Road to recovery:

561 Brigade builds rapport among villagers

By Shanika SRIYANANDA

The vehicle was racing on the A9 road through Kanakarayankulam as we needed to be in the Periyakulam village before little Nalini goes to school. As we turned right to enter the village, the officer with us suddenly ordered the driver to stop. An elderly woman was crying alone and was praying to the Gods. The vehicle stopped near her, she was sitting on a cement bund. 'Amma ean niggal alugireergal? (Why are you crying mother?) asked the officer who spotted the old woman crying from a distance."Enakku Kandu vaittru valiya thanga mudiyell" (I can't bear the severe stomach ache son)" she replied humbly but was surprised with the warm gesture extended by an army officer.

The 55-year-old Kamalanayaki was crying as she couldn't bear her abdominal pain and was waiting for her daughter's arrival to get herself admitted to the Vavuniya hospital. But the officer excused himself for the short delay, called his Corporal and ordered a vehicle to be sent to take her to the medical facility of the 561 Brigade. He asked another soldier to be with her until the vehicle arrived. "Inda magangalukku kadawul asirwadipparaga" (God will bless you sons) she said while taking her bag and asking her daughter who had just arrived, to get into the Army vehicle.

This sudden encounter was not a sudden gesture of an army soldier of the Northern province but a true act of humanity.

The soldier - civilian bond, which was forcibly distanced for three decades are getting warmer and warmer as they get to know each other better than earlier.Lt.Col Harendra Weerasinghe has become a true 'friend' for most of the villagers living in the area, which comes under the 561 Brigade which covers 16 Gramaseva divisions from Nedunkerni to Mankulam. He could have easily ignored the plight of this old woman but as the Civil Affairs Coordinator of the Brigade he senses the pain of the villagers when they need help.

We arrived at the small plot of land with a newly built two bed room house which is yet to be colour washed. Little Nalini wore a clean white uniform and was worshipping God Ganesh before she left for the school nearby. With the new dawn of peace, hundreds of children in the village step into school. Their little school was renovated by soldiers.

They happily attend the school as they had also got new school bags and shoes from donors recently."Sir Vannakkam", Thiruchelvam Pushpa said inviting Lt. Col Weerasinghe and gave him a new plastic chair, which they had got as a gift when they came to live in the newly built house. Pushpa and her husband, carrying their two babies, fled Puthumathalan just a day before the end of the final battle at Nanthikadal in May, 2009.

The family lived in temporary shelters in the Ananda Kumaraswami welfare centre in Vavuniya. With the conclusion of mine clearing, the villagers resettled in their own environs. Reduced to zero, they came back home empty handed but the soldiers who rescued them were there to lend a helping hand. Using their own allocations, the soldiers sweated it out to build houses for them. Pushpa's new house was built at a cost of Rs. 400,000 and the soldiers constructed it free of charge.

" There was no one to help us but the soldiers helped us a lot. They even gave us food", she said. "Api poddak parakku una" (We got late, sorry) Lt. Col Weerasinghe apologised to the former LTTE cadre.

"Kamak nee sir (No problem sir). Shall we go, amma is waiting for us", Amirthaseelan, who uses an artificial limb, led us paddling his push bicycle on the gravel road passing newly built houses, said.

Annapullai, the 67 year-old-mother is truly grateful to the Army for saving their lives and donating an artificial limb to her youngest son Amirthaseelan.

The 39-year-old explained why he joined the terror outfit that posed off as saviours of the Tamils. He lost his limb at the counter attack to the Army's Operation Leap Forward in 1995 at the Sandilippai village.

He is now an owner of a small textile shop opened four months ago."I feel ashamed when I think why I joined the LTTE", he said.

"We were misled and motivated to fight against the soldiers".He became a differently-abled person in his mid 20s, the youth was assigned to clerical work for the outfit.

Due to his disability he was allowed to go home but the LTTE which didn't spare disabled cadres when they lacked manpower.

They called Amirthaseelan again to join the outfit but his mother and brother hid him to prevent him being conscripted."I don't use it often. This fits me well and I don't want to waste it", Amirthaseelan showing his latest Jaipur artificial limb which was kept in a secure place, said. Lt. Col. Weerasinghe said the rapport between the 561 Brigade

and the villagers was progressing and the soldiers have become a part of their families. " They come with various problems, including their personal issues. They think the soldiers can handle them better than anyone else", he said.

Among the assistance given to the villagers by the 561 Brigade is building of 137 houses, renovating 15 schools and donation of 17 artificial limbs which is worth Rs. 800,000 each. Six ex-LTTE cadres got artificial limbs and the beneficiaries were given a three-day workshop on how to use and care for the limbs.

He said they have given priority to restore livelihoods as the villagers who depend on agriculture and inland fisheries need help to start their earnings. "A new project that gives financial assistance by the Rural Development Bank to start a piggery will commence soon with the help of John Keells Holdings.

Thirty nine ex-cadres have been selected as beneficiaries and each one will be given a loan from Rs. 100,000 to 200,000", he said.Brigadier Raj Ranawaka 561 Brigade Commander ( Now posted as the 56 Division Commander) said in less than a year, villagers belonging to the 561 and 563 Brigade areas were resettled after they received mines clearance certificates. "Initially the Government gave dry rations to the resettled villagers for nine months until their livelihoods were restored. We cleaned 659 wells with the assistance of the Water Board and distributed over 2,000 rolls of barbed wire to erect fences around their houses and agricultural lands.

Stray cattle was a problem on the A-9 road so we distributed the cattle among he families", he said that over 90 percent of the population under the 56 Div areas were farmers.

He said the friendship between the soldiers and villagers, who thought each other were enemies was enhanced while the soldiers were building their houses. "Each battalion was given the task of constructing five houses and ten soldiers were assigned to build a house.

This paved the way to improve amity between them.

They felt the warmth of their friendship. Most of them cried and begged pardon when we handed over the newly built houses to them", he said.Similarly, soldiers of the 563 Brigade, which covers 22 Gramaseva divisions, have built over 93 houses and renovated 16 schools which were damaged and became cow sheds. Brig. Ranawaka said the 'Divi Neguma Agricultural Centre' opened by the Ministry of Economic Development has helped farmer communities to start home gardens.

Batches of youth have been given residential training on agricultural know-how to start home gardens. "Today they earn an extra income from these gardens and they also get the daily vegetable requirement from their small home gardens", he said.

The GOC of the 56 Div said unemployment was a major issue but that would be reduced once the industries which are expected to commence get off the ground.

" But until then we have given priority to the villagers in the construction sites and each worker will be paid a daily wage of Rs. 1,000", he said.Interested parties who are jealous about this warm co-existence between soldiers and the Tamils in the North might tag the association as militarisation merely to 'sell' it as a slogan to the West for their survival but for the people of the North, the soldiers who fought to liberate them from terror, are like members of their own family.

While a comprehensive document comprising ways and means to reconciliation is out for implementation, the humanitarian assistance given by the soldiers who try to make new friends goes a long way to heal the wounds of a once divided community.

It is unfortunate that still some segments try to paint a different picture to mislead the people and hide the ground realities of the North. Why cant they get into the shoes of an ex-LTTE cadre or a person who got a new house or a job or a child who goes to school happily in a world free of bombs and blood to tell the world the truth?