Durand AppuhamyƒÆ’-¡ƒ”š‚  (Negombo)
ƒÆ’-¡ƒ”š‚ [Published-The Island, 15^th June 2011]

The two and a half day conference conducted by the army was highly interesting and informative to all those persons fortunate enough to attend that event. The army was rightly publicly congratulated by some of the foreign VIP army personnel and others. I too add my congratulation and admiration for the way the conference was conducted and the manner of explanation/exposition of the many varied aspects of the campaign against the LTTE terrorists. Indeed one also learnt many other aspects of armyƒÆ’‚¢ƒ¢-¡‚¬ƒ¢-¾‚¢s activities in interacting with the campaign-hardened officers outside the conference hall.

However, I am here concerned with human kindness evinced by our army in the middle of the heat of the conflict when bullets, artillery fire and RPG rockets were ceaselessly raining in on the army. This soft side of the army factually demonstrated during the heat of the battle has not been sufficiently made public amidst the prominence given to false allegations of war crimes against the army.ƒÆ’-¡ƒ”š‚  During the days of the conflict we heard of the doomsday expectation of three women LTTE cadres rescued by the army from their bunkers. They expected the worst violation of their persons, the fourth cadre, fearing the worst, took the cyanide pill to escape capture by the army. Instead they found the opening for a new and secure life under the army. Then there was the woman English-school-teacher-turned-LTTE-cadre who too expected the worst possible treatment at the hands of the army. She too found safety and security with the army. Numerous other similar incidents did not reach the public domain due to many other reasons, one being that the forward march of our army was more newsworthy to the media than the attention that could be devoted to saving of lives and limbs of LTTE casualties.

It is this aspect of touching and tender human kindness, I wish to briefly deal with in this short letter, which I learnt on the sideline of the conference. Our para-medics on the frontline found many LTTE casualties abandoned by hard-hearted LTTE.ƒÆ’-¡ƒ”š‚  Our medical personnel could have simply left them where they found them to die agonizing deaths caused by their wounds. No, they did not turn their backs on those helpless cadres. They administered whatever necessary first-aid on the spot and ferried them to the already overcrowded field hospital for further treatment. There the doctors and nurses took over the patients and administered appropriate treatment including life-saving surgery. This they did in the heat of the war, knowing well that those patients were LTTE combatants out to kill our soldiers, and while they had plenty of our own mortally wounded soldiers needing their urgent attention and care. Thus was revealed to me a touching incident of consummate kindness and care bestowed on a LTTE mortally wounded cadre. The doctor in charge was attending on this patient when his own blood-brother, a soldier in the frontline, was brought to the field hospital mortally wounded. He did not abandon his patient to attend to his brother. He finished his job of patching up the patient which took some precious time and then turned to his brother. By then his brother was beyond any human help. He had passed away.ƒÆ’-¡ƒ”š‚  The imagination of the readers would supply the extent of the agony of all those medical men and women present at that hospital at that time. This is also an indelible illustration of devotion to duty of saving lives of even the enemy. This is an incident meriting a world-wide narration and global exposure. This is act of kindness is probably something beyond Geneva Convention and jus in bello. The UNSGƒÆ’‚¢ƒ¢-¡‚¬ƒ¢-¾‚¢s Panellists should cry their hearts out if they do harbour and can appreciate any thoughts of human kindness emanatingƒÆ’-¡ƒ”š‚  from the army now stand charged by them of war crimes!

In the context of Darusman PanelƒÆ’‚¢ƒ¢-¡‚¬ƒ¢-¾‚¢s allegations/accusations of executions by the army, I dare question the same Panel why our army needed to execute LTTE cadres when they could have simply left them in the killing fields to die, Geneva Convention notwithstanding? Why did they have to medically treat wounded cadres and restore their lives and limbs when it was quite easy to have ignored them as cadavers beyond medical help? False accusations cannot erase the kindness most tangibly demonstrated amidst blood and bullets. Kindness was embedded in the hearts of our soldiers to whom the erstwhile enemy was still a brother Sri Lankan needing his help and care. Further they were imbued with a philosophy that maintained ƒÆ’‚¢ƒ¢-¡‚¬ƒ…-whatever harm a foe may do to a foe, or a hater to another hater, a wrongly directed mind may do one harm far exceeding theseƒÆ’‚¢ƒ¢-¡‚¬ƒ”š‚ (The Dhammapada, 42).ƒÆ’-¡ƒ”š‚ ƒÆ’-¡ƒ”š‚ ƒÆ’-¡ƒ”š‚ ƒÆ’-¡ƒ”š‚