"....When I landed in Colombo in July 2007, a lot of changes were noticeable. 1. Galle Road has been made into a one way road from Bambalapitiya junction to (towards) Galle Face Green. And, from Kollupitiya Junction (Liberty theatre) to Bambalapitya (Bullers Road), Duplication Road has been made into single way, for the outgoing traffic. This single arrangement had taken the life out of Galle Road. Similarly, a lot of other prominent roads had been made into single, one way types.
2. New check points have popped up all over the city. Between Wellawatte Bridge (Savoy) and Kollupitiya junction, there are seven check points manned either by police or Air Force personnel. From Indian Embassy (Railway bridge, in front of Press club) to Hotel Intercontinental there are four check points one manned by police and the rest by Army. Now, all these check points are along the side of the road leading to City centre (Fort).
PM’s residence Temple Trees looks like a high security prison, - with a newly erected 20 foot high wall along Galle Road and about 20 armed guards along Galle Road side. At both ends of the road side wall there are watch towers with heavy machine guns pointing down towards the road and still heavier guns pointing upwards (air defence). You could no longer get a glimpse (even the roof) of Temple trees from Galle Road.
3. On the day after my arrival in the morning I had to go Indian Embassy to get a visit visa for myself. So, I travelled by bus around 7.30am with my son. Standing just next to the bus driver in front, I counted 81 service personnel along Galle road, from Shrubbery Gardens (Hotel Greenlands- where I used to stay) to Galle Face Hotel junction. (Yes, I may have missed a few servicemen too). This 81 includes the out side guards at Temple Trees too). If you go by this number, I could safely concluded that there must be around 100,000 armed service personnel from Ratmalana to Katunayake. I saw a similar concentration of armed personnel all around in Colombo from Ratmalana Airport to Katunayake airport.
4. Indian Embassy is very generous in giving visas now. They surprised us by giving four years multiple visa for my niece in one shot without asking any questions.
5. I was present in Colombo on the day of the Victory Celebration in Colombo. There were armed policemen as well as Railway Security guards numbering more than a hundred checked all the passengers inside the Colombo Railway station before allowing them out... On that day, normal traffic rush in the morning was not there. Galle road was empty and the buses were half empty. Everywhere you could see more armed personnel than the civilians.
Around 10.00 am I was at Union Place, where I noticed that all people on the road looked up with a panicky feeling when a low flying plane passed by above with a huge noise. Later it was known that the planes were part of the Victory Parade. You should have been there to feel the tension at that moment! Since there was no Tiger attack (bombs, landmines etc) in Colombo, most Sinhalese believe Govt’s propaganda that the Tigers were weakened by SL army as well as by the deeds of Karuna.
Batticaloa... Paduwan Karai
When I reached Batti in late July half the displaced people had been allowed to go to their villages or as they say ‘resettled’. Following are the damage done in Paduwankarai.
1. Looting had taken place all around in Paduwan Karai area. After the army had moved in, Sinhalese from outer areas had come on tractor (with trailers) and other smaller vehicle such as Kubota tractors(two wheelers) and taken all what they could take. It had gone on for a week or so. So, majority of the people (yes, all are in a way - my relatives) were left with nothing, even to do the basic things such as cooking.
2. Half the tile-roofed houses were selectively bombed and burned. Now, there are no landlords to assist the small time farmers with finance, seed paddy etc.
3. Since this military operation took place during the harvesting season, already harvested paddy were stored in their residence and the rest were in their fields either yet to be harvested or stored in the fields after the harvest. Army had burned all the field that were not harvested along with koddu (Heaps of harvested paddy plants).
Paddy stored at the residence were either taken away by the Army and the looting Sinhalese or burnt along with the houses. So, at present, any economic activity in Paduwan Karai is dependent on outside assistance. Now the ordinary Paduwankarai farmer will be at the mercy of Muslim loan sharks and rice mill owners (mainly from Kattankudy) for their cultivation needs such as seed paddy, fertilizers, weedicides, insecticides etc. Now that the army had moved into Paduwan Karai, Muslims will move in en masse to take over the bulk of trading and agricultural activities there.
