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| Sunday, 7 November 2004 |
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Features |  |
| News Business Features Editorial
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Entry point to hope Millions of people have traversed the A9 road since it was re-opened to civilian traffic following the Ceasefire Agreement, two and a half years ago. Sunday Observer last week visited the Omanthai and Puliyankulam entry and exit points at the border of the Government and LTTE held areas to witness the emotions of a community who see hope after a bitter civil war. by Ranga Jayasuriya
Ratnayake Kumara fled Jaffna along with 23,000 fellow Sinhalese inhabitants when the ethnic conflict broke out in 1983. Kumara, then a thirty- year- old, hastily boarded a packed Colombo bound train, the Yaldevi to escape possible reprisals in the aftermath of Black July. Kumara could not return home for the next two decades as a small scale insurgency fuelled into a civil war that devastated the greater part of the North-East. Twenty years after his forced farewell from Jaffna, Kumara, now a worn out fifty-year-old, drives a lorry full of roof tiles to the Northern capital once a week on the A9 road, half of which runs through LTTE held areas in the Wanni. The war which lasted two decades was brought to a halt in February 2002, after the two warring parties agreed to a ceasefire, which ensured a free flow of civilians and goods between the Government and LTTE held areas. Since then, millions of civilians and goods have crossed the entry points in Omanthai and Uyilankulam on the Mannar road to travel between the Government and LTTE controlled areas. As the day dawns, hundreds of cargo and every kind of passenger vehicle line up at the Thandikulam army check point, one kilo meter from Vavuniya to be escorted by the International Committee of the Red Cross to the Omanthai entry and exit point. The barrier at the Omanthai check point is lifted at 7 in the morning leading to a free flow of civilians and cargoes for the next 10 hours. At 5.30 pm, the ICRC flags on both sides of the No Man's Land are taken down announcing the closure of the road till the next morning. In February 2002 after signing the truce agreement, the Government and the LTTE invited the ICRC's presence at the lines. The ICRC is the communication link between the Government and the LTTE on the opposite sides of the 600 metres long No Man's land.
"We are monitoring and facilitating the movement of people and vehicles going in both directions,"says Catherine Godin, Head of the Sub Delegation Base in Vavuniya. "As a neutral intermediary we will intervene, when any problems arise over misunderstandings over procedures,". The ICRC's presence, indeed, eases the flow of civilians. But, still travelling via the entry point is a time consuming exercise. Ratnayake Kumara is well experienced of the rigid procedures associated with crossing. He has to drive the lorry to an unloading hub of the Omanthai crossing point, where the entire stock of his roof tiles will be unloaded in the presence of soldiers in order to make sure that no banned items is smuggled to the Wanni. (Non military arms/ammunition, explosives, remote control devices, barbed wire, binoculars/telescopes, compasses and pen torch batteries are not permitted to LTTE held areas under the Ceasefire Agreement) That costs him Rs. 1,200 paid to civilian labourers as the unloading fee. The Army had enforced a ceiling on the labour charges, Rs. 800, 1000 and 1200 depending on the size of the lorry. His lorry is unloaded again for checking at the entrance to the LTTE held area, at the entry point in Puliyankulam. In Puliyankulam the unloading fee costs him Rs. 3500. The same practice is repeated in Muhamalai, at the entrance to the Government controlled areas in Jaffna. This costs him another Rs. 1500. And there are 'taxes' to be paid to the Tigers at the unloading hub in Puliyankulam. Ratnayake said the lorry owners were required to deposit Rs. 50,000 in an LTTE bank account which would cut off his tax charges by half. Ratnayake could afford to deposit the required money. He enjoys the discounted tax regime of Rs. 2,500 per ride. Albeit the delays associated with procedures and taxation by the Tigers, civilian battered by the two decade of civil war feel the beginning of a new era, a new found freedom. Freedom of movement Freedom of movement and uninterrupted flow of most goods, two achievements of the Ceasefire Agreement have dramatically transformed the local lives. This year alone, till the second week of October, over three million people have crossed the entry points to travel between the Government and LTTE held areas, according to the statistics of the ICRC. On an average day 7,000-8,000 civilians and 200-250 cargo cross the entry points, which itself is a dramatic increase compared to the meagre 500 civilians per day who were permitted to travel between the Government and LTTE held areas before the ceasefire. (see the fact file) Not only does this entry point link the North and the South, but this is the lifeline of hundreds of thousands of farmers and fishermen in the Jaffna peninsula and the Wanni. Hundreds pass this entry point, travelling on this road once called "the highway of death" to re-new long lost family ties. Muttukumar Prabhakaran, 42-year-old bachelor is crossing the entry point with his mother, Sarawanamuttu Kalawani to escort her to Vavuniya where she would find a bus back to her home, Udappu in Chilaw. Kalawani, a widow had visited her son in Mulaitivu a week ago. Prabhakaran is unmarried, but he is assigned with the responsibility of looking after his two sisters, widowed by the war and their five kids. He