Rajmi MANATUNGA

COLOMBO: The last memory of her granddaughter John Rasiah would prefer to recall is that of a jovial cherubic child swinging her tiny legs from a high chair, her eyes twinkling with childish excitement at receiving a new pair of shoes. But the gory recollection of the scorched remains of the tiny figure at the roadside keeps tormenting his mind ever since last Tuesday.

“She was very happy when she came to see me that day because I had bought her a new pair of shoes. She insisted on wearing them right there and walking to the bus stop. I never imagined I would see her dead when she kissed me ‘Good bye’ before leaving with her mother,” a grieving Rasiah recalls.

Rasiah, an employee in a restaurant in Wellawatte is the grandfather of two and half year old Jegatheswaran Asvini who was brutally killed in Tuesday’s LTTE bomb explosion in Milagiriya targeting ex-EPDP Parliamentarian S. Sivadasan.

Little Asvini was proudly waddling her way home in her new shoes with her mother when the bomb went off near St. Pauls College, Milagiriya killing her and two others.

Her tragic death has proved for the umpteenth time that terrorists have no regard for the age or race of their victims.

Asvini’s mother John Sasida who was critically injured in the explosion is fighting death at the Intensive Care Unit (ICU) of the Colombo National Hospital ignorant of the most dreadful news any mother could hear.

“My daughter and son-in-law work as labourers in a house in Bambalapitiya. Since there was no one to take care of her, my daughter used to take the little one with her to work everyday. On finishing work they would always drop by the restaurant where my wife and I work and Asvini would play with me for a while,” Rasiah who was the best friend and playmate of little Asvini says.

He recalls how Asvini was filled with joy on that fatal day when she heard the good news that from Thursday her grandfather would be doing only night shifts. “Then I can stay at home and play with you the whole day”, were her final words.

Rasiah who has peacefully lived in Colombo among its Sinhala and Muslim communities for the past 18 years would never have imagined that her daughter and granddaughter would fall victim to the brutality perpetrated by a few people from his own brethren.

In fact, when we reached his poverty stricken house in Siddhartha Mawatha, Kirulapone, the Tamil and Sinhala residents of the area were unitedly putting up white flags to bid farewell to the little girl who used to run and play up and down the street.

A wailing S. Saroja, Asvini’s grandmother who was also unfortunate enough to witness the incident said she was working at the restaurant when she heard the explosion.

“Asvini came to the restaurant that day to play with her grandfather and he gifted her a new pair of shoes. When I went to her she pointed to the shoes which she had already worn. I kissed her feet and said they were beautiful. We heard the explosion barely 10 minutes after they left”.

“My husband and I ran to the junction only to see her lying dead at the roadside. I could not bear to look at her scorched lifeless body. I ran back to the restaurant screaming like a mad woman”.

“We are innocent people who have not done any wrong to anyone. We have never caused harm to others or earned money by wrongful means. I cannot comprehend what I did to deserve this fate. I have lost my little daughter, and my wife is in hospital unconscious,” Asvini’s father B. Jegatheswaran said overcome with emotion.

His eight year old son who is not old enough to realise the gravity of the situation is still waiting for the return of his mother and sister. Occasionally he cries when his father breaks down not knowing that the tiny casket in their house contains the remains of his little sister.

Two and half year old Asvini who was bubbling with life only a few days back said good bye to her loved ones yesterday. But her tragic death would always remind us of the thousands of children who have fallen victim to LTTE terrorism in the last two decades.
http://www.dailynews.lk/2006/08/11/sec02.asp