Kilinochchi sends relief, medicine, doctors to Amparai

[TamilNet, Wednesday, 29 December 2004, 19:36 GMT]
The Liberation Tigers sent six lorries from Kilinochchi with emergency supplies and a lorry load of medicine along with fifty doctors for relief operations on the Tsunami devastated Amparai coast. The death toll in the coastal areas of the Amparai district rose steeply Wednesday as rescue workers retrieved more putrefying bodies from villages destroyed by the Tsunami. “Three of our teams are working round the clock in rescue and relief operations here”, said Mr. Ram, a Liberation Tigers commander speaking to TamilNet from a coastal village in Amparai Wednesday.

About 1400 bodies have been recovered in the Karaithivu until Wednesday afternoon, according to Commander Ram, who is directing rescue and relief operations by the LTTE in the Amparai district.

Karaithivu is the largest Tamil village in the Amparai district, 45 kilometres south of Batticaloa. The densely populated parts of Karaithivu were close to the sea.

“There are hundreds of bodies buried in the sands, marshes and buildings knocked down by the surging sea. Some bodies are so putrefied that retrieving them intact is impossible. Rescue workers have been compelled to cremate these bodies without identification to prevent the break out of epidemics,” Commander Ram told TamilNet.

Mr. E. Kousalyan, head of the LTTE’s Political Division for the Batticaloa-Amparai District is in Kalmunai organizing relief work in the Tsunami devastated town where almost five thousand Tamils and Muslims are reported dead.

LTTE rescue workers in Karaithivu said that the walls of houses and building were ripped apart and flung 20-30 metres by the Tsunami wave.

“All structures up to 700 metres from the shore have been completely obliterated by the sea. We are facing a major crisis as all fresh water wells near the coast are filled with salt water”, one of them told TamilNet.

Mr. Ram said that Ondaatchi Madam, Thambattai, 40th Mile Post and Komari, Tamil villages along the southeastern coast have been completely wiped out by the Tsunami.

The main costal road from Batticaloa to Kalmunai has been ripped off by the tidal wave near Neelavanai, 37 kilometres south of Batticaloa. A team of LTTE engineers led by Commander Raman have partially repaired the damage to help transport urgent relief and medical supplies.

This main artery has also been severed by the destruction of the Koddaikallar Causeway.

The road was gouged out by the wave at other places too. Kurukkalmadam, a large Tamil village about 16 kilometres south of Batticaloa is also destroyed, LTTE rescue workers in the area said that Kurukkalmadam.

The historical Thirukovil Murugan Temple situated by the beach, 76 kilometres south of Batticaloa, was destroyed by the Tsunami. The temple was built by Chola emperors around 11th century AD. It was demolished by the Portuguese in the sixteenth century. The temple was partly rebuilt under the Dutch rulers of Sri Lanka in the eighteenth century.

“Seventy five boys in an orphanage in Thirukovil escaped the Tsunami by running inland as soon as they saw it coming. A few boys there who did not escape were killed in the orphanage when it was hit by the wave”, Commander Ram said.


Thirukkovil temple (dated January 2000)