# Varatharajah Thurairajah

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Varatharajah Thurairajah (born on 3 March 1975) is an Eelam Tamil physician and human rights activist. He was noted as one of the official witnesses for the United Nations investigations of war crimes and human rights violations in Sri Lanka. He was a first-hand witness of the events in the No Fire Zone in Mullivaikkal, Mullaitivu, and had revealed information about the planned genocide of Tamils in 2009. He is currently engaged in activities related to raising awareness about the issue.

## Career
### Eechilampatru and Vakarai: June 2006 to February 2007

As of 2006, Varatharajah was said to be the only doctor in the town of Vakarai, Sri Lanka. He went to Varakai as a refugee and decided to stay there with other refugees. When Varakai was captured by Sri Lankan government forces in January 2007, Varatharajah was allegedly the last person to leave the town.

### Mullivaikkal, Mullaitivu: February 2007 to May 2009

In January 2009, the Sri Lankan government announced that there were only 80,000 people in the areas of the Northern Province controlled by the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE), but in reality, there were around 340,000 people. Since foreign media had no presence in the war zone, Varatharajah was the only credible source for reporting the humanitarian crisis to the outside world. During that time, the Sri Lankan government independently declared a No Fire Zone in Suthanthirapuram without consulting any medical staff.
Puthukkudiyiruppu hospital was not included in the No Fire Zone. After the announcement of a No Fire Zone, people were forced to move to Suthanthirapuram, where all civilians were crowded into a small area. Later in the record, it was mentioned that more people were killed in the No Fire Zone area than in other areas. While Varatharajah stayed at Puthukkudiyiruppu hospital treating casualties from Suthanthirapuram, he was informing the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC), international NGOs, and the government of the situation. Dr. Sathiyamoorthy, the regional director of health services from Kilinochchi, and fellow staff moved to Mullaitivu and worked with Varatharajah. Around seven government doctors, including Varatharajah, with other medical staff and volunteers served nearly 340,000 people in the war zone. After several weeks, Puthukkudiyiruppu hospital was also destroyed by government shelling and bombing.
Varatharajah and his team relocated to the Puthumaththalam and Mullivaikkal areas, where they established a makeshift hospital in a school to treat casualties. He reported on the number of dead and injured in the area, as well as the shortages of medical supplies and food. Additionally, he contacted the ICRC to arrange for the evacuation of critically injured and ill individuals from the war zone by boat. This way, around 10,000 injured people were saved while raising the awareness of the humanitarian crisis to the world.

### Detention and media appearances

During the last days of the war, he was in the No Fire Zone attending patients at the Mullivaikkal hospital. Following a severe injury in his shoulder and abdomen due to non-stop shelling, he was arrested by the army on 15 May 2009 and detained for about 100 days after the end of the war. He was kept at an unknown location and denied medical treatment for his paralyzed arm and lung filled with blood which led to septic fever due to war injuries.
On 23 May 2009, he was taken to the fourth floor of the Criminal Investigation Department (CID). On 8 July 2009, doctors, who had stayed in the war zone including Varatharajah was paraded in front of media and forced to deny their reporting from the war zone. Suresh Sallay has been identified as the military intelligence officer responsible for coercing Varatharajah to give false testimony. After being released from prison, Varatharajah contacted UN and other human right groups explaining what happened to them and the situation forcing them to lie in front of government paraded media conference in Colombo. He also requested the UN and other human rights groups to record the truth.

### Human right activism

In December 2011, award-winning and a well-known journalist, Callum Macrae from Channel 4 media interviewed Varatharajah in New York about Sri Lanka’s human rights violations and war crimes.
In 2013, he participated and provided his testimony as a witness to the Permanent People’s Tribunal in Bremen, Germany in front of a list of panelists from former UN representatives.
In 2014, he went to UN at Geneva and provided a speech at a human rights session and participated at a side event as well. As a Human Rights Watch sponsored member, he spoke at the UN General Assembly too. Channel 4 UK interviewed him and broadcast it to raise awareness for justice for the war crimes and crimes against humanity committed during 2009.
In May 2015, Varatharajah participated in the 6th annual remembrance of the Tamil genocide in 2009 and provided a public speech in London, UK. Following that he met several parliamentarians in London and discussed human rights violation and crimes against humanity, advocating justice for the victims.
In April 2016, he delivered a speech about human right violation by Sri Lankan government and the final days of the war at a symposium organized by the Boston Amnesty International in New York.
In May 2019, he was invited to the Canadian parliament as a guest speaker at the screening of Callum Macrae’s documentary "No Fire Zone" on the tenth year of Mullivaikal Remembrance Day and shared his war zone experiences.

## Awards and recognition

Thurairajah was a finalist for the Robert Burns Humanitarian Award in 2021. Ilankai Tamil Sangam USA, on behalf of the Tamil American Community, awarded their highest recognition award of "Lifetime Service Award" in 2017 for his courageous service to humanity and for his acts of valor in the face of oppression, intimidation, and violence.
His memoir, titled "A Note from The No Fire Zone" and written by Kass Ghayouri was published in May 2019. His biography, titled "Untold Truth of Tamil Genocide" was written by Raji Patterson and published in 2021.
In 2020, Dr Varatharajah’s starred in "The Lamp of Truth", a film based on his war zone experiences and produced by White Conch Studios.
He gave several media interviews, most notably for Channel 4, BBC, and Aljazeera
He was nominated for the Nobel Peace Prize by Tamils for Obama, for having worked in tough war-torn conditions in Sri Lanka during the final and bloodiest phase of the Sri Lankan Civil War in 2009.