My visits and experience in Jaffna:

Wandering in the land of palm fronds

Anil Amarasekera Lt Col (Retd)

The writer recollects the fond memories of the land of palm fronds when he toured the recovering war battered Jaffna peninsula recently. Part I of the article appeared Friday.

What I noticed during my two visits to the Jaffna peninsula in February and April this year was that the people were very relaxed and happy and were once more

travelling around in bicycles more than in any other form of transport. The Police and the Security Forces were very courteous and friendly towards not only the visitors but also to the general public of Jaffna.

Mr. Ramalingam with whom I stayed during my last visit also confirmed that the Police and the Security Forces were now conducting themselves with dignity and had won over the hearts and minds of the Jaffna people.

A heartening sight

Though I was happy to hear such news, I was saddened when I saw the magnificent Jaffna Fort now only just a rampart with no buildings within. The majestic Dutch buildings within the Fort were razed to the ground by the LTTE after the withdrawal of the Sri Lanka Army from the Jaffna Fort. When I visited the Mathakal Army Detachment only the parapet wall was left standing while the building that the Army occupied had been completely destroyed.

All the buildings that were occupied by the Army in the VVT camp too had been completely razed to the ground by the LTTE and in its present condition no one would believe that a company of 150 soldiers ever lived in that location. These are I believe the inevitable results of a separatist war that brought only death and destruction and no good to anybody.

There were many palatial houses of the smuggler community with beach frontage and some of these houses had a canal dug from the house to the sea along which a motor boat could be driven from the sea into a garage like building attached to the main house. None of these buildings or canal ways exists any longer.

However I was able to revisit the smugglers caves that I visited way back in 1976. At that point of time I remember climbing down to the floor of the cave by making use of a small Tamarind tree. After 33 years the same Tamarind tree had grown so big that it was impossible to use it to climb down to the floor of the cave.

However, I was able to make use of another entrance and work my way with difficulty in to the caves. These caves formed under the surface of the lime stone crust have a very good potential to be developed into a great tourist attraction.

Island of ponies

Delft as I remember it from my visit as a kid was an island full of ponies running wild. However when I visited Delft Island this month I did not see any wild ponies and what I saw looked more like domesticated animals.

The cattle population owned by the people of Delft I was told had greatly increased. It is possible that the increased cattle population is grazing in the available pastures and sans adequate land to graze there has been a drastic reduction in the pony population. The island has only one bus, a couple of three wheelers and a few tractors. I had the opportunity of travelling around the island in a hand tractor.

Many people driven out of the Jaffna to Kilinochchi by the LTTE travelled that distance not in motor vehicles but on bicycles. When the Army commenced its humanitarian operations in the district of Mannar the LTTE ordered the Tamil people in the Mannar district to move to the Kilinochchi district.

Many did so using their bicycles. When the Sri Lanka Army humanitarian operation was approaching the Kilinochchi district the LTTE ordered the Tamil people to withdraw towards the Mullaitivu district. Therefore there are mountains of bicycles in many locations in the Mullaitivu district in various states of disrepair that could be repaired and given back to the internally displaced people that are now resettling in their original habitats.

As a hearts and minds operation the Security Forces Commander of Mullaitivu was keen to commence a project to repair as many bicycles as possible and to hand these back to their rightful owners and where owners cannot be found to repair and hand such bicycles to deserving Tamil families that are resettling in their original villages.

While returning from Jaffna I initiated such a project through the Thawalama Development Foundation to establish ten bicycle repair shops in the district of Mullaitivu. The necessary tools for this purpose were gifted to ten resettled Tamil families from the Mullaitivu district at the Divisional Secretariat in Oddusudan to commence bicycle repair self employment projects.

A Rs 40,000 donation was received to commence this project from the Executive Committee of SPUR.

Mullaitivu Security Forces Commander Major General Athula Jayawardena and the General Officer Commanding the 59 Division Major General L.A.D. Amaratunga together with several other senior Army Officers participated at inaugural ceremony of this bicycle repair project organized on April 6 2010 by Mullaitivu Civil Affairs Officer of Lt Col P.A. Dayananda.

Concluded