Mine Land
Wilpattu National Park, by Adeesha
It seems like the same generation keeps dying. They died when they were young as students and artists and they die now as fathers and mothers. It just keeps going, culling the best from that age like some reaper that they sowed. A friend’s father was just killed in a landmine in Wilpattu. As a tourist, driving down the main road of a national park. The news ripples through the phonelines again and I don’t have anything to say. This isn’t my war, I was just a baby, I really don’t understand. Still, people’s parents keep dying and the shock waves keep coming through the phonelines and poking nervously, insistently into the pale artifice of a normal life. My uncle tells me to get used to it, that there’s more to come. But people aren’t even fighting anymore, they’re just dying. You read about the bombings in the papers and move on, but it gets harder as you see friends losing fathers and mothers and the loss gets closer and closer to home.
Whether rich or poor, this life has affected everyone. That generation, everybody who stuck their head up risked having it chopped off. Everybody has parents who went to jail or fled for a time, but there are more people who never became parents at all, or left young children behind. Richard de Soyza, Rajani Thiranagama, and on and on. The sheer amount of Tamil people that left, embittered and humiliated, was a great national loss. At the same time, the JVP killed and disappeared a whole batch or creatives and students that would otherwise be guiding us today. That generation of leaders was brutally selected until only the most venal, violent and ruthless survived. But there were a few who survived and continued speaking, either in exile or by sheer luck. Of those brave few, we just lost another one.
Growing up abroad this war was just a bad dream, a headache that only occasionally showed symptoms on CNN. I remember when Premadasa died, vaguely, but it was just some happenings on a TV screen with threads of meaning I couldn’t tie together. Now I can see more clearly that every bombing, every suicide touches countless other lives beyond the devastation of the blast. It echoes out so rapidly that you can’t escape it, and the people that gather at the funeral house are only the tip of the iceberg. Within 20 minutes of any blast you’re just waiting for that phone call to connect it back to you, to take the randomness off the screen and throw it like a wrench into normal families, the chaos rippling through friends and acquaintances.
But it doesn’t make sense anymore. The people dying aren’t youthful revolutionaries or radicals, these are just normal people. They have families and responsibilities and hundreds of people that depend on them in countless ways. The fight is over, but the killing just goes on. I don’t know any other conflict where people worry about losing their parents more than their friends, but I do. It’s like they’re a part of something they can’t control and which I can only see the periphery of. They say it’s just starting, but I just want it to finally end. He was a father, a writer and a friend and now he’s gone. I’m so sorry.
Indi,
Don’t get me wrong. The world should BAN LTTE and WE SHOULD BAN all LTTE Activities and start cut down all LTTE sympathizers living with us in Sri Lanka first. Otherwise, this killing will go on and on and on..
The solution:
Come on you blood thirsty animals.. take my land..and lable your brand.
The result:
Will they restore the democracy? NO
Can the bloody terrorist leaders can come out and walk on the land? NO
So then, what are we talking going around the world? I do not get it. Someone please explain me what the hell we are going to get by proposing solutions, dividing land or whatever if the people who have the peace of cake are scared to come out and eat it.
Where the hell they can get money to maintain, build infrastructure?
Unless we answer those questions first and accept the reality, no way we can stop generations getting wiped off from our country.
My deepest sympathies to the family.
You say, “This isn’t my war, I was just a baby, I really don’t understand.” Well then whose war is it? I think, whether we like it or not, it IS our war. I vividly recall Premadasa’s death. I was on the swing with my parents sitting on either side. And I have memories of seeing heads and body parts of suicide cadres’, after attacks. So many times that I have lost count.
Now, I accept war as part of me, no matter where I go or where I may live one day. And it is absurd that I’ll never be able to visit Yala or Wilpattu without doubting my return, but that also has become part of the package. I’m resigned to the fact that the family who died could have been mine. I’ve come to terms with the fact that when I leave home in the morning for work, it might be my last day. Who knows where a bomb could go off?
And R.I.P Nihal De Silva. I’ve read his books and he is one of my favourite Sri Lankan writers.
Call me a cynic (I most definitely am one) but the cycle is never going to break. There will always be people who call the LTTE the patriots. I also want to eliminate them from the face of earth but I don’t know if that is possible. I thought the new generation might bridge the gap but the LTTE controlled areas seem to be so well looked after that the people like them. If this war ever ends, the winners whoever they are would realize it is too late.
my mum’s cousin and his wife died in that landmine explosion (no relation to Nihal Silva)leaving 2 children who are probably still in shock at the news.. I hope they close that park to the public as i’m guessins nobody knows how many more landmines there are !!
Has anybody here got the evidence as to how laid the mine ? I suspect not, mines kill indiscriminantly and we can’t blame anybody neither the LTTE or GOSL even just accept it. Realise that this country is already heavily mined and even if we acheive peace deaths like these will continue for decades after a peace. Ending this war is only a very small step in a long journey everybody here will need to take. Blaming is simply counterproductive.
