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It was January 31, 1962, fifty years ago. Amina Faanu was just 19 years. She was at home
with her one-and-half-year old son Mohammed Shakeel and three women. Her
husband was on a trip to Addu Atoll. Being morning Amina was busy taking care
of Shakeel and attending to domestic chores.
She had no premonition that her life was going to take a sudden precarious
turn by sunset.
By then, unknown to her, MV Silver Crest had cast anchor in
Thinadhoo. Onboard was Prime Minister Ibrahim Nasir accompanied by a battalion
of Maldivian soldiers on a mission to quell the second rebellion in
Thinadhoo. Nasir asked the islanders to
surrender, but they refused.
Amina Faanu was jolted by a loud noise followed by a
commotion. The noise increased and got closer engulfing the whole island. When she looked around there was pandemonium.
Soldiers had invaded Thinadhoo and opening
fire on the inhabitants.
“we all ran to a nearby house to escape. Shakeel was only one
half years. The poor boy was crying with fear,” Amina recalled.
There were several others in the house where Amina took
refuge. Soldiers were running all over
the island. They were running amok. Amina and her group covered in silence.
“They were trespassing on private houses and looting the
whole island. Then there was an announcement that everyone must leave the
island by 4 pm,” Amina said.
There is an island close to Thinadhoo –Thinadhumaafushi. In
low tide one could wade across to the uninhabited island. Amina and fellow
islanders went there, leaving their homes and belongings. They could take only
their children and whatever little they could manually carry.
“When the order to leave came, we had little choice. We
waded to Maafushi in waist high water. We didn’t even have a drop of drinking
water. Soon we were told we were to evacuate Maafushi too by 5 pm. What could
we do? We returned to Thinadhoo,” Amina, now 70, recounted the harrowing tale.
Amina’s group walked along the beach, too scared to go
inland. Her small son picked up a razor blade on the beach and accidentally slashed
his head with it. He was soon soaked in blood. But Amina could only watch
helplessly. There was no possibility of going inland for help.
“I didn’t think the boy would survive. I could never imagine
I’ll ever get the chance to bring up the boy with love and care,” Amina
recalled.
They waited endlessly in Thinadhoo beach, trying to deny the
reality of the terrible sounds they heard and the dark scenes they saw. They
eventually left for the island of Kafena near Thinadhoo. There she prepared a local
remedy from gingelly oil and ash, the only treatment she could use on her sons
wound.
Amina and her group spent four days in Kafena, which is an
uninhabited island with no shelter except for a dilapidated house, too small
for the large number of refugees. They survived on whatever they brought.
“We suffered a lot on the island. Luckily I had a bit of
rice my mother gave me before I left. With that I fed my son and ate some myself,”
Amina recalled.
Amina got some relief on reaching Kaadeddhoo, another
uninhabited island. By then on February 4th 1962, the government had
declared Thinadhoo an uninhabited island. So refugees from Thinadhoo settled
elsewhere. Amina herself moved to
Fares-Maathoda after a few days.
Going back in history, the southernmost atolls had declared
a separate state. Later in 1959, Prime Minister Nasir had gone to Thinadhoo and
brought the island under the control of the Male government. But Thinadhoo had
rebelled against the government for a second time.
The Government’s decision to depopulate Thinadhoo to control
the rebellion was tragic for the islanders, leaving them to suffer for long.
Amina could return to her home island only after four years.
As Amina was recounting the story of how the soldiers
invaded Thinadhoo and expelled the inhabitants, she had to stop several times,
finding it difficult to continue.
“Now my children are grown up. They are educated and can
take care of themselves. I am happy about that,” she expressed.
Even at 70 years, Amina has not stopped working. She makes
arecanut powder, juice patty, and chili fish for sale. She does not claim the 2300 rufiyaa dole paid
out by the government for senior citizens above 65 years. Why?
“I still have one mission left –to go to Hajj on behalf of
my mother,” she answered.
When Prime Minister Nasir evacuated the island, Thinadhoo
had 4800 inhabited islands. The government has still not revealed the official
death toll of the invasion. Thinadhoo was
repopulated with 1800 people in 1966.
[Translated from Hassan Mohammed (2013). Haveeru Daily. Retrieved
13 November 2013 from
Amina Faanu's photo courtesy Haveeru Daily
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