Held Me Like This: Rescuing Civilians In Eelam War IV (Video)
This is a story of the last phase of the Sri Lankan War. As Pradeep Jeganathan points out, the Sri Lankan military was obviously not genocidal because the fighting stopped as soon as the LTTE was eliminated. That was completely the point, not persecution of Tamil civilians.
What this story from Brigadier (Retd) L.C. Perera points out is that small things the military did actually went beyond stopping the fire to actually reaching out and helping heal the Sri Lankan civilians who had been trapped and abused by the LTTE.
PLEASE NOTE that these videos are part of a series, it’s better to watch all of them – under the #heallanka tag – to really understand what the Brigadier is saying, which I must say is independent of any political commentary, including mine. It would also be better if I finished uploading all the pieces. Also if my videography didn’t suck. But do read or listen to the stories. They’re powerful.
TRANSCRIPT…
“I told them [soldiers in hospital] a very simple story, I said I’m not talking of multi-million dollar projects. I said, when I was coordinating the IDP operation, there was this elderly gentleman who told me this story.
He had jumped into the Aru and escaped while the LTTE was shooting. He said he came onto this side, and he said he didn’t have the life to come out of the water. I think he was afraid to come out of the water. And he thought, maybe I’ll just sink and die.
[I had to pause the camera here, Brigadier then described how an Army soldier reached out to the man and lifted him out of the water]
“He held me like this, he held me like this, and he gently took me out of the water”. He said, “the way he held me, I knew I was in safe hands”.
That unknown soldier has not said anything to him. But a simple touch had not only brought him out of the water, but brought him out of his fears.”
You can find more stories under the #heallanka tag
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