Janin,
Air Suckers like you are the sole reason for this war. So you think LTTE will come forward and accept it. You think GOSL will go and plant mines on a road. I’ll tell you one thing. I really doubt on people like you. Don’t blame anyone. You sympathize for them. Not me. Blood sucking basters..
Janin
May be my above comments are too harsh. But who won’t get pissed off when a sri lankan publish such comments? An innocent family dead. World is pointing finger at LTTE and here we go, our own Sri Lankan is trying to point out a conspiracy. Will you feel the same if that was your family. Do you want to know how I felt when my cousin got killed from Dehiwala train bomb blast? Unbelievable!
janapathi: yes. the gosl does plant mines. everywhere. if you don’t believe me, you can verify it with demining agencies working in sri lanka – aparently, they can even sometimes tell the difference between sla mines and ltte ones.
Janapathi – I won’t apologise for having got at a raw nerve but these things need to be said and your attitude dos’ not help us move on. I still stand by my comment of landmines killing indiscriminately, as for apportioning blame we can’t tell who laid the mine after it has gone off. Even you would concede that much, besides your attitude of always needing some organisation to blame be that NGO’s or the LTTE simply stops us from really working together to resolve this seeming nerver-ending situation. Calling me names is simply an indication of your inability to engage me and others in worthwhile dialogue.
Janapathi makes a profound proposal worthy of a [ig]Nobel Prize, not in peace, but in perhaps in logic.
Let us analyze its components:
1. The world should BAN LTTE
2. WE SHOULD BAN all LTTE Activities and
3. start cut down all LTTE sympathizers living with us in Sri Lanka first.
1. The world banning the LTTE. This is practially possible. All that is required is a bunch of words on paper, preferably in capital letters. It is well known that words on paper or words that are read out by government officials are extremely powerful. If they are in CAPS, they are doubly powerful.
2. WE (I guess the Sri Lankan state) banning the LTTE. This was the case from 1999 to 2002. Didn’t stop a lot of people dying on the infamous Jaya Sikuru (Certain Victory) operation to take and hold A9. Or from bombs in Colombo; or from landmines throughout the country.
2A. So I guess the solution is not to ban the LTTE but ban LTTE activities; all LTTE activities. Now this has not been tried recently (was tried in the 1970s and 1980s; but that was long ago). Only thing is we need to figure out the punishment for engaging in LTTE activities. Should these be fines, imprisonment or death? Possibly not death (see 3a below). Oh and the little matter of catching the guys who are engaging in LTTE activities. I expect Janapthi to volunteer to head this special government unit.
3. Start [to] cut down all LTTE sympathizers living with us in Sri Lanka first. This is obviously the most complex task. 3a. We must start with LTTE sympathizers living in Sri Lanka. This would not include Mr Prabhakaran, the leadership of the LTTE, the fighters, etc., because they are not sympathizers; they ARE the LTTE. But it is possible that they will put on the list later by the esteemed Janapathi. First the sympathizers and then the cadres. Or is it first the sympathizers in Sri Lanka; then the sympathizers not in Sri Lanka; then the cadres?
3b. Cut down. I assumed this means “kill.” But why not say kill? It may be that we should use the method used in the case of the headless bodies in Avissawella; not weapons like guns.
3c. Start cutting down. This is reasonable. It’s a big job that cannot be done in one day. Even with very strict criteria being used, I guess about a million sympathizers in Sri Lanka would have to be cut down. Then maybe another half a million outside Sri Lanka. Then several thousands of LTTE cadres.
Ho ho ho.. Cut down LTTE sympathizers living with us in Sri Lanka is not equal to KILLing them. So let’s not go in to that extent as I did not mean such a thing.
Haven’t you heard a thingy called make them isolated? Cut down all relations to LTTE aligned Sri Lankan companies operating in South (i do not have a list but CID has and you and I know some of them), Cut down all relationships with individuals who are talking about LTTE’s right to kill innocent people for the sake of a homeland. Another easy way to say this is, BAN LTTE in Sri Lanka first.
At least now, LET’s have the backbone to say the word ‘LTTE TERRORISTS’ instead of calling them with ranks and names in news channels and papers. They are a Terrorist Group all around the world with the existing Ban except in Sri Lanka. Just say it.
Also rollover negotiations/dialog with established tamil parties in Sri Lanka. Make it clear that the government will talk only with Tamil political parties but not with LTTE terrorists. How can you explain anyone the logic of asking a tiger to change its menu? I give you the jungle, you stop eating meat..
Janin – You giving the LTTE the benefit of the doubt is probably noble, and i don’t grudge you for it. I’m just far too jaded to even try giving them that anymore. Each time I think that maybe they’re not all bad they come back and bite me in the ass. And my ass is seriously weary now.
