Opening of War Zone helps ease distrust
April 6, 2010 07:35 am
After all, the pass – the narrow isthmus that connects
northern
The conflict had kept the north mostly out of bounds for the
rest of
It took seven months for the A9 highway, the only land link
to
“On a weekend at least 200,000 will come here,” says
Sasthravedi Sri Vimala Thero, the chief incumbent monk of the Nagadeepa Vihare,
a Buddhist temple located on an island just off
The monk feels that interaction between ordinary citizens
may well prove to be the best path to healing the wounds of war and dispersing
the distrust between the majority Sinhalese and the minority Tamils in the
country.
“The war kept these two groups apart. Now they can come
together, meet each other, like ordinary people,” he told IPS.
Catholic bishop for Jaffna Thomas Soudranayagam agrees. “Hundreds
of thousands of people have visited the north during the last two months. This
will definitely improve the relationship between the north (Tamils) and the
south (Sinhalese),” he said.
Many visitors come to look at memorials of war that are
publicly displayed on either side of the A9 highway.
On one side, a bulldozer with reinforced armour plating and
gaping holes on its sides is set on a pedestal. The Tamil Tigers used it during
a sustained attack on the
Now it is a war memorial to the hero soldier Hasalaka
Gamini. Crowds throng around it and some hang garlands, while most stare in
amazement.
On the other side of the road are two more vehicles, a
tractor and a pick-up truck, that Tiger commanders had used close to the
frontlines -- much more recent relics of the war. The two are reinforced with
heavy metal armour, but are riddled with bullet holes.
Together, these three vehicles are major photo opportunities
for the visitors, the bulk of who are from the south and from the Sinhalese
community.
Every weekend,
The eateries and the bazaar in the area do their best
business over the weekends, when large Indian-made buses, some with their hood
racks filled with cooking pots and firewood, stream into Jaffna one after the
other.
But bridging the divide among ethnic groups will take a long
time.
In the bazaar, for instance, many of the sellers cannot
speak Sinhala, the main language of most of the buyers. The customers can
hardly speak Tamil, the language of use in
“We have been kept apart for so long that it is like getting
to know someone all over again,” said Sarath Rathnasiri, a visitor from
Eppawala in north central
While some Tamil political parties have reservations about
the influx of visitors, there appeared to be no animosity between the mostly
Sinhalese visitors and the citizens of the peninsula.
“We are happy to see people coming from the south,”
Pathmanathan Suyantheran, a
Many also see the influx of visitors as
While war-destroyed buildings are common in
Of the over 280,000 people displaced by the war, over
190,000 have returned to their home villages, according to the United Nations.
It says that more than 160,000 houses need reconstruction or major repairs.
Overall, some 70,000 people died in the conflict, which the
Tamil Tigers fought to demand a separate homeland for minority Tamils.
Compared to what they went through in the not-so distant
past, no one in
“It is much better than what it was earlier. There are
military personnel on the roads but the checking has been reduced to a great
extent. Most of the signs of the war are being removed. Demilitarisation is
slowly taking place,” Bishop Soudranayagam said.
IPS