Refugees happy over LTTE advance

By Prafulla Das

MALKANGIRI, MAY 20. The Sri Lankan refugees living in the Malkangiri district of Orissa since March 1990, are elated that the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE) is successfully continuing its fight against the Sri Lankan Army. But they have no plans of going back to their country since trouble continues to brew there.

The refugees, who have made Malkangiri their home for all practical purposes, still cherish the hope of a separate Tamil Eelam even though they feel that division of Sri Lanka would not be that easy, and the crisis would continue for long.

They are also not sore over the recent extension of the ban on the LTTE by the Indian Government. Rather, they are all praise for the neutral stand taken by the Government on the Sri Lankan crisis. ``If India avoids military intervention in Sri Lanka, the LTTE will soon capture Jaffna,'' says Prabhakaran, Leader of the Malkangiri camp.

Prabhakaran, a former LTTE member who subsequently joined the Eelam National Democratic Liberation Front (ENDLF) before coming to India in March 1990, believes that if the LTTE was able to capture Jaffna this time, the Sri Lankan Army would not be able to recapture it as it had done in the past. ``LTTE of today is strong enough to capture Jaffna and keep it under its control.''

Observing that the LTTE was gaining strength day by day, Prabhakaran says: ``The struggle for a separate Tamil Eelam will go on till the last LTTE cadre is alive, and the LTTE will remain active till the last Tamil is alive.''

Prabhakaran says that only India can help in the creation of a separate Eelam. But at the same time, he feels that India will never extend support to the LTTE cause. ``India will not support the LTTE because division of Sri Lanka will create strategic problems for it.''

The refugees, numbering about 300, are all supporters of the ENDLF, a former ally of the LTTE. Many of these refugees are active members of the ENDLF.

Such is the attachment of these refugees with Malkangiri and its people that many of them are not in a mood to leave the place despite the summer here being virtually unbearable for them. ``I talk about Malkangiri so much when I go to Chennai that my friends tease me saying that I have become a tribal,'' says Prabhakaran.

As many as 40 refugee families are living with their children in small pucca houses provided by the Government and the bachelors are living in the main camp. Many of the refugee children are studying in a local school, while several others are studying in a school in Bangalore, which is being funded by the ENDLF.

The Central Government provides rice to the refugees at a subsidised rate as well as some money through the Integrated Tribal Development Agency. As the dole is not enough to make both ends meet, the refugees are doing all sorts of labour to earn their livelihood. Many of them are also into small business in the Malkangiri town.

Prabhakaran, who arrived in Malkangiri in 1990 after they were brought to the country by the Indian Peace Keeping Force (IPKF), has no plans to marry because of his close association with the party. He and the other bachelors in the camp are ready to go to Sri Lanka to help the LTTE, if their party leaders take a decision in this regard.

Send this article to Friends by E-Mail

Section  : National
Previous : Assocham a financial defaulter: FICCI
Next     : Major donor nations may lift sanctions against
           India