Lankan kids in Bangalore now scared to go back home

They read the papers and watch TV for a glimpse of some known face. But it's the power of prayers they rely on

Lankan kids in Bangalore now scared to go back home

They read the papers and watch TV for a glimpse of some known face. But it's the power of prayers they rely on

Till recently, Lankan Tamil refugees in Bangalore were dreaming of going back home, but now they are scared by the very thought.

News is trickling in every day that their relatives, neighbours and friends have lost their lives or been displaced.
Kogila, administrator at the Indira Gandhi International Academy at Jakkur, said, "Last month I spoke to my uncle and aunts who are at Mullathivu and Vanni, close to the LTTE camps. But now I can't contact them and don't know what has happened to them."

She says she even spoke to her mother a couple of days ago at the Shivadasini camp in Tamil Nadu. Through her she got to know that some neighbours who went back to Sri Lanka four years ago had been kille d in the war.

When Kogila's family came to India, in 1990, they left behind 25 acres of land and a house in Kilinochi which they have lost now.

"My father went back to Colombo in 2003 and he works as a mason there. Once in a while he calls and updates us on the situation there but I am scared," she told MiD DAY.

In their prayers

Shivadarshini (12), studying in the sixth standard, recalls her father's death. "He was 35 when he died in a war in Tirugonmalai, when I was five years old. My mother is in Puzal camp in Chennai. I don't know anything about my neighbours and relatives who are still in Lanka. I pray for all of them to be safe," she said.

Her friend Shyamala said, "My parents were in Puzal camp. My father died in a road accident in Chennai.
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Someone brought me to Bangalore and admitted me in this school in 2004. Now I don't even know where my mother is."

She misses her mother. But four months ago she got a call fro m her and was very happy to speak to her. She told Shyamala she was working somewhere and that she need not worry about her.

"My relatives brought me here when I was seven years old. I came to know that my parents are no more after a few years," said Prabha who is awaiting her class 10 results.

Niranjan Paul, who is also associated with Indira Gandhi International Academy, said, "A bunch of people came down to India years ago. Then I was just one and a half years old. I was with my parents in Bhavani Sagar refugee camp in Erode district. Because of the war we weren't able to go back to our country." Those who did manage to return, like his uncles, can't even come out of their houses.

God save them
Hundreds of people are dying every day. Niranjan keeps abreast of the latest situation from newspapers and television.

"Many of my relatives are still there, and God alone should help them," he said.

What do the tamil rebels want?
> To survive as an armed force.
> They started fighting in the 1970s for a separate state for Tamils in Sri Lanka's north and east.
> They say Tamils had been discriminated against by successive majority Sinhalese governments.
> They are a proscribed terrorist group in many countries.

Current scene
>>Kilinochchi and rebel-held parts of the Jaffna peninsulau00a0 and finally Mullaitivu, the last of the rebels' north-eastern strongholds, was taken in February
>>With its advances in the east in 2007 and progress in the north in 2009, almost all of Sri Lanka is now under government control.
>>Violence increased after President Mahinda Rajapaksa's hard-line election campaign in November 2005
>>120,000 civilians trapped by the Tamil tigers
>>100,000 people have fled rebel-held areas in recent days.

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