The Hindu : International : No civilians left in this once-elegant town

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Monday, Jan 03, 2005

International

International

No civilians left in this once-elegant town

By V.S. Sambandan

MULLAITTIVU (SRI LANKA), JAN. 2. A week after the tsunami, Mullaittivu, on Sri Lanka's eastern coast, is still recovering its dead. High-water marks leaving four-foot stains on the walls of buildings about 600 metres from the coast tell the tale of tragedy wrought by nature to this coastal town — the administrative headquarters of the district held by the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE). The town has to be rebuilt from scratch.

"It is a greater loss than the war," a middle-aged survivor, Arul Rasanayagam, lamented looking at the until-recently idyllic coastline. Around him are smashed buildings, broken boats, wells that have "risen" a few feet as a result of seawater intrusion, a bullet-ridden post office building now in ruins. There are no civilians left in this town, which was won after a bloody battle in the mid-1990s code-named Operation Oyatha Alaigal I (Unceasing Waves-I) by the LTTE. The sandy stretch, which is now wreckage, is part of contemporary Sri Lankan history. There was a major Sri Lankan army camp here in the 1990s, which was overrun by the Tigers — the first in a series of operations that culminated in the LTTE gaining control over the militarily significant Elephant Pass garrison complex in 2000.

On tsunami Sunday "the waves were as high as 20 feet," Rasanayagam said. He lost his wife and five-year old daughter. "We came back here after 12 years when the ceasefire was signed" between the Sri Lankan Government and the Tigers two years ago. "We had started building our lives, now everything is lost," the fisherman said.

"If we get assistance to restart our fishing, then we can build our lives again," he said with a touch of confidence. The decades of fighting between the Government and the Tigers have made him, and others in the coastal village hardy and willing to start from scratch. "What they need now is a massive rebuilding effort," a young LTTE member, Bharati said.

The tsunami has seen a major deployment of the LTTE in this coastal town and other affected areas in northern and eastern Sri Lanka, particularly those under their control. Johnson, a member of the LTTE's medical corps, was deployed here in Mullaittivu when the LTTE overran the Army camp. "We are hardened by war but this natural disaster has shaken us. I could not even sleep properly after I saw the destruction," Mr. Johnson, who has been deputed to a makeshift relief camp housed in a small petty shop, said.

Across Mullaittivu, de-mining equipment is now being used to search for bodies and clear debris. And a few kilometres away from the devastated village, the LTTE's key battle group, the "Charles Anthony regiment" is carrying out a search for the dead. "We cremated five persons today," the leader of the operations said. Barefooted, with gloved hands holding rakes, the cadres search in a pond to find bodies. The LTTE, he said, is running short of medical material. "Our supplies are now over, we have to depend on contributions," he added.

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No civilians left in this once-elegant town