‘I was a Tiger. Why I joined the insurgents? Are you sure you want
to know that? Did you see a human brain? I did. My next door neighbour
was wounded in a military raid on our village. The top of his head got
blown off. I could see his brain. I took off my shirt and I covered his
brain with it. What happened to my neighbour? He died.
One day another man in our village was shot by government soldiers.
He was wounded in the abdomen. His intestines were coming out. I was
trying to put them back into his belly but I could not. That man also
died.
I was very young then. I wanted to protect my people so I joined the
Tigers. Although I was with them for three years, I did not kill any
soldiers as at that time they did not attack our land. If they had
attacked us, I would have killed many of them. I know how to use fifteen
kinds of weapons.’
Aththan is drawing an accurate picture of a hand gun and instructs
two other young men how to use it. One of the men shows me a photograph
on the front page of a newspaper. I do not recognize what is in the
picture. ‘Opium,’ he says. He knows its price.
