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Politic-Economic-Society-Tech

Jaffna: Have war, can't travel 

By Feisal Samath 

Armed soldiers and police patrol the streets of this war-torn city in northern Sri Lanka, checking the identities of children and older residents after threats by university students to disrupt schools. 

Last week, university authorities shut down the city's only university after continuous student protests over the arrest of a student by the army for alleged involvement with the rebels. 

"I knew this would happen," said a worried Nadesapillai Vithyatharan, associate editor of the respected Udayan newspaper. "The moment I was told the university was being shut due to student agitation, I expressed concern that this would trigger unrest in schools." 

Students from other schools boycotted classes in a show of solidarity while other simply stayed away to avoid getting involved in any disturbance. 

Apart from this disruption, Jaffna, battered by an 18-year-old war, is limping back to normal ever since government forces took control in early 1996. Government offices are operating, shops are open and the private sector is slowly taking root in a city that has seen several warlords since 1983. 

The worst-hit city in a conflict triggered by Tamil rebels' demand for a separate state called Eelam for the country's minority Tamil community, Jaffna has at different times in nearly two decades been ruled by the Sri Lankan government, Indian peacekeeping forces and Tamil rebels. Signs of the war are evident everywhere. Buildings destroyed by bombings stand as mere shells on roadsides. Dozens of military checkpoints staffed by heavily armed soldiers dot the city. 

Residents are compelled to obtain special permits to travel to different parts of the city and the procedure is onerous and cumbersome, but few complain, fearing harassment by the authorities. 

The armed forces are not the only ones with guns. Cadres from militant groups opposed to Tamil rebels drive across the city or man sandbagged bunkers outside their offices, often harassing civilians. The agony will only worsen when Tamil political parties and their stooges come to the city to canvass for or against next month's referendum called by President Chandrika Kumaratunga. 

"Jaffna is like an open prison," laments Kandiah Kularatnam, president of the Jaffna Chamber of Commerce. He is particularly annoyed because his daughter, who lives in Britain, arrived three weeks ago in the capital Colombo, 400 kilometers away, to visit her parents. She returned to London unable to get a seat on the daily civilian flight to Jaffna. 

Kularatnam's desperation is echoed by others. Travelling to and out of Jaffna is near impossible. The only access to the city is through two daily flights run by the Sri Lanka Air Force using Ukrainian pilots on 50-seater Antonov aircraft, and a twice-weekly passenger ship which plies between the north and the eastern port city of Trincomalee. 

Airfares are costly at 6,000 rupees (US$71) for a return ticket while sea fares are about 3,000 rupees (US$35) return, both beyond the reach of the average Jaffna resident. But the demand is so high that the waiting period for an airline seat is anything between two and three weeks even after a booking is made and confirmed dates given. On top of that, one has to have the necessary travel documents. Passengers must get clearance letters from local authorities, the police, an endorsement that they are not involved in rebel activity and so on. It is the pillar-to-post and paper-pushing bureaucracy that prevails here. 

"I came to town for more than seven days from my village to finalize these documents," said a 65-year-old pensioner who was pleading with an air force officer to get him a seat on a plane so he can attend his daughter's wedding in Colombo. While flying time is less than an hour to Colombo, passengers spend more than eight hours through rigorous security checks and waiting in temporary sheds for flights that rarely take off on time. International travel is much faster. 

The sea journey takes about 12 hours to Trincomalee and from there, another five to six hours to Colombo by road. The only road to Jaffna has been cut off by rebels near Vavuniya, 88 kilometers to the south. 

"The transport restrictions are the main reason why the Muslims are not returning," says Abdul Cader Mubeen, president of the Displaced North Muslims Organization. The Muslims, a smaller minority group than the Tamils who dominate Jaffna's population, fled the city in October 1990 after being ordered out by the rebels. There were Muslim doctors, engineers, judges and traders among them. A few Muslim families returned in late 1997 after the government regained control, but the others are reluctant to come back because of certain constraints, says Mubeen. "There are 12 families and a total of 42 Muslims who live in close proximity to each other and a mosque in the town," he said. 

The lack of mobility, transport problems, and the absence of a registrar of births and marriages were among the constraints Mubeen cited. "There are certain things in our culture we cannot change. For a couple to get married, they have to go to Colombo to get registered," said Mubeen, whose family has lived for generations in Jaffna. 

Despite failed efforts in the past to end the conflict through a political solution, the prospect of peace lingers in the air. At the playground of the Hindu College, the city's biggest school, a group of Jaffna's elite gathers every evening under a huge tree to discuss anything from politics to the cost of living. 

"We are still hopeful of peace," says a retired director of education. 

"The Norwegian effort gave us a lot of hope because it was an initiative from the West. Now that has also gotten stalled," noted a retired army captain. 

Norway has been trying to bring the government and Tamil rebels to the negotiating table since late last year in an effort endorsed by the international community. The process has been stalled many times, the latest being caused by the government's preoccupation in trying to prevent its ouster by an opposition that commands a majority in parliament. 

More than 65,000 people have died in the conflict, currently the worst in Asia. Thousands more have either been maimed, or lost their homes and shops in the fighting. Tamil rebels have launched major offensives to wrest control of Jaffna but government troops have firmly resisted. 

Civil affairs are run by civilians but the army moves into any government office at the slightest hint of disruption by Tamil dissidents. Food is not in short supply but costly, while hospitals are short of specialist doctors and medicines. 

Jaffna, unlike the rest of the country, is backward in many ways. Old kerosene cookers and firewood are still used for cooking, while battered buildings are neither renovated nor rebuilt. Doctors and other professionals cycle to work while antiquated British-made cars ply on the roads. The entire population is like a group of gypsies, ready to move out to safer ground when a major battle erupts in the vicinity. 

"We are used to this life," says Vithyatharan. "We move out when trouble flares up and return when the situation is calm." 

(Inter Press Service) 

source: atimes.com, 19 July 2001 

 


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