Sixth Day – 20th Sept 1987
The journey of his sacrifice.

A miracle happened early this morning. Thileepan Anna got out of bed at 5am. But that’s not it, he said he needed to pass urine. As his condition had deteriorated a bottle was given to him, to urinate in. However, he couldn’t pass any urine. He said his stomach was cramping and he couldn’t pass any urine. He asked to go behind the pillar to try again. As per his wish he was assisted off the stage and went behind. For fifteen minutes he clutched his stomach and struggled immensely. Afterwards he passed a shocking half a litre of urine. How was this possible for someone who hadn’t consumed anything for five days? When Doctor Sivakumar was asked about this, he just smiled and walked off.

That afternoon there was some good news, someone important from the Indian embassy in Colombo was going to arrive. Apparently, he was going to talk to members of the LTTE political wing about Thileepan Anna. It was believed, those coming from the Indian embassy would have received guidance from the Prime Minister Rajiv Gandhi. It was hoped that they would at least be sympathetic after witnessing the sorrow state of the mothers.
And that this person would give some peace to the fellow LTTE members who were anxious about Thileepan Anna.

“Thileepa! The ahimsa way of your fight is going to make our weapons worthless. If your ahimsa way of fight were to do so we will happily accept it. We do not have a wish to take weapons in our hands and kill anyone. For thirty years our previous leader Thanthai Selva tried and was unable to protect our Tamil people. To protect our Tamil people from being slaughtered we took up arms. We are not against the ahimsa way of life. However, our enemy does not know the ahimsa way…the enemy does not understand it. The enemy only knows knives and guns.”

Since the morning, several poojas were being conducted by the public at the Nallur Kandasamy Temple and the offerings kept arriving at the stage. From 3pm onwards lots of people from outside the Jaffna district arrived via buses to see Thileepan Anna. Wherever you looked, there were waves of people. (Thalapathy) Kittu Anna’s mother hugged Thileepan Anna tightly, kissed him on the forehead and cried. The mother whose son had lost a leg from an enemy bomb said:
“So what if a leg has gone? There’s still another one…there’s two hands…he will fight till the end…”

The assistant Indian diplomat: Mr. Ken had arrived via an aeroplane to Pallali. Thileepan Anna was informed that Mr. Anton Balasingham has gone to talk to him. As Thileepan Anna had passed urine in the morning he seemed far more energetic. If these talks were to be successful Thileepan Anna’s hunger strike could be stopped and he could be admitted to the Jaffna general hospital. He would be given medical attention immediately and in two to three days Thileepan Anna could return back to normal.

Members of the LTTE were talking to Thileepan Anna. The Women’s organisation members who came to see Thileepan Anna cried inconsolably. (Thalapathy) Soosai, Pirabha, Raghu Appa, (Thalapathy) Pulenthiran, (Thalapathy) Joni’s eyes filled with tears, they stroked Thileepan Anna’s hair spoke to him and left.

“I would like to see Kittu Anna…” said Thileepan Anna gently. His face was filled with a sense of longing. Kittu Anna and Kuttisiri aiyya were all in India. Even though he was aware Kittu Anna was in India it made sense for Thileepan Anna to ask to see him.

They waited long into the night hoping to hear from the talks that had occurred. However, nothing came.

In the evening, the Nava Samaj Party Leader Mr. Vasudeva Nanayakkara and some of his fellow MPs came to see Thileepan Anna.

Thileepan Anna slept deeply that night.
Thileepan Anna’s blood pressure: 85/60
Pulse rate: 120
Respiratory rate: 22