The Dove Keeper
Mohammed Yassin
Mohammed Yassin and his family were among the more than five thousand Muslim families expelled from the Jaffna peninsula by the Tamil Tigers in 1990. He recalls the day they were ordered to leave, the hurried journey south and the uncertainty that followed.
I headed for Moor Street. I had been told that some families had begun to return.
The road was quiet. Dust gathered along the edges and many of the houses looked as if they had not been lived in for years. Two men were chatting by the roadside. When I asked if they knew anyone who had left and come back, they pointed me a short distance down the road toward Mohammed Yassin’s house, near the mosque. Mr Yassin welcomed me in without hesitation. He spoke about the day his family had been ordered to leave Jaffna in 1990. Then he walked me through the rooms of the house he had returned to. At the back he pointed to the space where his father had once run a bakery. The kiln had stood there.
Before I left he brought out his prized doves and fed them carefully. We stood watching them for a while. He was home.
Jaffna
November 12, 2010
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"All the Muslim people, you must leave Jaffna"
On 30, October 1990 the LTTE announced for all the Muslims to come to the Jinnah grounds. So we went there about six thirty in the morning. An hour later, the LTTE’s Jaffna political leader, Ilamparathy, spoke to the crowd: “Within two hours, all the Muslim people must be ready to leave the Jaffna peninsula”.
Our Muslim leaders asked why. He replied that these were his leader’s orders. He said we couldn’t take any jewellery or cash with us. After the meeting I came home. I told my wife, but she didn’t believe me – she thought I was joking. So I asked her to check with the neighbours. She came back crying.
After two hours we went to the Five Junction meeting point. They searched everybody thoroughly, taking any jewellery or cash we had on us. They gave each family one thousand rupees then told us to go to the Manohara Theatre. We waited there for about six hours.
Then about five thirty they brought the minibuses and lorries to take us to Vavuniya. In each bus there were fifty or sixty people. We couldn’t talk, there were no meals, and getting a drink of water was very difficult.
Still we don’t know why we were chased out from Jaffna.” Only Anton Balasingham, Prabaharan, and Pottu Amman know.
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