ Nageshwari recalls.
She had narrowly escaped death on several occasions in battle. In 2007, after the LTTE split up with Karuna Amman’s defection, she too, had escaped and returned to her village.
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- Vadivail Wasanthi became a child soldier at the age of 14
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- Selvarasa Suresh joined the LTTE while he was a 17-year-old schoolboy. He says he has no one to care for him
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- Koralepattu Divisional Secretary Gopalapillai Dhanapalasingham
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- Jeevaratnam Manjula: Lost her leg in a battle at Palaly
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- Thakshala Moorthy Kamalanathan: Lost a leg when he stepped on an IED
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- Rehabilitation Commissioner General Major General (Retired) Dharshan Hettiaarachchi
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- Shantha Kumar, who is now jobless, with his family
She had then met with a man 19 years older who had lost his wife earlier and had been left to care for five children. She gave birth to a child later.
Her husband, now aged 58, was once a fisherman, but no longer works due to ill health. They now depend on the Rs 5,000 monthly allowance.
What Ms Nageshwari faces is common among many former child soldiers who survived the conflict.
There are no statistics on child soldiers, about their disabilities and their present situation 13 years after the conflict ended.
The Sunday Times located 10 of them, of which nine had been conscripted while schooling. They were then between the ages of 12 years and 17 years. Five of them had become less-abled within four years of conscription. One had lost his hands and legs, while the others had lost a hand, a leg, or a leg and a hand.
Selvarasa Suresh, was taken away by the LTTE while a school boy at the age of 17 years in 2005 from Karaveddi in Batticaloa. Two years later, he was injured.
“In 2007, during a battle in the Mavadiodde area, I injured my hand and lost four of the fingers in the other hand. After living three months in a rehabilitation camp, I was able to return home,” he said. “As I cannot use my hands I cannot go to work. I lost my brother, too. Nobody looks into our interests and not even the Tamil politicians.’’
Jeevaratnam Manjula told the Sunday Times that she was conscripted while a schoolgirl.
“In 2000, five girls including myself went to the common well in the Vavunativu area of Batticaloa. We were taken away to Jaffna. In 2001, during a battle in Pallai my legs were seriously injured and one leg was amputated. The other leg is disabled. In 2004, I was able to return home. In 2006, I married and have four children. The eldest cannot speak and is in a children’s home, My husband has left me,” she said.
Kandasamy Shantha Kumar from Thirukkovil Ampara says he was abducted at the age of 16 and was trained to use weapons. He suffered wounds to his legs in a battle and he had left the LTTE at the age of 38. He is jobless.
Subramaniam Thiruvakaran of Kanchanakuda, Batticaloa, too, had been taken away when he was 16. He had been taken to the Wanni in 2009 and in 2010 underwent rehabilitation. In 2012, he had married and has three children, but has not been able to find a job because he is less-abled now.
There are others like Sivanandam Gokulam who was taken away at the age of 16 to the Wanni area. In 2009, he suffered serious injuries to the hand and leg. He underwent a plastic surgery and on medical advice is unable to get a job.
Vadivail Wasanthi had been taken away by the LTTE in 1996 at the age of 14 and was injured in the Elephant Pass battle in 1998. She left the LTTE after being a member for 10 years. She married in 2007 and a year later after her son was born, her husband had left her.
She had lost the sight in one eye and has a hearing disability. She manages to husk coconuts and earn Rs 200 and care for her elderly parents and child.
Thakshala Moorthy Kamalanathan from Alayaddiwembbu from Akaraipattu had joined the LTTE, and in 2001, he stepped on an improvised explosive device and lost a leg.
A Sunday Times random survey shows that some of them had not even come under the scrutiny of rehabilitation officials and there was a disparity in distributing compensation. Some had received Rs 350,000, others 500,000 and another Rs 900,000.
Some have been wounded and become widows at a young age, while some of their children are less-abled, or are children with special needs. Applications by some for being less-abled are still pending.
Koralepattu Divisional Secretary Gopalapillai Dhanapalasingham told the Sunday Times that 912 people are less-abled, but only 256 have been given the Rs 5,000 allowance, so far.
The parents of less-abled former LTTE cadres face problems as well.
As Sinnathamby Baby, 65, from Vavunathivu says her daughter Vadivail Wasanthi is finding it difficult to take care of her child and it has been miserable since their child was taken away.
She said she had to wait 11 years to see the daughter after the child was abducted. “My husband and I also are old. My daughter’s husband, too, left her. We are in a difficult situation. We are appealing so that someone can help my daughter to start some [form of] self-employment.’’
Digamadulla district lawmaker Wimalaweera Dissanayake said that though the conflict ended 14 years back, adequate measures have not been taken to address the issues left behind. There is no institution for this purpose.
Lawmaker Shanakiyan Rajaputhiran Rasamanickam, said: “There are persons like Pillayan (State Minister Sivanesathurai Chandrakanthan) Karuna (Vinayagamoorthy Muralitharan) who should be looking into these issues. We are not in the Government to resolve these issues.”
Rehabilitation Commissioner General Major General (Retired) Dharshan Hettiaarachchi said that after the conflict ended, 12,195 LTTE cadres who surrendered were rehabilitated and among them there were 594 children under 18 years old.
He said all the children resumed schooling and 166 of them sat the G.C.E. (O/L) of which 91 passed. At the 2010 A/L exam, four passed in maths, 35 in commerce and 162 from the arts.
The conflict may have ended more than a decade back, but those affected stay on.
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