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| Tuesday, 1 March 2005 |
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Batticaloa fishermen tell Prince Charles of their woes from Manjula Fernando in Batticaloa Fishermen and residents in Batticaloa told visiting heir to the British throne Prince Charles that despite the deep scars left by the tsunami, they were ready to go back to sea and resume their lives. Prince Charles visited the affected areas in the Batticaloa district as part of his six hour lightening tour here yesterday. The soft spoken member of the British Royal family made a trek round the badly affected coastal stretch by the Lagoon offering words of comfort to the stricken victims some of whom had lost all their possessions including their loved ones in the Boxing Day disaster. The Batticaloa district lost nearly 3,000 people in the catastrophe with over 340 people still reported missing. Taking time to speak to the victims about their lives after the tragic incident, despite a tight schedule that restricted his whole tour in Sri Lanka to a few hours, the Prince of Wales was visibly moved to hear the sad accounts of survivors who explained their struggle to bring back normality to their lives. "I was very sad when I heard about the disaster on December 26," Charles told a group of displaced adults and children living at a UNHCR assisted resettlement village at Mattikkali. The Prince who arrived at the Bandaranaike International Airport around 6.00 am yesterday was flown aboard an Air Force helicopter to Batticaloa. The area, where confrontations between the two LTTE factions are intense was heavily guarded by the Presidential Security Division Commandos, the STF and the Police. Despite the jet lag following an almost 11 hour direct flight from London en route to Australia, New Zealand and Fiji, the Prince appeared fresh and attentive to the long narrations of the fishermen of their experiences. "I am very happy that Prince Charles is coming to visit my family and see my damaged house," Vandamani (60), a fisherman who lost his livelihood and rendered homeless by the tsunami told reporters. "I want to explain my plight to him. I do not expect anything from him but an opportunity to explain my feelings, matters to me very much," he said. Prince Charles visited the Mattikkali village and met Vandamani's family living in the UNHCR assisted resettlement village in the vicinity of Kalladi lagoon. The displaced people in the area said they received dry ration coupons, the Rs. 2500 allowance to purchase kitchen utensils and Rs.5000 by the government under its relief program. The Prince first visited a partly damaged temple dedicated to Lord Murugan at Thiruchenthur, Kallady where a religious ceremony was performed in honour of the heir to the British throne. A Sri Lanka Red Cross clean up operation was inspected by the Prince who is also the Head of the British Red Cross. At the clean up site where young Tamil volunteers of the area were busy removing the tsunami debris, the Prince spent a few minutes asking questions about their work and their families. He was briefed at the site by the head of the ICRC sub delegation Nicolas Vonarx. The Prince was in Batticaloa from 8.00 am to 9.45 am. Prince Charles was accompanied by High Commissioner Nicholas Evans, British Red Cross CEO Sir Nicholas Young and Robert Davies, Director of the International Business Leaders Forum. |
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