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Profiles of May 2009

A collection of accounts of May 2009 - a period where tens of thousands of Tamils were massacred by the Sri Lankan military.

Ahalya

Ahalya was in her late twenties when the war in the Northeast of Sri Lanka came to an end. She was the sister of an LTTE fighter who was killed fighting in the war, and since his death had been determined to do what she could to alleviate the suffering of the Tamil-majority population of the LTTE-controlled zone.

Read more here.

 

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Ainkaran

Ainkaran volunteered in a hospital in the contested North East of Sri Lanka when the government began its final offensive on the Tamil separatists. It was 2009, and the outlook was grim for the LTTE. 

Read more here.

 

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Mayuran

 

Mayuran was in his mid-30s when the Sri Lankan army advanced into the LTTE-controlled North-East of Sri Lanka in its final assault. He first joined the LTTE when he was sixteen, and had been part of a team that laid claymore mines along enemy positions and also taught combat to new recruits. In Mayuran's own words, here is what he saw.

Read more here.

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Theeban

The following account is written by a second generation Tamil from London who was involved in organising the prolonged protest on Parliament Square in Westminster during April and May 2009, the bloody end of Sri Lanka's armed conflict. Theeban (not his real name), then in his early twenties, was studying at a London university. 

Read more here.

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Kumaran

When Kumaran wakes up in the room he has been given by the Home Office, it takes him a few minutes to adjust to his present surroundings. Sleepless nights, recurrent nightmares and depression help contribute to this disorientation.

Read more here.

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