“SOLDIER RESCUED ME LIKE A GOD” - says Ms Dharamaligam Komila in Batticaloa

Tsunamis are among the rarest of natural disasters as they are hard to predict. Needless to say, even watching their seismographs or any other data available, geologists could not have predicted with any certainty that the sea would rise up in Sri Lanka, about 1600 km away from the epicenter of the oceanic earthquake. The deadly experience for Sri Lankans came as the most shocking and unprecedented, battered thousands of kilometers of coast and brought home an uneasy feeling of horror, dismay after thousands were left either completely or partly destitute within minutes.

Sri Lankan armed forces (Army, Navy and Air Force), deployed along the coastal belt of this island nation were among the few firsts to alert the nation in this regard and did their best to tackle both prior and post challenges head on, in some instances even at the risk of their own lives. The Army was at the forefront on the scene barely minutes after the disaster struck their areas. Their valour, courage, commitment, not least their quick rise to the occasion aptly reminds of Winston Churchill's famous adage, “this is no time for ease and comfort, it is the time to dare and endure”.

Hardly there was any media blitz on what those hundreds of soldiers had been doing continuously day and night minutes after the Boxing day disaster hurt us, nor there had been any seeming assessment hitherto made for their part until tsunami victims, they themselves through media exposed how troops treated them at their hour of grief and awe.

he twenty two-year old Tamil girl, Dharmalingam Komila from Pasikuda with national daily, “Lakbima” (26th Jan 2005 issue) narrated her experiences on that dreadful morning and how Security Forces swept into action to salvage her when she was suddenly dragged into the mid sea, making her purely depend on a floating barrel nearly for six hours after she clung to it.

“I lost all hopes of living and desperately waited for death while hanging on to the barrel though I was almost sick after I gulped sea water. During my fight for survival, I heard a feeble voice of a small girl calling me from a distance. Simultaneously I saw a helicopter buzzing round close to me prompting me to wave towards it giving SOS signal. Within seconds a uniform-clad soldier descended from that Sri Lanka Air Force helicopter with the help of a rope to snatch me and that ten year old lass, Silvia who was crying for help from me. It was a God- given opportunity and I could not believe my eyes and it was an adventurous task. Both of us were thus saved by “Gods” of the Army and the Air Force who further inquired from us whether there would be any of their other relatives now in trouble. Those Army and Air Force personnel got all of us admitted to the Batticaloa hospital. We now live thanks to them and it is similar to a rebirth after struggling nearly six hours with the raging waters. In the past we were made to view Sri Lankan troops as a repressive force, and that was really the idea that some of us have had in our minds. But we know now that they are a group of Gods who came for our help,” so said Komila now sheltered at the Valaichchenai Penta Costal assembly building.

In Matara, it was the Army that jumped into action realizing the gravity of the calamity as it was a Sunday fair day (Pola) with hundreds of shoppers out on the streets. The newspaper, “Lankadeepa” of 26th January 2005 went on to say that soldiers camped inside the historic fort at the time of the disaster ventured into tidal waves and swiftly ran in all directions in spite of risks for their own lives in order to rescue hundreds of men, women and children being drifted in swelling waters. “They threw long ropes towards floating victims, so that they could hang on to them, they also started dispatching injured and affected victims to the nearby Matara hospital. In the melee prisoners broke open prison cells, ran away and a few of them even went to the extent of looting shops. That challenge was also met by troops and they immediately got hold of about one hundred of them while fleeing in the rush. The task ahead of the troops was multi-faceted and arduous but their dedication and commitment won the day. They never bothered about themselves or their survival but the innocent,” the newspaper went on to report.

Another report in “Lakbima” (26th January 2005) speaks how a soldier who rescued four tsunami victims including an infant when they were being washed away from the general area of Kalkuda despite severe injuries received by him after a floating log hit him. The soldier is still in hospital due to severe injuries.

It was the soldiers who activated most of rescue and relief work in affected areas no sooner than the tragedy struck, but little has been mentioned about their role and sacrifices, to say the least. No doubt, their acts will be remembered and valued forever by those victims who resurrected in the killing waves.