A new Pudukuduyirippu

By Dhaneshi Yatawara

Sugarnadee carries her daughter

A class in progress at the Anandapuram Government Tamil School

Pachigam Amma

The Western Band of the Iranapalai Roman Catholic Vidyalayam

Soldiers renovate school building

The Pudukuduyirippu Hospital under renovation

The cricket team

It was totally a different picture three years and nine months ago in Pudukuduyirippu. The end of a ruthless terrorist outfit took place a few kilometres away from the Pudukuduyirippu town. This, the final battle against terrorism of the Eelam war IV is what became the turning point in the history of this island nation.

On this day, May 18, 2009 the country was waiting to hear the news of their motherland regaining peace. On that day Pudukuduyirippu became the nerve centre for military operations and for the media.

Situation of the enemy area came with help of the aerial footage captured by the Sri Lanka Air Force. Blasts in the enemy line were monitored as well as movements of terrorists and their vehicles. The situation was becoming tense as the last terrorist grouping on that land with their de facto leader and other top terrorists were getting trapped within an area of square kilometres.

The only civilians in the area were the media crews waiting in front of the Army operation room for situation updates. Residents in Pudukuduyirippu and the adjacent areas as well as civilians who were in the no-fire zone all crossed the lines and reached safety away from the terrorist iron fist.

On May 16 and 17 all those civilians who escaped the LTTE stronghold were taken by the Government authorities to Vavuniya and were sheltered in the Welfare Centres for the Internally Displaced.

Today those people have returned home. And Pudukuduyirippu has undergone a total change. Today, nothing remains to prove that Pudukuduyirippu town was the nerve centre on the last day or two of the battle in eliminating terrorism.

The town is busy and dusty with roads and buildings under construction while the people get along with their normal lives.

Sister Yashodha is back in the convent and has now started teaching in the nearby school. The convent is few metres away from the Pudukuduyirippu town. "I had to leave the convent as I got a scholarship to study in Philippines in December 2008. When I returned after a year, people were living in welfare centres and I was appointed to teach in the schools in the welfare centres in Vavuniya," said Sister Yashodha.

The convent has been running a Montessori and it used to take care of nearly 250 children before 2009. There are 85 children in the pre-school conducted by the Head Sister and Sister Yashodha.

The sisters returned to a convent that was abandoned for some time and it needed great deal of effort to restore. Requesting help from a community that is still resettling was too much to expect. It is at this moment Sri Lanka Army's 681 Brigade came in with their support to restore the convent and the Montessori - i.e. cleaning, repairing and refurbishing.

The school in front of the convent is fully functioning. Children living in and around Pudukuduyirippu have restarted their education after resettling with their families in September 2012.

Taking a turn at Devpuram on the Paranthan Road, about ten kilometres from Pudukuduyirippu town, you reach Kombavil, where one of the first temporary villages set up by the Government for the returnees.

Today only a very few families remain - some waiting for a transfer of a child's school or for the government housing fund. Majority of them have returned to their original land. Some of these families did not own a land at all at the time they got displaced.

Today at the model village in Kombavil these families own a land of their own with clean deeds. Vairaiyah Marimuttu (52) is one such lucky guy who now lives in their own plot of land with his six children and wife. "It is a great relief for me being able to find a land of my own. If not how are we going to properly resettle? How can I buy a new land with my meager earnings?," Marimuttu said.

My children are now going to school and we truly feel that life is returning to normalcy, said Marimuttu. The only problem now they face is proper transport facility for their children to attend school and a job opportunity to earn a living. Army personnel under the 68 Division have taken the responsibility of building houses for the returnees in the model village. Today at the village only 85 families live in their new plots of land and these people were from Pudukuduyirippu East, Shivanagar and some were even from Jaffna.

The Sri Lanka Army is repairing the Kombavil Ganesh School which is the closest to this model village.

The two storeyed building of the school has been fully damaged and now is getting quickly repaired by the Army soldiers. School renovations and rebuilding is one of the major projects conducted by the 68 Division under the command of its General Officer Commanding Major General Jagath Wijethilake.

The Sri Lanka Army under the directions of Defence Secretary Gotabaya Rajapaksa conducts numerous development works in the newly resettled areas of the North and among them the development work taking place in Mullaitivu has significance since its people got resettled last.

The list of work they do includes helping to build houses for those who are weak, cleaning and rebuilding schools, religious places, bus stops and community centres and many more. More responsibilities are added to the list as the demand for development in these areas increase.

