Ex-militant Tamil mother attempts suicide due to poverty, discrimination

[TamilNet, Monday, 06 July 2015, 19:37 GMT]
An ex-LTTE female member and a mother of three children, Premalatha, was admitted to Batticaloa hospital on Saturday after a suicide attempt, news sources in Vaazhaich-cheanai told TamilNet. The discrimination and targeted isolation of former LTTE members from Batticaloa, especially those who survived the genocidal onslaught at Mu'l'livaaykkaal and resettled in Batticaloa after so-called military rehabilitation and prolonged incarceration, has not improved even after 6 years have elapsed and the regime in Colombo got a ‘facelift’ enacted by Washington and New Delhi.

37-year-old Premalatha was a strong woman looking after the family with two twin teenage girls suffering from disability and a third child, also a girl.

Her husband, who was also a former LTTE member, is still suffering from shrapnel fragments inside his body and is unable to sustain a means of livelihood, the sources further said.

Although the family managed to receive a housing assistance through the Indian Housing Scheme, they didn't have lands to build their house. Premalatha took up a loan from her relatives.

But, Premalatha was unable to repay the loan, as she was unable to make any saving regardless of her resolve to look after the family, which had resettled at Paa'laiyadith-thoa'nda in Chanthi-ve'li.

Paa'laiyadith-thoa'naa is situated 5 km south of Vaazhaich-cheanai town and 18 km north of Batticaloa city.

The occupying Sinhala military continuously subjects former LTTE-members, who survived the genocidal onslaught, to various harassments.

Many ex-LTTE members are forced to choose a life of either ‘collaboration’ or ‘isolation’ as the military is running the affairs of in the occupied country of Eezham Tamils.

They are discriminated and sidelined from public sector employment. They are also unable to find private jobs as employers fear surveillance by the occupying military.

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