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Mullaitivu, Prabhakaran’s lair, gets ready for P-TOMS

By Rajpal Abeynayake and Chris Kamalendran in Mullaitivu
M. Mathiathurai a wiry diminutive ex-fisherman, who lost his wife says he is now in the business of packing ice. Nothing unusual here -- there are 18 fishermen living in one chummery in the immediate coast in Mullaitivu who, had all lost their wives to the December 26 tsunami. He is helping to build a shelter which has almost 18 outboard motors hitched to a wall. “We are ready to blast ourselves against any boats that will attack us. We are without wives now. What have we got to lose?’’

It is the tsunami hit coastline of Mullaitivu that we are surveying, beautifully calm with a very deep blue sea keeping sentinel. Within the buffer zone of hundred metres, one would not really have guessed a tsunami wreaked so much devastation, unless one really looked for clues. The LTTE has cleaned up the place, and that’s a story by itself.

The ex-fisherman invites us for a drink.
He says “Chandrika amma -- she is the only leader who can deliver peace among all communities, the Sinhalese, the Muslims and the Tamils. That’s the way we like to live -- in peace.’’

Nothing or no one has been left untouched by the tsunami in this part of coastal Mullaitivu, which bore the brunt of the December 26 devastation.
This fisherman saved his life, as he was not in church -- the All Saints House of Prayer that day. Those who were there – 300 of them – were all wiped out.
He was elsewhere - -at a different church feast at Karachikuddiurrupu. When he came back, he had lost his family, and almost all of his extended family.
These people in Mullaitivu, including Mathiathurai are not woebegone though. They look so cheerful you’d think losing family was all in a day’s work.
The ex-fisherman kisses my hand. He says “we are happy you came.’’ I say “Nandri.’’ He laughs and repeats: “Nandri.’’

Beyond the buffer, is the first real sign of the tsunami’s human toll.
It’s the refugee camp of the area, in which most of the victims live and it is in Karachikuddiurrupu. It’s the nearest tsunami refugee camp that I have seen to the Mullaitivu coast, with thatched roof shelters which are all temporary housing.

They are all in neat rows, built by the LTTE with NGO help. There is a regular water supply, which has been installed with US aid. The camp and these men and women signify a remarkable turnaround of sprit. This resilience is almost awe-inspiring.

“Three thousand seven hundred wives were lost in this area,’’ says one man.
Note that he says wives, and not lives. We ask a lady carrying a child about the P-TOMS. She stands in front of the church, and says deadpan that 300 people who were in it were all washed away to sea on that day.

We do not know anything about the Joint Mechanism, she adds matter-of-factly. “We don’t have television here, or any other way that we get the news.’’ The fisherman’s friend smiles, and says , “we hope they will deliver.’’ All he has got so far is the money, about Rs. 17,000 for immediate relief, and the refugee camp.

Boats keep coming into Tiger held territory. Like large moving hats they can be seen, in convoys that move like lines of ants. Almost all of the fishermen in Mullaitivu are however not talking of getting back to work. They have lost their families, and they have their eyes on the outboard motors. They are willing to blast themselves.

“I voted for Ranil’’ says the ex-fisherman. “We all voted for him – because the entire Tamil Alliance backed him,’’ he laughs. “We do not know if Ranil will come back back, but it’s Chandrika amma that can now bring peace’’. The government Agent Emilda Sugumar says that 23 government institutions have been newly built after the tsunami. “For me to start the reconstruction, I have identified as a precursor, areas of land to construct the new government buildings.

For permanent housings for the tsunami displaced, I have sent all my recommendations to the UDA on land acquisition’’. However, she says she has not got any instructions from the new P-TOMS.She is planning to buy private properties, and discussions are being held with private owners of these lands.
The whole Mullaitivu town is destroyed she says “so we are going to build a new model town.”

Thamilselvan of the LTTE may be able to keep the G.A. informed better. He said that the representatives for the regional committees and the national committees for P-TOMS will be finalized in two weeks. This information will be conveyed to the government of Sri Lanka. After that, work begins.
This is an area near the high security zone of the Tigers -- the Tiger no-go zone, from where its sea Tigers are said to operate .

It was also the locale that was written off by many, along with Prabhakaran the LTTE leader, soon after the tsunami. The sea Tigers are devastated, Mullaitivu is in shambles, and Prabhakaran has been swept away with the tsunami, they said. Today, Mullaitivu, at first perusal at least, looks one of the least devastated tsunami hit towns. That’s partly because the LTTE brought heavy machinery, and cleared the coastal areas of debris.