As hard as i try i can’t even think of an incentive the army would have to plant a mine on the main road in wilpattu. Unless it’s those ghostly “paramilitaries” again (solid genuine honest buggers that they are). Where’s the evidence that the LTTE killed Premadasa? Ranjan Wijeyratne? Even General Kobbekaduwa? I mean that was a mine right? it could have been the paramilitaries. It could have been the communists!! (General McCarthy turns in his grave) It’s just coldminded bloody conjecture then and it’s the same now. And that’s all we have.
i can see 3 possible reasons for the mines:
1. the ltte planted them to target sla sneaking into LTTE territory
2.the sla planted them to target ltte sneaking out of LTTE territory
3. it’s an old landmine, maybe resurfaced after rain or soil erosion, or just missed from earlier mine-clearing activities (this does happen, in january i saw a newly found mine demarked on the side of the A9 in the middle of a main town).
either way, it most probably wasn’t to target these poor people, or other tourists/civilians. but using the ltte as a scapegoat for attacks that they may not be responsible for doesn’t help the landmine situation in sri lanka. both parties lay mines, both are responsible for their repercussions.
You know what.. the benefit of the doubt should be given to the batsman and not to the bowler.
In your logic, the doubt goes to both sides.. so no one gets out..
We are not in the courts to discuss a situation ‘until proven not guilty’. We are in a battle field. Whoever scores more will win. We need guys like Murali. Not sympathizers. I really do not wonder how LTTE terrorists became so strong over the years!!!
what good will come of blaming one side for this without real proof?
wouldn’t the energy be better spent exerting pressure on the GoSL and the LTTE to sign the Geneva Accord against landmines?
Thank you Aththa for your very considered analysis, much appreciated.
Thanks also to shimmi, I am in complete agreement with you particularly “using the ltte as a scapegoat for attacks that they may not be responsible for doesn’t help the landmine situation in sri lanka. both parties lay mines, both are responsible for their repercussions.”
this is a good post. i don’t know what else to say.
RIP Nihal De Silva.
Ironically, I finished ‘The Road from Elephant Pass’ only last week and the day he was killed, I was telling my friends and family how great it would be to go back to Wilpattu, since I hadn’t been in so long. When I finished the book, I wanted to meet him, for it seemed that we had such parallel interests. I guess the only consolation is that he died in a place he absolutely loved.
i meant ottawa treaty above, ooops.
Janapathi seeks to wriggle out of the nomination for the ignoble prize: cut down = isolate not behead.
Ah, the violence committed on the English language by those whose fingers work faster than their brains.
But for the edification of those whose brains work faster than their fingers, Sir: please do tell why a ban of the LTTE in 2006 will give better results than the ban in 1998-2001?
For information: CBK did ban the LTTE in the aftermath of the Dalada bombing and this was lifted only after the ceasefire was signed in 2002.
Thousands died on the A9; Maradana bomb; Slave Island bomb; fall of Elephant Pass camp (where soldiers died of thirst, not gunshots); destruction of half the SriLankan fleet on the tarmac, other can fill in the blanks.
Those who do not know their history make inane blog comments.
Janapathi if I’ve told you once I’ve told you a million times…GO FUCK YOURSELF. Thats the first time Ive said it in Caps Lock mode. Seriously.
Uncle Nihal is dead. It doesnt matter whose mine it was. It doesnt make the loss any easier to bear. No war…no mines. If only it was that simple. I last met him at the Gratiens. Standing in a corner, quietly. It was to be the last time I saw or spoke to him. The thought makes me physically sick.
This is too close to home. We need to do something.
[...] I’ve always felt most at home in the dry zone of Sri Lanka, there is no comparison for the way I feel when the landscape changes to that thorny scrub and the clean-dust smell and the looking-glass quality light hits me. There’s the tense excitement of a group of people sharing a common interest in the glimpse of an elephant swaying through a glade or a leopard sneaking across behind your jeep and the wonder of tapping your tracker’s encyclopedic knowledge and listening to his anecdotes. To meet your death in such a violent manner at a time when you are flush with anticipation of an exciting and adventurous day is to me perverse on so many levels. There’s a rather acrimonious discussion about who is to blame for laying the three mines on indi’s blog. To me that is largely irrelevant, I do not need anymore evidence to prove to me the LTTE are terrorists, for me what is important is the reality that people lost fathers, family members, Sri Lanka lost one of its finest authors and I can almost taste that reality. [...]
It is very likely that the LTTE planted that pressure mine. The SL Army has nothing to gain by planting a pressure mine on a track used by tourists in a national park. The LTTE has everything to gain by causing panic and fear amongst the Sri Lankans and driving tourists away from Sri Lanka. According to some reports this track had been used by vehicles on the previous day. Looks like the mines were freshly laid.
