THREE GIRLS WHO SURVIVED SENCHOLAI SAY IT WAS A MILITARY TRAINING INSTITUTION

By Walter Jayawardhana

Three young girls who have survived an air force strike on a LTTE run center called Sencholai have contradicted UNICEF,Sri Lanka monitoring Mission and Tamil Nadu state assembly and said it was indeed a training center that gave military training to school girls.

Sripathi kasturi (18) one of the girls who was later brought to kandy Hospital for treatment and now discharged told reporters that she was trained in the use of AK-47 military assault rifles and other military tactics at the Sencholai Center, that was bombed.

Acting on contradictory statements by the LTTE , first that the bombed out center was an orphanage and then as a school varied civil organization criticized the government for destroying a place where children play and learn killing them.

The LTTE campaigned all over the world saying a regular school had been bombed and 65 children were killed

Velupillai Prabhakaran engaged in the opening ceremonies at Sencholai .Pictures Courtesy Tamilnation.org

But the statements that were made to the police by three girls showed it was in fact an institution that gave military training to school girls coerced into come and receive the training from the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam.

Sencholai was actually declared open by the LTTE terrorist leader Velupillai Prabhakaran only few months ago, one of the terrorist organization’s own websites shows.

It has now been revealed the teenage school girls were brought to the center to receive a resident military training by some Mulaithivu Education officers working in collaboration with the LTTE terrorist group.

The 18 year old Sripathi Kasthuri said she and two of her friends now in protective custody of the security forces were undergoing military training how to use AK47 assault rifles and other military tactics when the Air Force dropped the bombs on the training center.

Kasthuri said in the first week of August Mayuran of the LTTE and Ivan of Mullaitivu Education office came to their schools and instructed them to participate in a training program of the Sencholai camp.

“They also threatened us saying that if we did not turn up it would be the end of our school career,” she was quoted having said.

Kasturi, Thambimuttu Dayalini (20) and Balasingham Sunethra (19) who were wounded in the air strike were brought to Vavuniya hospital by the ICRC. They were later transferred to Kandy Hospital.

The young girls told the police that they were given military training by a LTTE cadre named Venthila Akka.

Kasthuri said that the LTTE members working in the Muaithivu Educational Divisional office named Arul master and Murugan, Venthila Akka and Kalai Aral Akka were course supervisors. They were also taught first aid in a military emergency. They were in the fourth day of training when the air force bombs were dropped. On August 14. They were first rushed to the Kilinochchi Hospital, and then to Vavuniya from where they were finally transferred to the Kandy General Hospital.

Velupillai Prabhakaran engaged in the opening ceremonies at Sencholai .Pictures Courtesy Tamilnation.org