4. Dairy industry has been destroyed for good in Paduwan Karai. We have herds of mainly water buffalos, mainly around Unnichai area. During Maha (Monsoon) cultivation season, they used to take the herds to the highland forests around Unnichai area and back into the fields after Maha cultivation. We have shallow water ponds all over the places so that water buffalos could be kept even in the villages too. Now, during the bombardment, people moved away leaving their herds. The frightened animals moved into the woods nearby and most were rounded up and driven away by the Sinhalese, half were killed for food by the invading army. Muslims from Eravur are having a feast of our buffalo beef, either sold cheap by the army to them or they themselves slaughter the animals in the nearby woods for free.
Paduwan Karai area and also Vaharai (North ) area had been the major supplier of cow and buffalo milk (with average fat content of +10% - hence our curd have that distinguish flavour and taste) for Milk Board as well as to Nestle (Sri Lanka). Also it was the second major income earner (after Paddy Cultivation Board) for residents of Paduwan karai. Sir, now this industry is dead. The sad part is that none of our govt officials in Batti are aware of these facts. These buggers are only interested in their monthly pay and also would like to see their names and pictures in the local news papers which reports that or this official had given or distributed this or that to refugees. These so called high ranking Tamil officials are the real bastards we have in bushels among us in Batti.
These water buffaloes are very fond of muddy waterholes wherein they spend major part of the day. So, wherever the Sinhalese looters had taken them or those animals that were driven into the jungle, they would eventually return to their favorite native water holes that are lettered around Paduwankarai. Thus, there is a little ray of hope for this dairy industry in my area. Yes, it may take around 10 years to get back to where it was before this bombardment.
Kannaki Amman Temples
Every village here in Paduwan Karai has a Kannaki Amman temple. Since the annual festival takes place during the months of May/June, these annual festival never took place anywhere in Paduwan Karai. Since Paduwan Karai is 99% Hindu, this had made a very damaging effect towards Army and Karuna. It is a real blessing at this juncture that Karuna does not belong to Paduwan Karai clan,(yes, my clan). Because of this, Karuna never would get the support of Paduwan Karai. (Sivaram too had written about this fact in one of his writings). Karuna belongs to a clan, that is found only in Kiran, which is in Eluwan Karai.
Thantha Malai Murugan temple
This is a famous Murugan temple at the top of a rock, south of Kokkadichcholai, I had earlier mention about this, my favorite temple. Annual festival takes place in July along with that of Kathirkamam. No festival this year.
During peace time, after the signing of the peace accord, Karuna, being the then LTTE chief in Batticaloa had allowed some high powered Sinhalese leaders to visit this temple flying in on a helicoptor. I had thought then that they must had taken this good will opportunity to bury a Buddha statue or two there, later to claim this site as holy for Buddists. Now, they had built a big army camp at the temple mainly using the many Madams that were built for the devotees. I am very sure that very soon they will exhume this buried Buddha, with a heavy media coverage and proclaim to the world that this was an ancient Buddist holy site. Mark my words sir, this is going to happen soon enough.
Muslims
Yes, they are the winners at present. Amparai is already in their hands and are very strong in every other field there. Now in Batti, they had driven out almost all the Tamil academics as well as other affluent Tamils. With the recent bombardment, Tamils’ economic back too has been broken. Now that they have a number of Muslim ministers in charge of Rehabilitation, Education etc, and the govt too is bent on destroying the Tamils in the East, Muslims are going to ride on us. With some 12 or 13 Muslim ministers in the present cabinet, Batticaloa is going to be their ministerial play ground.
With new army camps at places like Pullu Malai, Arughamam(tank area), Karadiyan Aru, along Chenkallady -Badulla road, there is going to be a huge settlements of Muslims in a very short time, mainly from Eravoor. Already media reports had come out that Valaichenai-Oddamavady Muslims are fast capturing and settling themselves down on vacated Tamil lands north of Valaichenai.
I see now that with the present plight of Batti Tamils, the support for LTTE has soared. Everyone there are expecting LTTE to do something to correct the situation. One thing is clear that in future that there will be no talk of East without North. Thanks to the Rajapakse clan... They have already taught the bitter lesson to Batti Tamils. One should be thankful to Karuna and Rajapakse for re-uniting Eastern Tamil with that of the North.
Again, when you look at the present situation in a different angle, it may seem that Rajapakse had created a hostile situation in the East, which may lead to, or justify the Tamils (LTTE) to evict all the Sinhalese (including those colonized even from early fifties) from the entire East. Already, Sinhalese occupying five Tamil villages around Manal Aru have vacated the villages last week. Similar things may happen around Amparai and Trincomalee too. Regards..."
