Its not Lebanon but….

It certainly has not been so good here lately. It seems that the powers that be are hell-bent on tearing this country apart. I am doing fine and have been keeping safe. I have just come down to Colombo and am taking a long overdue, and long planned leave starting tomorrow. I will travel to beautiful Bali for two weeks of R&R. Yippie!

In the last few weeks Sri Lanka, and specifically Trinco (district), has seen some pretty heavy fighting. Those of you who have been following this mess at all know that the recent flare up has been the result of a water dispute in the southern part of Trinco district, about 40 miles south of Trinco town. The Sri Lankan Armed Forces (SLAF) have been bombing, shelling, and attempting to advance ground troops in this area for weeks. In addition to this, the LTTE launched an attack on the town of Mutur, just on the other side of the harbor. 100’s of civilians, SLAF, and LTTE cadres have been killed in the recent fighting, including 17 local staff (Sri Lankan nationals) of another NGO working in Trinco. The later being a tragedy that I cannot even begin to process.

Following the attack on Mutur, nearly 70,000 people have fled the area and are now living in several makeshift camps located a about 20 miles away. Most of them walking the distance with out water and at great risk of being caught in the crossfire. Both arties agreed to a brief ceasefire to allow the civilians to leave but I can assure you this, the ceasefire was not well observed.

What this has meant for life in Trinco is that there has been daily (and seemingly endless) shelling and bombing of the LTTE controlled area on the other side of the water. Trinco has not been spared from retaliation though and received incoming artillery fire directed mainly at the several SLAF bases in and around town.

I have been working almost non-stop through this period both trying to assist with the ongoing relief efforts for the tens of thousands of displaced people, and trying to complete some time sensitive project work for our housing project. Of course we are making an evaluation of what work we can continue in this environment.

There are so many things that I could write about regarding things that have happened: things that I’ve experienced (both good and bad), and things that are not appropriate to discuss in this venue. I can say that I am feeling significant guilt about leaving right now when so many people are suffering and while many of my coworkers and colleagues are up in Trinco. But, I would be lying if I said that I am not relieved that I am taking this break. Like I said, I am doing fine but certainly am a little burned out.

So, Bali here I come!
I’ll be back in Colombo in September. Ciao!

Speaking of Sri Lanka and Journalism....

Ironically, as I was uploading the previous post, news of the bus attack in Anuradhapura this morning was just making its way around here. And, of course the government responed by shelling the ltte controlled area outside of Trinco again today. So this is just a quick update to let everyone know I am fine and safe. It is not clear who was responsible for this horrible attack on the civilian population, but surely it is not going to help the peace process.

You can read about the incident here. And there is a decent analysis of the "not war, not peace" situation here if you are interested.

Peace!

Trouble in Paradise - April 2006

Ok, so some of you may have heard about the recent troubles that have been brewing in Sri Lanka over the past few months. I thought I would share some stories from the events of April 2006 in Trincomalee before they are potentially eclipsed by future events. Things have been heating up in Sri Lanka and Trinco for months now but things in April really exploded. For example, on April 12th, a bomb was detonated within the main vegetable market in the center of Trinco town. Civilian riots ensued and over 20 shops and several vehicles were burned. There were reports of looting of shops and rape of civilians during these riots and approximately 20 persons were killed. Several days of civil unrest followed the 12th April bomb attack including neighborhood mobs attacking and setting fire to houses in the areas surrounding Trinco town and there were several grenade and claymore mine attacks. I decided to leave Trinco for a few days to let the situation calm down and went to Colombo.


A vehicle and shop that had been burned out during the riots that followed the market blast.

Ouch.... A hand full of vehicles and ~ 20 shops received this fate.

This is a shot taken looking up Central Rd five days after the blast and riots. It was strange to see the bustling center of town to be so deserted.

The day I returned to Trinco, the LTTE bombed army HQ in Colombo and then the army started aerial bombing and shelling the LTTE controlled area next to Trinco. Yes, it was an experience; sitting on my veranda watching rockets fire over the harbor and listing to 135mm artillery guns fire every few mins. Jets were even turning over my house (not bombing here) to return to their targets 10 miles south. After a night an exciting night of shelling, I decided to move into a hotel in town next to my boss’s because he figures it is safer for me there. The cool thing is that I keep meeting these journalists there that are finally coming to cover the things happening in Trinco. The reporting has been pretty bad in terms of being balanced and fair. Most of the information coming from the international news agencies seems to be reported from the gov. Until recently there have been very few reporters coming to the district. Most of the reporters are from Colombo. Anyway, this guy was staying at my hotel and I ask him if he is covering blast at the market (two weeks before this now). He said yeah. So I asked if he new about all these nasty things that happened (that everyone in Trinco knows about) but aren’t getting reported? he said “uh, no... but we cant just print rumors because people say it”. At this point I want to throttle his neck. I mean, isn’t this the job of reporters: to go and in-vest-i-gate potential reports of wrong doings; talk to the people etc? So, I told him that these are not rumors, these people exist, you just need to go talk to them. I hooked him up this a man that had a "real story", and it made it to press the next day (London Guardian)! JUSTICE. The first 5 paragraphs pertain to the atrocities that were not being reported previously.

This is the view from the hotel that I stayed in for a week following the aerial attacks. It actually was a nice place to be. I could watch the boys play cricket in hte afternoon before the curfew was enforced. Also watched (painfully) as the army harrassed and beat some civilians traveling down the road...ugh.