By Amnesty International
Vasuki is a Tamil refugee now living outside Sri Lanka.* In 2009, she spent several months in the country’s ‘No Fire Zone’, moving constantly and struggling to save her 2 small children. She describes what she saw during the horrific war between the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE) and the Sri Lankan security forces. Her only hope during that time was that the UN would come to their rescue. It didn’t happen.
Vasuki shares her experiences trapped between the warring sides.
“We lived in a tent over a bunker. For weeks my kids did not talk. They had to witness people dying from shell attacks and the memory of dead bodies lying all around will probably never vanish.”
By March 2009, the situation had become dire. Her family and thousands around her had eaten all they had, even their cattle.
“I had to fast so that I could feed my children and just drank the water I cooked the rice in. Elderly people collapsed around us or slipped into comas. What kept us going was a belief that the UN would intervene to stop the terrible human suffering.
"Shelling got steadily worse. I can't describe the horror around us - we had to fight our way across a carpet of dead bodies.
"I find it hard to talk about this time.... people were also not happy with the LTTE as they forcibly recruited from families. What I know is that people want to live in peace but we cannot forget all those we left behind. You can’t give us back what we lost but you can give us justice”.
(* Vasuki's name has been changed to protect her identity.)
Demand justice for victims like Vasuki by calling on the UN to investigate rights violations in Sri Lanka. http://www.amnesty.org/en/appeals-for-action/call-un-investigate-sri-lan...
You can also take action on Facebook. http://apps.facebook.com/causes/petitions/461
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