Injured Body, Healthy Spirit

The reason I joined the LTTE was because the Indian Peacekeeping Forces came to my village, and I saw firsthand what they did. They said they came for peace, but they turned their aim upside down. They oppressed our people. When I was small, I saw someone in the Sri Lankan Army, he would be called on to hit and abuse civilians. He would hit people with chains and sticks. My father and older brother would take those wounded by him to the hospital to save them. When I was small I saw this torture.

And growing up I heard about the torture in Baticaloa,, Trincomalee and Jaffna, and that was even worse, what was happening there. This woke me up. After this we had the feeling we had to join and help the people and follow our leader. That’s why I joined the LTTE.

If I have to tell the truth, my parents didn’t want me to join the LTTE. I joined without them knowing. But after I joined they didn’t give any problems. My parents understood what was going to happen next. After they found out they were sad for a while, but in that time everyone was joining the LTTE because they understood the need for the cause...

Our liberation is not supported by other countries. We are standing on our own legs to fight for our own country...

I was working in one of the LTTE’s sections, and there was a need for military equipment and I was creating mines, and without knowing it exploded. That’s when I was injured in my eyes and my hand...Already I had seen wounded cadres, but we came with a goal and the goal was very clear so this didn’t affect me. My heart stayed strong with this goal. We will never lose that goal...our leader has faith in us, and our people have faith in us...No matter whatever losses come to us. We may lose many things, we may lose our eyesight or the use of our hands, if any loss comes, we won’t feel sadness in our hearts. We already had the strength to withstand this. It wasn’t a problem and it didn’t seem like a problem when I lost my eyes...After I was wounded I started thinking about what I could do next. Our leader had already thought about this and made a place, Navam Arivu Kudam, for us to study. We come here to learn and we pick a field and grow well in that field and the next step is to help our Liberation Tigers in that field...The people and the Tigers are one: the LTTE are the people and the people are the Tigers...The world really knows we’re fighting for our people, this is a liberation fight, for justice, for truth...

-Thamilmaravan, 26 years