Poor mother waiting with tears for her son to come home on General Amnesty on November 7

Tamil Political Prisoners (TPPs) who are detained for a long time without any inquiries even after the end of war staged a fast unto death demanding to release them under General Amnesty.

In a context of more than 200 TPPS detained in 14 prisons all over the country, they carried on their fast for 6 dayslast week. Their struggle came to an end after the assurance given by the President Maithripala Sirisena that they will be released before November 7th. Now the southern hardliners are shouting coarse that they should not be released. The Prime Minister Ranil said that action is being taken to release them on bail. Many of the TPPs and their families sincerely believe that the President Maithripala Sirisena will release the TPPs to fulfill his good governance’s assurance on a humanitarian basis.

Thus, Supramanium Thankamany’s family is one of those families that are expecting the return of their sons before November 7th.

While the son is in prison as a TPP, his whole family is undergoing the punishment. Several such families stand as evidence to this right in front of our eyes.

One such family is the family of Supramanium Thankamany. They live in Nagar Illupaikkulam, Vavuniya. It was a beautiful family with a girl and two boys. Destiny played havoc in their happy life in 2006. The eldest child in the family, a son (aged) went away for his work as usual. He was employed in painting and driving work. The home people got information that the son had been arrested by Cheddikulam Police in January 2006. Although the family wandered here and there daily in search of their son, they were able to meet the arrested son only after several months.

After hearing that his son had been arrested for maintaining contact with the LTTE, the father fell sick and to date he has to be cared for by others. The Family which was dependent on the wages earned by the father and the elder son now has to run their life meagre wages earned by Thankamany doing odd-jobs.

Dilapidated house is swinging in the monsoon rain, sick husband, aged mother, daughter who had come to age, and a boy child not knowing any responsibility, they all are being taken care by Thankamany. 50 years old Thankamany is bearing this load, crying on the son who would have shouldered this load.

Twice a month she goes to prison to cry down her sorrows. When we contacted Thankamany over their tribulations, she told us the following harrowing story:

“War has played havoc with our lives. We were confronted with several threats during the war period. My son should come home at least before I close my eyes finally. The whole family is fighting to survive just for that. I have sold all my jewellery and spent the money in my attempt to bring my son out. I filed a case in the High Court to bring him out. Now the Court has consented to release him on cash bail. But he is still in prison for want of bail money. We voted on January 8th for good governance with much hope. Although 10 months have passed, my son has not reached home. Now we understood that the President has asked for time till 7th November. I am longing for my son to come home at least on November 7th under General Amnesty.”, she said.

How will the President handle the TPPs’ affair in order to wipe off the tears of longings and turmoil of these families?