posted December 02, 2004 06:06 AM         

JOE FIORITO

The tunnel was narrow and dark and the air smelled of wet roots and dirt. Sakthy Sabaratnam saw a snake ahead of her, writhing in the light of a hand-held torch. She was a child, and she was frightened.

The tunnel had been hand-dug by her father as an escape route, a place of safety underground, but her father was dead and Sakthy and her family were on the run from the Tamil Tigers.

She got out of the tunnel. She lives in Scarborough now.

But she may not be with us much longer. There's a good chance she will be deported to Sri Lanka.

If so, she has worse things to fear than snakes.

We spoke the other day at Markham District High School; Sakthy is a recent graduate, and she remains close to Christine Cairns, the head of Special Ed.

Speaking with a little help now and then — she is still frightened — Sakthy fleshed out the rest of her story.

"My father was working with the army. The Tamil Tigers came and captured him and took him away to a camp. After a couple of months, we heard he was dead. My mother went to the camp. They wouldn't let us see his body. They gave us his ring and his ID papers."

The Tigers also made demands of Sakthy's mother. They wanted gold; in lieu of gold, they said they would take Sakthy's brother. That is how the Tigers recruited during the civil war.

You'd have fled into a tunnel, too.

Eventually, sleeping in ditches and abandoned cars along the way, the Sabaratnam family went to Colombo, the capital of Sri Lanka. From there, they went to the Philippines; after a long stay, they went to Singapore, then to Vancouver, and then to her aunt's place in Toronto. They were travelling with false papers.

Such a long journey. Sakthy was 4 when she went into the tunnel; she was 10 when she arrived here; she is 19 now.

She said, "A lot happened when we arrived in Toronto. There were almost 20 of us living in the house. We lived under the rule of our cousin. We couldn't go out. We had to do cleaning and babysitting. We couldn't study. We just had to do chores and babysitting.

"My cousin would beat us with a hanger or a wooden spoon if we did not do things the right way."

She said her mother was helpless to intervene, with nowhere to go and no resources.

Christine Cairns said, "When Sakthy first came to our school, she wasn't allowed to speak to us unless her brother or sister were present, or else she'd get beaten. One day she came to school with a split lip. Her aunt had put rings on and hit her in the mouth. That's when I saw the marks on Sakthy's arms and back. I immediately phoned Children's Aid."

There was nothing the CAS could do. Sakthy was over 16 years of age. But a social worker made plans to go to the house to investigate the situation of the younger kids. Sakthy pleaded with the worker not to go. She was afraid, with reason — after the social worker left, Sakthy was pushed down a flight of stairs.

"I sprained my ankle. I was told I was a disgrace to my family. They said I would have to marry a guy who was 28. I didn't like that. They said if I didn't agree, they'd send me back to Sri Lanka."

In May of last year, with the help of Christine Cairns, Sakthy escaped from her aunt's house and she took refuge at the home of a schoolmate.

A few days later, she went back to her aunt's house, accompanied by her schoolmate's mother, and the police. She wanted to retrieve her few clothes and get her temporary health card, which is the only official documentation she owns.

It was an unpleasant visit.

Not long after that, Sakthy learned that her mother's refugee claim had been denied. She also learned that she was listed on a deportation order, along with the rest of her family.

With help she found a lawyer and began to make a separate claim on compassionate and humanitarian grounds. Time passed.

Sakthy moved into a room of her own. One night, while looking at some photos of her family, she carved her family name into her wrist with a knife. The scars are vivid. She confided to a friend that she wanted to jump off a bridge. She is now on medication.

There was good news. Immigration agreed to hear her application for refugee status separately from that of her family.

There was bad news. Quite apart from her claim on compassionate grounds, Citizenship and Immigration is proceeding with a pre-risk removal hearing on Tuesday, to begin the process leading toward the deportation of Sakthy Sabaratnam — sometime in January, she thinks.

If she is returned to Sri Lanka, she fears she will be jailed for having left the country with false documents. If she is jailed, she fears she will be raped. If she survives jail, there is every chance some sort of revenge will be meted out to her because of the "disgrace" she has brought to her family.

The outlook seems bleak.

Sakthy's member of Parliament, John McCallum, has been made aware of the situation. His office is doing all that it can. No one at his office, neither here nor in Ottawa, would define what "all that it can" means, exactly. Sakthy's lawyer is helping, but he doesn't offer much hope.

The official in charge of Sakthy's case at Citizenship and Immigration is away from work this week, and so is unavailable for comment. The best hope? Given recent events, the minister in charge of the department could use some good press.

posted December 02, 2004 06:08 AM         

She said, "A lot happened when we arrived in Toronto. There were almost 20 of us living in the house

"My cousin would beat us with a hanger or a wooden spoon if we did not do things the right way."

Her aunt had put rings on and hit her in the mouth.

Sakthy was pushed down a flight of stairs.

posted December 02, 2004 09:19 AM            

To raise money and cover up own sins, LTTE has to plant anger and hate within Tamil community. So they create or manufacture a scenario and highlight the history appropriately.

LTTE destroyed the flower of Sri Lankan ethnic harmony that was bound to gloom during this century.

However by looking at number of Tamils voicing their frustration against LTTE and now hard now LTTE has to fight to win back their support indicate that we have hope.
I am sure that you will join me and others who would like to go back to Jaffna and help them rebuild. The attitude of fanatics has kept themselves with others in the dark. The war and LTTE propaganda has prevented many reaching towards whoever in need. We will have to be patient for a while until the few who’s personal dream is to build their own world goes away.

It is not to exploit one's suffering to make a point, however I understand sometimes you have presented no other choice.