Each area of the Pudukuduyirippu DS Division has different needs. Thus, these development works under the leadership of the three brigade commanders, i.e. Colonels Subhashana Welikala, Shantha Hewawitharana and Ashoka Pieris, takes place according to the needs and livelihoods of the people.

The large human resource and the efficient system implementing duties available with the Army has given a great boost to the Government initiated development activities in these areas. Fifty two year old Jeyalaxmi is a mother raising two daughters single handedly after the tragic death of her husband. She was raised in Pudukuduyirippu since her tender ages as her parents came to settle down in this area from Elpitiya.

Her elder daughter finished her Advanced Level exam and the younger one is getting ready for it. When resettling her problem had been renovating her house and asking help from her neighbours was difficult as they were resettling too. Through the Grama Niladhari the Army personnel came to know the problem the family was facing and without proper shelter the family with two young girls would be insecure. Thus, building the house became a responsibility of the Army along with number of other houses that needed to be either repaired or rebuilt.

Ninty-five-year-old Pachigam Amma living in Wellamullivaikkal faced the same challenge when she came back to her half collapsed house.

This feeble old lady's only supporter was her 52 year old son, Masethra, who was still devastated over the death of his wife and two boys. His three daughters are with them yet they are still schooling.

The Army personnel under the 68 Division rebuilt her house where now she lives with her son and three granddaughters. Masethra's only income is through working for daily wages.

Pachigam Amma keeps the pictures of her daughter-in-law and grandsons in a special place in the front porch surrounded with colourful flowers.

They still cherish the beautiful memories of their loved ones. Yet they continue with their life. "We don't want another war. Now all is peaceful enough for us to slowly start our lives," the son said. Closer to the coast of Wellamullivaikkal 23-year-old Theepan Sugarnadee lives with her two daughters and sister. Her eldest daughter, Sudarshana is four and younger one, Karusana is almost two. She got married at a very early age to avoid forced recruitment of the LTTE. The LTTE avoided married girls when recruiting and many girls like Sugarnadee married when they turn sixteen or seventeen. As soon as Sugarnadee returned to her land inherited from her late parents she found it difficult to build a good house. By this time her husband had left her and that took her life from bad to worse.

With the generous help of the Army personnel today she lives in a comfortable house built with the funds provided by a well wisher.

Today she earns her living as a pre school teacher and is slowly starting her long steady life with her two daughters and sister.

"Through the local administration, specially the DS (Divisional Secretary), we get details about such needy families. Based on their criteria the local administration prioritise the families or persons that need help and we assist this," said Major General Jagath Wijethilake, 68 Division General Officer Commanding.

Today in the area of responsibility of the 68 Division there are nearly 11,000 families living. By 2011 there were only 550 families. "Resettling in this area was quite challenging as there were heavy work load to be done on de-mining and the former No fire Zone was also in this area. Many arable lands were heavily mined by the LTTE and the de-mining process took a while to complete. If that was not completed properly people would have got injured or killed due to land mines or boobytraps even by cultivating in their plot of land," Maj. Gen. Wijethilake said. "I lost some of my soldiers during de-mining and many were injured and lost their limbs. Even de-miners of other organisations who worked in these areas were injured in the process," he added.

As soon as the people started to resettle the Army opened a temporary hospital in Kaiweli until the Government health sector establish.

Today the Pudukuduyirippu hospital is fully repaired and includes doctors' quarters as well.

Many of the roads, public buildings are renovated and fully functioning. Approximately around 60 kilometres of road remain to be renovated and major part is complete. "All the schools started functioning by end of 2011," Maj.Gen. Wijethilake said. Twenty three students were selected for university education from those who sat for GCE Advanced Level examination in 2011.

Today the youth living in Wellamullivaikkal area have already established a cricket club.

Hand in hand with the Army today they have managed to restore their playground which was shrub land when they returned. Arandawa Rasa, a fisherman by profession is the President of the club and 18-year-old Prasad is the Secretary. "We organised an inter school cricket match with the help of the Army officers.

We, the club members, daily have practice games," said Arandawa Rasa representing his over enthusiastic team. "There are some more families to come and resettle and we hope that young people with those families will also join us," he said. The youth now do not dream about weapons. They have many enjoyments in life even in their own simple lifestyle.

Part by part development steadily flows in to Pudukuduyirippu. One day in the future, which may not be so far, memorabilia of a gloomy past will be forgotten hidden in the sands of time. Today many soldiers, who also can be homeless are building houses for resettling families in Pudukuduyirippu. How many of us has that level of mentality for a selfless commitment? Isn't this the high time for all citizens of all ethnicities to act on a similar line?