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Sri Lanka war Survivor: The future holds "Nothing" - By Sara Sidner, CNN

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  • கருத்துக்கள உறுப்பினர்கள்

Sri Lanka war Survivor: The future holds "Nothing" - By Sara Sidner, CNN

Editor's note: CNN's Sara Sidner travels to Sri Lanka to report from ethnic Tamil areas and the victims of nearly three decades of civil war. Watch "Witness to Survival" March 13-16 on CNN International.

Jaffna, Sri Lanka (CNN) -- Raveendran Jenatha doesn't exude the kind of excitement and wonder young adults often do when it comes to figuring out their future. She is 21 years old and confident about what her future holds.

"Nothing," she said softly.

Raveendran Jenatha is sure she has no future because of her past and what it has done to her.

"Now I can't do anything. That is the only problem," she said.

Then her sweet smile and confident tone broke, and she burst out in a moaning sob. Through her tears, she sputtered: "I need help for everything."

Video: Witness to Survival part 2

Video: Witness to Survival part 3

Video: Sri Lanka's internment camps

RELATED TOPICS

* Sri Lanka

* Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam

* War and Conflict

Raveendran Jenatha is one of an estimated 280,000 people who were trapped last year in the middle of the final battles of the war in Sri Lanka -- a decades-long conflict that pitted government forces against the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Elam (LTTE or Tamil Tigers), who were seeking an independent homeland in the country's north. She escaped, but not before losing her legs and one of her eyes.

"We got into a bunker, and a shell fell inside the bunker where we were taking shelter. My cousin died. Me? I lost my two legs," she said, forgetting about her damaged eye, as she went on telling what happened.

Minutes later, she added: "I don't have an eye either."

Raveendran Jenatha and her family live in a northern Sri Lanka neighborhood where their story is the norm. The other families that surround them also have epic war stories and battered bodies. They lived through months of terror running from one bunker to another to avoid death.

The world's attention turned to the tear-shaped island off the tip of southern India as the war flared. In the last few months of the war in 2009 -- during some of the fiercest fighting -- allegations of war crimes and a humanitarian crisis made headlines across the globe.

Allegations surfaced against both sides.

The Tamil Tigers were accused of using civilians as human shields, keeping them from leaving the increasingly dangerous battle zones -- allegations they denied.

The Sri Lankan military was accused of bombing and shelling areas in the safe zone including hospitals, an allegation its commanders denied.

At the height of the separatist war in April to May 2009, the government began barring independent journalists from covering the battle zones -- creating even more questions about what was going on and leaving untold the stories of civilians caught in the fighting.

Months after the conflict ended those war survivors are emerging from the battle zones and government camps they had to live in. The government has opened most of the camps to allow those with somewhere to go out, such as Raveendran Jenatha.

She has never known a life without war. Her story, like the others, gushes out in a flood of tears or anger or a state of resignation as she tries to explain what happened to her and those she loved, and how to cope with a new reality.

"Now that the problems which we face do not exist I feel happy," she said as she carefully concealed her amputated legs. "But yet after going through so much, after the fighting for so many years, and after destroying so many things, what use was it? What was it all for? We are back to square one."

http://www.cnn.com/2010/WORLD/asiapcf/03/12/sri.lanka.war.survivor/index.html

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Share Your Comment

Sara Sidner, International Correspondent

CNN International

http://www.cnn.com/CNN/anchors_reporters/sidner.sara.html

http://www.fccsouthasia.net/member-directory1.php

Office:

F-162 Malcha Marg Chanakyapuri

New Delhi - 110021

Phone:

Fax:

Mobile: 9811045018

Email: sara.sidner@turner.com, sara.sider@cnn.com

Muthamizh

Chennai

Vanakkam

Please watch this documentary

CNN's Sara Sidner travels to Sri Lanka to report from ethnic Tamil areas and the victims of nearly three decades of civil war.

Part 1

http://www.tyouk.org/video/musicvideo.php?vid=f8e235707

Part 2

http://www.tyouk.org/video/musicvideo.php?vid=ad174779d

Part 3

http://www.tyouk.org/video/musicvideo.php?vid=a998b4d41

Part 4

http://www.tyouk.org/video/musicvideo.php?vid=2fc3787e8

Nandri

இந்த திரியுக்கு ஒருத்தரும் பதில் எழுதாயினமோ. கொடுமை சார். நான்கு காணொளிகளையும் நான் பார்த்து இருந்தன். பல விசயங்கள் சொல்லப்பட்டு இருக்கிது. நம்மோட கொள்கைவகுப்பாளார்கள், ஆய்வாளர்கள் அவசியம் பார்க்கவேண்டிய ஓர் ஆவணம் இது. நாம் நம்மைப்பற்றி மற்றவன் என்ன நினைக்கிறான் எண்டு இதைப்பார்த்து கொஞ்சம் விளங்கிக்கொள்ளலாம். நாம் நாம சொல்லிறதை மற்றவன கேட்கவேணும் எண்டு நினைக்கிறம். நம்மைப்பற்றி மற்றவன் எப்படி பார்க்கிறான் என்பதையும் கொஞ்சம் காணலாமே.

  • கருத்துக்கள உறுப்பினர்கள்

ஒவொரு தமிழனும் எமது மக்களுக்கு இழைக்கபட்ட அநீதிக்கு பரிகாரம் காண முன் வரவேண்டும். வீதியில் இறங்கி போராட விட்டாலும், உலக தலைவகளின் கதவை தட்டலாம் இப்படியாக:

Every single Tamil should vow to take this as our personal challenge. We can DO IT UNITEDLY around the world as diaspora to liberate our Tamil nation.

"Coming together is a beginning; keeping together is progress; working together is

success"

Sign the World-Wide Petition to bring Sri Lankan War Criminals in the government and military to justice in the International Criminal Court.

Click on link:

http://www.liberatetamils.net/english/index.html

PENALIZE THE WAR CRIMINALS

பார்க்கும் போது கண்ணீர் வந்துவிட்டது.அதுவும் பல பால்குடி சிறுமிகள் மயிரையும் ஒட்ட வெட்டி "கொடுமையிலும் கொடுமையடா ஈஸ்வரா".

எனக்கு பெண்பிள்ளைகள் இல்லை ஆனால் எனது பல சகோதரங்களுக்கு உண்டு.அவர்கள் தமது பெண்பிள்ளைகளை வளர்க்கும் விதத்தை பார்க்க எனக்கு வியப்பாக இருக்கும்.அவர்களே இல்லாத பொல்லாத ஸ்டைலை அவர்களுக்கு பழக்குகின்றார்கள்.

பலவந்தமாக பிடிக்கப்பட்டு மொட்டையடித்து ஆயுதத்துடன் சிறுமிகள்?

இவர்களை நம்பி எமது போராட்டம்? பாவங்கள்.புலம் பெயர் தமிழன் செய்த அநியாயம் எந்த கங்கையில் குளித்தாலும் போகாது.

கடைசி உலகம் உணர்ந்து இதை நிறுத்திவிட்டது.நாம் இன்னமும் விட்டடிக்கின்ற கதையில் நிற்கின்றோம்.

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