makes a living making dried fish in Mulaitivu and sending them to Udappu packed in 50 Kg wooden boxes. Kalawani sells them in Udappu market. Prabhakaran is taxed seven rupees per kilo of dried fish at Puliyankulam LTTE check point. He also pays another eight rupees per Kilo as the transport fee. The mother and son are optimistic of a better tomorrow. "If peace holds on ... that is the only thing we want," Kalawani says. The poor lady is not aware that what she is now experiencing is not peace in its true sense. But an absence of war and that the war is only a fortnight away, if either party withdraws from the truce agreement. Darmalingam Arasaratnam (31) is taking his wife Ranjala (29) to Vavuniya, where she is expected to attend her maiden meeting as a health volunteer. Ranjala has been selected as a health volunteer by a local NGO, Population Survey Lanka, after serving as a volunteer for nine years. Now, she is entitled to a meagre allowance of Rs. 1600 per month. Her meeting in Vavuniya is scheduled to begin at 9 am, but at 9.30 Ranjala could only manage to enter the Government controlled areas. She has spent over three hours travelling to Omanthai from Puliavadu, 24 km from Puliyankulam. Her husband, Arasaratnam, a paddy farmer is hopeful that his next harvest will bring a better price. Last time he harvested three and half acres, one acre was destroyed by insects. This time he has harvested two and half acres. He knows that rice prices in Colombo are soaring. A living drama This dusty entry point is the stage for a living drama. Here is a family of Indian origin returning home in Talawakele, having visited their only son and father toiling in the Jaffna market. There are three old women visiting their kins in Vavuniya in a hired three wheeler. There is a bus full of Sinhalese from Divulapitiya visiting Nagadeepa. On the other side of No Man's land, it is the same story, a story about lives and survival, joy and sorrow. It is a story about living with a bare minimum, but with plenty of hopes. On the LTTE side of the border, in Puliyankulam, young women clad in brown coloured sarees register civilians. Residents in LTTE held areas are required to receive a pass from the LTTE to leave its territory. The girls in brown sarees check the passes of civilians and issue them with a card, at which has to be produced to the LTTE boarder check point in order to leave the LTTE held area. The LTTE has introduced a one year permanent pass, similar to an identity card for outsiders who travel to Tiger controlled areas for work daily. The pass holder should keep his pass at the LTTE check point when he leaves the area in the evening after work. This entry point mirrors the metamorphosis of the Northern lives. Soon after the restrictions were lifted, furniture, mostly plastic chairs, bicycles, cooking utensils and consumer items flooded the Wanni and Jaffna through the A9 road. With a large number of internally displaced having returned to their villages, now it is building materials that claim the greater share of the cargo going through this entry point. A soldier manning the unloading hub said about 30 loads of building materials and twenty loads of timber were sent to the Wanni and the Jaffna peninsula through the A9 road everyday. A.R. Antony, an ICRC field officer at Omanthai lines since 1998 is perhaps the best man to describe the transformation. For Anthony, his early years at the ICRC were tough times, when lines moved forward and back on the A9 road as the troops and the Tigers were locked in a sea-saw battle. "It was never this calm before the ceasefire. In the past there were enough confrontations on the No Man's land and there were casualties," says Anthony. He accidentally came across a woman last week who had lost her leg in a mortar attack at the then Thandikulam lines, about five years ago. "An 18 mm mortar hit her leg and pierced through it, but fortunately it didn't blast". Her life was saved, but she lost a leg. It is against these scares of the past that Anthony compares the present context. "This is a gradual change. You know the procedures are getting easy and people feel more and more comfortable," he said. "Things are better now than they were in the beginning. Tomorrow will be much better". That was the same optimism Ranjala and her husband Arasaratnam had about the future. Kalawani wanted the ceasefire to hold so that her son, Prabhakaran and her two widowed daughters can rebuild their lives. Will her son's namesake in the Wanni jungles ruling the destiny of hundreds of thousands have the same sentiments?. Will he allow Kalawani, Ranjala and Arasaratnam, as well as thousands of other Tamils destituted by war to realise their dreams? History will make the judgement. ***** Fact File Crossing points are the gateways for the revival of the North-East. There are three points where civilians and goods cargo are allowed to enter or leave the Wanni. They are Omanthai in the North of Vavuniya, Muhamalai in South of Jaffna, both on the A 9 road and Uyilankulam on Mannar-Vavuniya road. Since their opening following the Ceasefire Agreement, over 10 million passages have been made through these crossing points, according to the statistics of the ICRC, which facilitates the movement of civilians and goods. This year alone, till the second week of October, 3,114,690 have crossed Omanthai crossing point. On an average day 7,000-8,000 civilians and 1,000- 1,200 vehicles cross into and out of the Wanni at the crossing points at Omanthai. Some 10,000-12,000 people and 800-1,000 vehicles daily cross to and from Jaffna peninsula at Muhamalai. At Uyilankulam some 800 people and 200 trucks cross each day. (Statistics by the ICRC) |
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