Kilinochchi - seat of terror to reconciliation hub

‘This is a new beginning. The troublesome past is over now. We are all the same and as such we should all join hands and rise together in our quest to achieve collective prosperity.
-President Mahinda Rajapaksa’
 

Kilinochchi brings up mixed feelings, depending on the political view one holds of what has taken place in Sri Lanka in the past three decades. To those compelled to suffer the years of terror unleashed by the LTTE in its violent campaign for the setting up of a separate Eelam on Sri Lankan soil, it is today a place of great conquest and victory.

To those supportive of the LTTE, both covertly and overtly, it is now a place of defeat and shame, as it symbolizes the failure of the unreal dream of Velupillai Prabhakaran and a coterie of diehard separatists, whose strength and influence flowed from the barrels of the guns they held.

For the Tamil people who were unconverted fellow travellers of the LTTE it may be a place to ponder on the plight they were plunged into by those who broke away from traditional tolerance and friendship of their community and dragged this country, and especially the North, into a quagmire of blood and a field of destruction.

For the Tamils who were helpless onlookers at the tragic events unfolding before their eyes, and often having to unwillingly sacrifice their children and livelihoods to the cause of violence and terror; the victims of extortion and whose children were robbed of education and childhood, which made up the vast majority of Tamils in this country - Kilinochchi will be remembered as an important location for the beginning of their freedom from alleged liberators or ruthless wielders of power.

This is why this week’s visit to Kilinochchi by President Mahinda Rajapaksa and the Cabinet of Ministers was of considerable significance. For President Rajapaksa it was both a combination of victory to which he gave unswerving political leadership, and a reaching out to the people who had been the victims of terror and the battle to rid them of the terror that held them captive for so long.

Core policy

Given the history of our conflict, it is inevitable that some will read an aspect of triumphalism into the President’s visit to Kilinochchi and holding a Cabinet Meeting there. With the wounds of war still so fresh, such thinking is inevitable. But what took place at Kilinochchi went far beyond such triumphalism. It extended to the wider and richer field of reconciliation, at the core of Government policy today.

The message that President Mahinda Rajapaksa took to Kilinochchi, and from there to the people of the North, and the Tamil people who live outside its boundaries both in Sri Lanka and abroad, is that the time for reconciliation and healing had come, and the Government was ready to lead the process of healing.

It was a practical and visible underscoring of President Rajapaksa’s oft stated position that this was not the time to dig into the wounds of the past, but rather when to apply the healing balm to painful wounds of mistrust and terror.

The President made this clear in stating that the Government’s largest financial allocation for regional development went to uplift the conflict ravaged North. The message was clear that Sri Lanka was looking to and obtaining help from the world outside for the reconciliation related development tasks, in stating that loans were from the World Bank and ADB will help rebuild destroyed infrastructure.

While some counties and institutions abroad may be taking a slanted view of what is happening in Sri Lanka today, others who saw the reality were ready to help. This is resulting in speedy development and resettlement, unprecedented in the context of other global experiences in the aftermath of such damaging conflicts.

There was little of triumphalism in what the President said, but proof of actual progress in reconciliation being achieved. There was much direct assistance given to the people, and many were the projects both announced and launched that will soon make a major difference to the lives of the people both in the Kilinochchi District and in the wider areas of the North.

When he stressed that there were forces who, to fulfill their ulterior motives, were trying to portray that the IDPs were not properly provided with necessities, the figures of successful IDP resettlement were already being published elsewhere. Official figures state that the total number of IDPs remaining in welfare centres in the North of Sri Lanka has now dropped to 38,127 from the original figure of 297,000 showing that 80 percent had now been resettled.

The number of IDP zones has also decreased with only four such zones left in the Menik Farm relief village. Another 3,000 IDPs are due to be resettled in Karachchi and Kilinochchi by July 26.

This is an important pointer to the pace of reconciliation taking place, to which must be added the appointment of the Lessons Learnt and Reconciliation Commission, that has already begun work, called for representations from the public, and will go out to the provinces and districts worst affected by the conflict to listen to the grievances of the people.

While some sections of the “international community” continue to focus on what took place in the last months of a battle to rid this land of terrorism, it seems necessary that there should also be similar focus by others, with genuine belief in tolerance and humanity, on studying how Sri Lanka, with her limited resources achieved so much success both in defeating the most ruthless terrorist organization in the world, and getting about so briskly with the tasks of resettlement, development and reconciliation.

President Rajapaksa gave voice to the prevailing mood when he said in Kilinochchi that: “This is a new beginning. The troublesome past is over now. We are all the same and as such we should all join hands and rise together in our quest to achieve collective prosperity.”