On the morning of May 26th, as usual, I was getting ready to go to school, when my neighbours stopped me saying that there was trouble at Wellawatte, and that it was not wise to go to school. Most of the other children, too, were stopped from school that day.
Many boutiques and shops belonging to Tamils were looted and burnt and Tamils going on the road were assaulted. In only half an hour, we heard reports of Sinhalese thugs entering Tamil homes and assaulting even women and children.
We were all (even my parents) panic - stricken and so we all ran into our house and stayed indoors.
Stories of assaults and stone throwing reached our ears. We even heard that innocent Tamils in places like Panadura and Ratmalana were burnt alive. All this was horrifying and I felt so frightened that I began to weep.
It was only the following day that a state of emergency was declared and the military personnel patrolling every road and lane gave us much relief and I began to think I was safe again. But even with the curfew rules, and military patrolling the streets, some incidents occurred. Most of the Tamil houses of Ratmalana were burnt and the inmates driven out by Sinhalese thugs Just behind our house one night a house belonging to a Tamil family was attacked and the people had to flee for their lives.
This incident made my parents realize the danger of our position and they decided to go with us to the refugee camp. We packed just a few clothes and left for the refugee camp at Royal College.
We were at the camp for three days and underwent a lot of inconvenience. But we did not mind it because we were hoping to get transported to Jaffna at the earliest opportunity. One happy morning a special train carrying 700 refugees left for Jaffna and I was one of them and so I arrived in Jaffna.
