Editorial

Security

Politics

World

Letters

Sports

Obituaries

Archives

By E. Weerapperuma

War has a different meaning and a different experience to men, women and children of all walks of life whatever the ethnic community one belongs to. In a war everyone is affected and become victims of war. There is no class differences.

We learnt of wars both at home at national level and the international level. We talk of heroes and heroines of war in reference to those whose innocent blood was shed to satisfy and safeguard those in power or rulers in whose hands the destiny of each individual rested.

But we failed to understand in depth of the trauma, the mental and physical agony, victims of such wars have undergone. We never, ever tried to understand the plight of these people, the terrible experience they had undergone. We never gave our minds to examine how many had gone homeless, fatherless or motherless. Children who have lost their lives, their belongings, those taken away from their birth place, lost their properties and their cherished ones as a result of war. How they became homeless in their own land we learnt only in books, but now it is a reality.

Suddenly we had became a part and parcel of the war, the ethnic war began in the latter part of the 20th century. One really feels the pain of another when their near and dear ones are put to the test by the war and that was the stark truth we experienced when we visited those in the refugee camps.

The war we experience right now at our door step is a shame on us for we are fighting with our own-selves failing to live adhering to the precepts of the religions we profess. We are fighting living in the same land, being brought up in one and the same culture and traditions that introduced each one of us as brothers and sisters for well over 2,500 years.

The war does not bring out heroes or heroines. It brings out only a devastated nations, a people who have lost everything including human dignity. This is very evident if one looks deep into the lives of people living in refugee camps in our midst. At the same time there are people living against all odds and living in trying conditions for a good cause and they are a shining example to others to emulate. The wars at times bring out such heroic people and we find them living among us today.

Sri Lanka's present war is basically a war of ethnic or communal conflagration and communal disturbances having its origin in the wrong policies adopted by various governments in the past since independence, created a class of people, the victims of persecution and making all affected to flee from their places of origin leaving everything they treasured.

Just last week I was in Mannar at the Madhu camp to see how they live and wished that no child in the future should face such a dreadful experience. We witnessed that WAR has ravaged Sri Lanka within the past two decades and had taken away many precious and innocent lives, devastated the national economy and had destroyed the quality of human life.

The children to whom we spoke said that what they wanted was to live as children enjoying the happiness of life, like other children but for them it was a dream, a wishful thinking. As time passes they will grow up to be adults who have lost everything that would have been theirs as children.

Some children fancied the day they would see "Colombo City" and many did not know that there were other communities and people belonging to different ethnic groups in other parts of country. For some of them the world was the shanty they lived in the Madhu Shrine.

As a result of the war, children are the most affected but they show no anger and have learnt to live the life as it comes. Some children approached us as seeking help to continue their education and the parents of these children were very anxious to get out of the present predicament fallen on them although they are not directly responsible for all that had gone before making them live in refugee camps.

The Church has been very gracious. According to people living in the Madhu Camp, the Church has given what she could, has provided them shelter and other basic facilities came from the government.

According to the Vavuniya Government Agent's Office sources, all displaced families are put into refugee camps. They are divided into sectors consisting of about 200 families and provided with temporary shelter with other basic facilities. We visited a camp at Poonthodam a few miles away from Vavuniya town.

The authorities manning the camp said that they do not encourage people to continue living in these camps but help them get out of them as soon as possible. A good part of the national economy is spent on them and these people if allowed to continue to live in camps would become a burden to society. So what the authorities do is to help them find some means of living. So that in time to come they would be moving out on their own.

The elders who spoke to us said that they wished to live in their own surroundings and wished that the war would end soon. They were optimistic that steps taken by the present government would bring about a settlement and they would be able to live a dignified life away from the refugee camps.

As we moved in vehicles we saw the vast fertile land abandoned for many years as a result of war. There were no houses. There were no churches, no temples, no kovils with devotees.No railway lines or railway stations that we saw long years ago. They have all been destroyed and everything has to be begun altogether new to put the country back on the wheels of development once both parties enter into a settlement.

We also saw parents and children at the Piramanalamkulam military check point waiting to cross the cleared areas and others wanting to get back to the camps or their own houses in the uncleared areas waiting for their turn until buses come to take them. In everyone's face was written an unanswered question. When will all this end? When will we all live like in the past as brothers and sisters of one family ? The innocent children know not of war. They know nothing. But they cry when they are told that they cannot take their toys with batteries and they have to part with them. A big question indeed to a tiny mind.

News | Business | Features | Editorial | Security
Politics | World | Letters | Sports | Obituaries

Produced by Lake House
Copyright 2001 The Associated Newspapers of Ceylon Ltd.
Comments and suggestions to :Web Manager