Persons with contacts in the Vanni say in a general way that many of those conscripted in recent times have been killed. To get a very rough idea of the number, a man who knows well a village division in South Vanni having about 200 families, told us that about 25 of those conscripted in recent years have been killed. Assuming there are around 200 000 people or 40 000 families living under LTTE control, it places the number dead in this round of war roughly at the order of 5000. This would be fairly commensurate with other estimates from the Vanni, that about 30% of those conscripted in this round of war are, by now, dead. The qualitative effect of casualties is visible in other ways.
The injured from the frontlines are taken to Killinochchi Hospital in buses with windows blackened. After leaving them for a day, LTTE men come and pick up the ones who are fit to hobble about and take them back for military duties. This means that many placed on the frontlines are not fully fit to fight. Their camps being about 10 miles distant from the front, their food supply is also irregular.
can the vanni people take it for another 20 years????? |