Dr. Varatharajah Thurairajah Bio

December 2011 - The director of a documentary made by Callum Macrae for the UK's Channel 4, approached Dr. Varathan in New York and obtained a detailed interview about Sri Lanka's human rights violations and war crimes. November 2012 - USA's Ilangai Tamil Sangam invited Dr. Varathan to make a speech at their annual event in New York before many foreign dignitaries and US politicians. The focus of the discussion centred around the human rights violations, crimes against humanity and genocide that was committed by the Sri Lankan government. It is noteworthy that he was interviewed by several foreign media representatives who were present at the event. 2013 - Dr. Varathan participated in and provided witness to the Permanent People's Tribunal which occurred in Bremen, Germany. When a special representative spent almost 2 days in New York, he provided a detailed account to them where his testimony was further submitted to the Office of the Human Rights High Commi...

As the Sri Lankan army commenced their attacks on the area, Dr. Varathan sought refuge within a narrow corridor between two abandoned houses. The shelling was incessant in nature and he became desperately dehydrated overtime. As the shelling paused temporarily, he ran out of the corridor to source some water, however, a bomb exploded near him and caused his arm to be severely injured. Soon after, the Army arrested him. Dr. Varathan was not provided medical treatment for his injury and was taken into an unknown location. Around 9 days later, he was shifted to the fourth floor of the Criminal Investigation Department (CID) - a location which was known to locals for the brutal tactics that it used against its convicted suspects. During his time at the CID, Dr. Varathan was overcome with septic fever, a paralysed hand and around a litre of blood had pooled in his lungs due to internal bleeding. He required major surgery to save his life but was rather threatened by the officials. His ...

          Dr. Varathan treating patients.                       In 2007, Dr. Varathan assumed multiple roles; doctor at a Mullaitivu hospital, a medical officer of health for the Mullaitivu area and supervising doctor of an anti-malaria campaign. IN December of 2007, he was promoted to a position as the regional director of health services for the Mullaitivu district. During his tenure, he was able to improve relations with INGOs and prepare the hospital for any potential disaster management. When the war escalated to its final stages in 2008, with the Sri Lankan army advancing steadily into LTTE-controlled areas, civilians started to shift from Mannar and Kilinochchi to Mullaitivu to protect themselves from the advancing troops. As a result, Dr. Varatharajah coordinated medical support for many displaced people who were beyond his district. From January of 2009, the war further escalated ...

                     Dr. Varathan at Vakarai. A predominantly Tamil area, Vakarai is located about 65 km northwest of Batticaloa.  It was also the headquarters of the Koralai Pathu North Division with a population of around 21,000.  The residents are predominantly poor fishermen or farmers. Vakarai served as a strategically important city for the communication between the Eastern Province and the Northern Province.  Vakarai has further served as a major battleground since 1985 with its control often shifting between the Sri Lankan government, the IPKF and the LTTE. The Vakarai hospital, which was built in 2004, was situated on 25 acres of land and was a two story building with wards which were complete with all necessary facilities,including a luxury morgue. The hospital's opening ceremony was scheduled for January of 2005. This building was surrounded with “Azadirachta Indica” trees which are more...

After the attack on the Sri Lankan Army's command-in-chief in Colombo on 25.04.2006, targeted civilians in their attacks through incessant aerial attacks - especially on the villages of Muttur and Sampur - against areas within the LTTE's control. As a result, countless civilians were injured and killed. Any injured civilians who were brought into neighbouring hospitals in Trincomalee were turned back as they had come from LTTE-controlled areas thus restricting them from receiving medical treatment. The civilians were denied access to treatment to prevent statistics of civilian casualties from being revealed. As a result, the injured civilians were brought into Eechilampatru hospital. Eechilampatru is a small village located North of Vakarai along the border of the Batticaloa district. The hospital served around 70,000 civilians from the adjoining Tamil areas. The Tamils were struggling to receive medical treatment as there were no permanent doctors within the area. Many...

On October 31, 1995, there was a mass evacuation of Tamils from Jaffna to Vanni.  Following the exodus, many people arrived in Vanni and stayed in several displaced camps with very few facilities.  The civilians lacked access to basic supplies and struggled to get food and clothing. Because of the lack of facilities, people suffered with infectious diseases and several health conditions.  As a medical student waiting to enter university, Dr.Varathan helped the people residing in camps for several weeks. He provided them with the food and clothes that he had collected from several villages in Vanni.  He also joined with the mobile medical units to treat the displaced people. Dr. Varathan, was selected to attend medical school at the University of Jaffna in 1994.  His entrance to the university was delayed due to the war and displacement. He finally commenced his university medical training in 1997 and graduated in 2004.  As a human rights concerne...

Dr. Varatharajah Thurairajah, also known as Dr. Varathan, was born on 03.03.1975.  He was born in a small village called Thampalakamam of the Trincomalee District in the Tamil homeland. He was born alongside 5 siblings and commenced his education in that village. Dr. Varathan was first exposed to Tamil genocide during the Black July riots which occurred in 1983 when he was 8. When he was 11 years of age, the occupational Sri Lankan armed forces forcibly militarised his village of Thampalakamam, by establishing a military camp there.  The army remained inside their camp apart from the instances where they targeted and randomly fired at innocent civilians. They further tortured, injured and murdered those Tamils. All those who were arrested by the occupational forces were forcibly disappeared with their plight unbeknownst to their families. It is noteworthy that the SL army had predominantly targeted men between the age bracket of 15 and 50. As a result of the intensified C...

Dr. Varatharajah Thurairaja is a renowned individual amongst Tamils as a human rights defender.  He is a first-hand witness of the events which occurred within the “No Fire Zone” in Mullivaikkal, Mullaitivu; and has raised international awareness regarding the systematic genocide which was staged against the Eelam Tamils in 2009.  He proactively travelled to many countries, and delivered speeches to simultaneously raise awareness and seek justice for the Tamils' plight. A late Canadian Member of Parliament and Human Rights Watch, Paul Dewar had praised Dr. Varathan in the following manner following Dr. Varathan's keynote address at Ottawa in 2017: As an influential human rights defender, the doctor (T.Varatharajah) was there on the front lines where he not only saved lives when the genocide was occurring, but continued to practice medicine whilst being inflicted himself - a selfless tradition of human rights defenders across the world.