An eye-opening Pastoral Letter

BISHOP'S VISIT: Bishop of Colombo Rt. Rev. Duleep de Chickera visited the Jaffna peninsula and Trincomalee recently and met the very civilians who have been terrorised by the killings and abductions which have increased, instilling fears in their minds of facing the agony of another war.

Though the Ceasefire Agreement of 2002 has temporarily halted the two decades' war in the North and East, the situation in the region remains volatile, something similar to a volcano which would erupt at any moment.

The father of federalism late S. J. V. Selvanayagam was an Anglican. The peninsula and several areas in the North and East had a long interaction with the Church of England with a large number of schools and various other institutions built by the Christian missionaries.

Despite the current turbulent conditions the churches and their activities continue without any interruptions in the North and East.

So the Anglican Bishop, Rev. Fr. Duleep de Chickera, was on his routine visit to look into the functions of his church visited the civilians who have been agonized by the recent escalation of violence and at the end of his tour he released his pastoral statement which highlighted the gravity of the dangerous atmosphere that currently prevails in the North and Trincomalee.

"The situation in the North and Trincomalee is tense and dangerously volatile; various groups are engaged in a struggle for ideological, political and geographical space which invariably spills over into the routine lives of civilians. Streets are deserted after 2 p.m. and the people live in fear of each other.

"The civilians in these areas have no one to turn to. Subtle intimidation and whisper campaigns encompass all. Independent Tamil voices are reluctant to speak for fear of being caricatured as `the enemy'." This is all excerpt from the lengthy pastoral statement made by Bishop de Chickera and at the end of his statement he called for an immediate return to the next round of peace talks at which the principle of devolution should be addressed.

While expressing his views on his findings Bishop Chickera, being a key figure from the south, pointed out the need for the immediate resumption of peace talks between the Government and the LTTE.

It was soon after the release of the Pastoral statement of Bishop Chickera, a horrifying incident of a massive pressure mine explosion occurred deep in the Wilpattu wild life sanctuary where seven innocent civilians including two women were killed.

Wilpattu area was in famous for the murder of Adeline Vitarana in the late fifties. Late justice A. C. Alles wrote even a book on the Adeline Vitarana murder trial and he described the cold blooded murder of that pretty lass who was made pregnant by her lover and later was killed by her lover by running a car over her.

The incident occurred at Wilpattu and the tomb stone of Adeline Vitarana still remains at the entrance to the Wilpattu wild life sanctuary from the Puttalam-Anuradhapura road.

Except the tracker, the seven persons including two women killed by the pressure mine were from the Colombo's affluent. One of the victims was Nihal de Silva who was the author of the book 'Road from Elephant Pass'. And another person named Chandi Aseerwatham who was the brother of former Bank of Ceylon Chairman Rajan Aseerwatham.

Rajan Aseerwatham was in the delegation that initiated talks with the LTTE soon after President Chandrika Bandaranaike Kumaratunge came to power in 1994.

The Wilpattu wild life sanctuary is famous for leopards and wild elephants and it remains the largest wild life park in the country, attracting both local as well as foreign wild life enthusiasts. The park was closed soon after the bungalows located there were attacked and some of the wild life wardens were believed killed by the LTTE cadres, in the mid eighties.

However the Wilpattu park was reopened for safari makers a few years ago and plenty of wild life enthusiasts were visiting the sanctuary to revive its old glory.

So last Saturday's explosion and deaths which occurred at Wilpattu highlighted the grave situation currently experienced by the entire country.

For the past several months claymore mines had been targeted at armed forces personnel in the North and East. However it was for the first a powerful mine had gone off outside the North and East killing innocent seven civilians who were friendly Tamil and Sinhalese families.

Therefore the recent Pastoral statement of Bishop Duleep de Chickera on the conditions in the North and East could be considered a reminder of the deadly past and also a message of warning on the effects of delaying the peace process.