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| Sunday, 7 August 2005 |
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| News Business Features Editorial
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Mullaitivu revisited : Life stands still by Ranga Jayasuriya I last visited Mullaitivu some ten months ago. That was when the coastal town was emerging from the rubble of civil war.
Listening to the Government Agent Imelda Sukumar, I was taken u p by her ambitious plan to revive the old glory of the town. The energetic lady civil servant, working with little facilities had committed herself to the town. Walking on the newly paved streets, seeing the blossoming town, rebuilt Mullaitivu Maha Vidyalam, city's premier school, I thought that the gloomy days were over for this war ravaged remote fishing town. That was in November last year, when the LTTE commemorated its fallen cadres during its Maha Veer week ending with LeaderVelupillai Prabhakaran's annual speech on November 27. That was also a month before the Boxing Day tsunami that devastated the Southern and North-East coastal belt of the island, with Mullaitivu being one of the worst hit. My longing for a better tomorrow for the town was proved wrong. Mullaitivu didn't rebound. Traveling in the town this week, I could only feel a sense of despair. And that feeling is contagious. It afflicts everybody from the public officers to ordinary citizens, from grassroots TRO workers to fisher folks. The immediate aftermath of the tsunami in this coastal town gave the LTTE an opportunity for a show of strength. The Tigers and the LTTE front NGO, Tamil Rehabilitation Organization soon settled for the task of cleaning up the town of tsunami wreckage. Backed by heavy machinery sent by Colombo, the task was completed in a matter of weeks. Then the TRO ran the welfare centres for the tsunami affected people, giving them cooked meals made possible by dry rations sent from Colombo. Then came the real test, that is rebuilding the town. But, no one is there to take up the challenge. Rebuilding the tsunami obliterated Mullaitivu is locked in a tussle between the Government and the LTTE over the Post-Tsunami Operational Management Structure (P-TOMS). Adding insult to injury, local people complain that NGOs, both local and foreign who took responsibility to carry out most of reconstruction activities delay the implementation of projects. Project Director of the District Secretariat, S.Kunasingham admits that no one in the district has yet received the promised financial assistance to rebuild damaged and destroyed houses outside the buffer zone. The Government's compensation for the damaged houses varies from Rs. 125,000 to Rs. 250,000 depending on the extent of the damage. The initial payment of Rs. 50,000 per house has been already paid in the rest of the country, including the East. Kunasingham, however, says that the documentation work related to compensation is now being done and hopefully the people would receive their first instalment in two weeks. TRO cleaned up the city of tsunami debris and has been paid Rs. 41 million as a part payment by the government for their relief activities. But, further payments have been suspended sometime ago and cash trapped TRO has not paid its workers for two months They have now stopped work. The TRO office at the Vattuval Selvapuram transitional camp, about a mile from the Mullaitivu town is closed. So are those in most of 21 camps housing people displaced by tsunami. When asked how long it will take for these people to move into permanent houses, Kunasingham, even the committed civil servant he is, sounds hollow. "Given this pace, it will take two to five years," he says. Working closely with local and foreign NGO's, he is fed up with their lethargic attitude. "NGO's have signed MoUs to build all the destroyed houses. That is about 5,900 houses. But not a single house has been built," laments Kunasingham. "Work has not even begun in any housing project". As for the rebuilding of town's infrastructure, he says the District Secretariat along with the Urban Development Authority is in the process of formulating a city development plan, which is about to be completed and that till the plan is made public he could not comment. The seas off Mullaitivu had been dangerous to venture throughout the ethnic conflict. But, it was a fishing bank, which enticed fishermen to risk their lives in those turbulent days. Revived by the Ceasefire Agreement, the fisher folk were planning on the future when the ocean waves hit them, killing nearly 3,500 people and obliterating an entire town. Over fifty kids in an LTTE run orphanage perished in the sea waves. Nearly three hundred church-goers at the nearby St. Mary's church were washed away. A few broken pillars of the church and a statue of Virgin Mary are the only remains. Last time I met the Head priest of the church, who had some outspoken comments on the injustices done by successive governments to Tamils, some comments bordering on subtle justification of killings of military intelligence operatives and other political killings . I was told he survived the tsunami as he was out of town. But I could not locate him. Despite the trauma of tsunami, Anthonypillai Mariyaraja, the President of the Fishermen's Society in the district wants to resume his livelihood. Ocean waves destroyed boats and fishing gear of fishermen. Damage was so intense that out of 1539 boats prior to the tsunami, only 100 boats could be repaired and sent back to sea. The NGO's have promised to provide new boats and nets, but only a fraction of the total pledge has yet materialized. "The NGO's tell us that boats and nets are not available in Colombo and that the demand is so high that boat yards could not manufacture boats in sufficient numbers". The NGO's have offered money to fishermen and asked them to buy boats themselves. "But, if they can't find boats, how can we?" questions Mariyaraja. He said the only government assistance to the local fishermen so far was repairing damaged boats by the Wanni Rehabilitation Ministry. He wants the government to import fishing boats and nets considering it as an urgent requirement and distribute them through the local fishermen's societies. This is the fishing season. Some fishermen who went to sea in their repaired boats had a massive catch of fish. The rest of the fishermen are frustrated. They wish they also had a boat to venture to sea which alone would help them rebuild their lives. The local ice factory was destroyed by the tsunami waves. Now a privately owned ice plant produces 350 kg of ice everyday, which is inadequate. Fishermen had an impressive catch on Thursday, amounting to three lorry loads. But they could not find vehicles to send them to Colombo. Only two lorries were available, so they put aside the rest to make dried fish, which is not a good idea due to the small margin of profit of dried fish. But, there was no other option. Life in this coastal town was harsh since the ethnic war broke out. In 1990, when the security forces expanded the then Mullaitivu military garrison, the entire town population fled to Puthikudiruppu, located some 15 km from Mullaitivu. They have been fleeing the war ever since till the LTTE overran Mullaitivu camp in 1997. When they returned, the town had been destroyed beyond recognition. Rasamani Balayya came to Mullaitivu in 1977 from Wattala. He married and settled down in the coastal town and had 9 children. Having fled war and ethnic violence throughout his life, he hoped a dawn of new era when the Ceasefire Agreement was signed. But all hell broke loose on December 26. He lost all he earned during the ceasefire. "This is a wretched life. We live for the sake of living," says Balayya now living in a transitional house in the Vattuval Selvapuram welfare centre. He has filled and submitted applications for compensation for the destroyed house, but has not received any response from the GA's Office. Balayya was at least fortunate to have all his family members spared by tsunami. They all ran inland when they saw the approaching wall of sea waves. But the grieving for the loss of family members is still all around. S.Thiruchelvam mourns his wife and four children. Only his son was spared. I lost my mother, says young woman, Selvi. Sinya Devadas (55) lost his sister's family. Young girl Gunasekaran Radi mourns her mother. Devadas toiled in the Middle East for eight years and returned to Sri Lanka in 1998. Having lost everything to tsunami, Devadas is bitter about everyone: the LTTE, government and the NGO's. He has lost the spirit to live. "We now only earn to drink," he says. "There is no meaning in living like this". "This is sending me mad". His emotions are understandable. His efforts to have a decent life have failed repeatedly, first by the war, then by the ocean waves. As the government and the LTTE are locked in a tussle over the suspended sections of the P-TOMS, Devadas, Balayya and Shelvi like many thousands of tsunami ravaged lives in the North-East are plunged in a sense of utter despair not knowing who will help them and when? |
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