Result: Mullaitivu now looks placid, almost brand new. It’s waiting to be re-housed, and re-inhabited. The LTTE has not built any houses, it has not had the money. The NGOs have built the thatched houses which are the transitional abodes in the refugee camps.

It’s the GA who has alienated lands, and negotiated for outright purchases of land, with a view to rebuilding with the help of the Urban Development Authority. All that is going to change pretty soon. The GA’s role is bound to be overshadowed by the LTTE’s coming role as the powerful partner in the P-TOMS. In its clean up drive after the tsunami, the LTTE even shot the stray dogs, fearing epidemics and rabies.

But, it has been doing a lot more close to Mullaitivu. The Mullaitivu Killinochichi road is one of the best tracts -- its carpet is smooth, and some say that it’s from along this road that one can branch off to the LTTE’s spanking new airstrip which is supposed to be somewhere there covered by the underbrush.
One thing the LTTE seems to be able to do is to make the best of available resources. The organization has been cash strapped, and hardly able to handle the post tsunami situation.

But without any of the bickering and the grandstanding that characterized the post tsunami effort in the South, the LTTE has made Mullaitivu look almost modern - --- at least in some places, such as where the road traverses the town. And in other locations, such as the beach, the LTTE has almost obliterated the ugly doings of the tsunami by levelling the debris, resettling the refugees where the NGOs were willing to help build transitional houses.
Some say the LTTE has been able to do this due to the lack of democracy in this part of the world. There is no intense political competition as in the bickering South, with everybody and his son-in-law in a bid to hog the tsunami relief effort.

With devastating efficiency, the LTTE has flattened the rubble, and Mullaitivu looks like its missing only one thing; a mall. When one of the writers of this article wrote way back when the ceasefire began, in a column in this newspaper, that Prabhakran wants a “mall in Mullaitivu,’’ it was to underscore the point that its the potential economic benefit that’s the main incentive for the ceasefire.

Mullaitivu may be missing the mall, but it is not missing a good road, and an ability to get on with things with a great deal of spirited resilience. The altar statue at the All Saints church was spared the tsunami, which has given some of these survivors the hope that they have been left around for a reason. We meet a young seminarian, who hardly looks at us. He gazes into the sea and fills us in with all of the details.

He takes us to a man who says “there is only the LTTE here.’’
We do not know in what sense he says it; it’s difficult to find out from the man’s expressions which do not belie anything. These beaches look uninhabited almost -- and Mullaitivu, save for a few pockmarked buildings off the coast, looks untouched either by the tsunami or a war that ravaged it for over 20 years.

It’s almost eerie in this context to read an article which appeared in the international newsmagazine, TIME, this week. In a special section titled ‘The Best of Asia’, there is a sidebar story titled “Tamil Tiger Territory, Sri Lanka.’’ The story says: “It’s a stretch to talk of an upside to landmines, but there is no denying that one result of Northern Sri Lanka’s status as one of the most heavily mined places on earth is that the area has become a haven for creatures with little use for land. Sri Lanka is a paradise for tropical birds -- home to more than 400 species, of which at least 23 are found nowhere else. But it’s only in Tamil Tiger controlled territory, where a carpet of unexploded ordnance has made the jungle salt-marshes no-go area for humans, that the birds have the place for themselves.

There you will find kingfishers, wagtails, fish eagles, yellow and green bee eaters, sandpipers and plovers, all from the arctic; storks and spoon bills from India; and indigenous birds such as blue magpies, paradise flycatchers and Ceylon crested drongos. But birdwatchers beware; there may be a ceasefire between the government and the separatist Tigers, but peace talks are stalled and tension is never far below the surface. If that isn’t enough to deter you, hire a local guide and stick to the main roads, which were cleared of mines long ago.

Your life is in danger if you go into the bush -- but is safe in there for the orange billed warbler, and thousands of its winged friends.’’ It seems Mullaitivu is famous for all the wrong reasons. But sometimes the wrong reasons turn out to be coupled with right reasons. Mullaitivu is haven for birds. It’s also a place for stubborn resilient people who say “never say die’’ even if their wives are dead. But some have one more wrong reason for their never say die spirit: they only say die when they turn into suicide bombers, and dream of strapping themselves with explosives to ram attacking Navy boats…...

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