Right through our one hour interview, she kept twitching her fingers nervously. A blue handkerchief, neatly folded when we sat down, was a crushed mess by the time the we stopped talking. She did not want her real name used; instead, she wanted me to call her Selvi. A former member of the women’s wing of the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam, Selvi is, for the first time in her adult life, unsure about what she will do next. Like many of the women in their ranks, Selvi was a semi-forced recruit of the Tigers. Now the insurgency, is no more, their once-feared military might brought to naught by Sri Lankan government forces in May 2009.
In 1998, when Selvi was 18, the Tigers came to her home in the eastern district of Batticaloa looking for her brother. The insurgents’ policy was for one member from each household to join them in areas they dominated, a rule that was strictly applied when they were hard pressed during prolonged military campaigns. The choice for Selvi’s family was either the youngest boy or one of the two older sisters. As the eldest, Selvi volunteered, serving for eight years until, at a moment when the group was under increased pressure from government forces, she fled.