Lets not kid ourselves as to who the real cuprits are.
The major factors in not been able to combat and weaken the LTTE are:
Corruption, Nepotism, Lack of accountability, Lack of transparency, lack of a genuine meritocracy
As members of the privileged elite there is a lot that you’ll can do. However awareness of the problem at hand and of the perpertrators of terrorism is essential.
Here I give a letter written by a close friend of mine who sacrificed a part of his youth to fight the LTTE in the jungles
of Trincomalee.
”
Social Elite; It is your call
The suicide bomber who blasted Army commander’s entourage didn’t get into a bus from Vanni and came to Colombo. She probably arrived in Colombo months ago, driven and guided by terrorist agents living amongst us, and fed and harboured by terrorist agents who receive the patronage of some top level businessmen, offcials and politicos and their thugs.
The countrys intelligence services who should be tracking, investigating and arresting these traitors have been neutralized to sheer ineffective levels. The junior officers who took any personal interest to trace the traitors have all been gunned down in the streets of Colombo itself. It is time to ask who is blocking the intelligence services efforts to track down these traitors.
There are scores of social, political, humanitarian and religious institutions, some funded by western organizations, who dare to openly campaign to protect the traitors, justify the terrorism, and have the incompetent and the corrupt to get to high places, including country’s intelligencve services, and make sure that the country’s capability to maintain national security is made ineffective while ensuring the terrorists have their way.
Sri Lankans connected with these institutions and the terrorists have linked up with the selfish and corrupt elements of the Sri Lankan society in mutually rewarding relationships. Most drug imports and distribution, major import and export smuggling businesses, prostitution rings, institutions and individuals tasked with the cultural destruction are all making their living thanks to the terrorist network.
In this scenario the politicos and political parties come to power, sponsored by some of these corrupt elements themselves, and pretend to do some work while pocketing in what is left of national resources, and retire.
National security can only be maintained if the system is cleaned up of corruption and treachery associated with the terrorism. The decisive war is in Colombo, not in the jungles of the north and the east.
It is the uncorrupt educated social elite who could save Sri Lanka by questioning and demanding what’s needed to be established and implemented. The poor cannot do this. Nobody would listen to them. The corrupt rich wouldn’t want to change the system. It is the hour of the educated uncorrupt social elite. It is time that they take interest in the governance and the continuity of the nation. Only they can make the difference for only they alone have the strength to question and expose the conspirators and the selfish corrupt elements who betray the nation. It is them alone who has what it takes to counter the propaganda spread by the foreign-funded traitors.
“
why don’t you guys all join up and fight the LTTE…?
i love you useless dickbags… talk, talk, talk… if there was a DRAFT (conscription) like there was in the USA during Vietnam and all you middle class useless f**ks had to go fight on the front lines there wouldn’t be a war
all your parents would be DEMANDING of the GoSL to sue for peace…
you’re a buncha pussys…
and all this bitching and moaning because of a couple of bombs… you never say anything about the thousands of tamil civilians who were killed by GoSL bombing and shelling during the war and the ones being killed now by the DEATH SQUADS supported by your tax rupees
you’re all useless idiots (or buggers – which ever you prefer)
Looks like ur pretty much of a frustrated middle class f*** up yourself ! go fight a war you didn’t even start! I mean think about it, u seem to be very useful reading comments n blogs to this world. and for your info the f***ing world war started because one austrian got shot and killed. so whats wrong with complaining about a coupla bombs? they’re useless right? unless someone you know gets in them. one who speaks for oneself is wise. One who speaks for others is much wiser, if he advices and not acts like a critic.
[...] indi has a great post on this. i think we are all fairly sick of having to live in troubled times, but it always hurts more when the ones we love become the ones we’re left to mourn. Comments » [...]
I’d like to make a request to Janapathi, Janin and all who are hell bent on making almost every thread posted an argument on pro/anti LTTE lines…
Please leave it out of this one…
Uncle Nihal’s sons read this blog too
to the family my sympathies, i am sorry for your pain…
mines are horrible and kill indiscriminately…
we’ll never know who laid this one… but the pain felt here in colombo is due to the fact that for the first time someone “famous” from colombo was killed… the whole of the NorthEast is covered in mines and THOUSANDS of civilians have been killed and maimed by them but you all in colombo never cared or did anything about it… it’s tough when it hits close to home though ain’t…?
the south hasn’t really experienced the war like the people of the NE have, except for a few bobs here and there and checkpoints… you all don’t really know what the war is about or the depth of the feelings in the northeast or the depth of the feelings amongst the tamils… and don’t think what the worthless “colombo 7 tamils” tell you about the “views of the tamils”… they know nothing
Well i don’t think you can categorise people as vol7 tamils.. thats just a joke.. i have enough and more friends who are col 7 tamils and they don’t give a shit about this was as long as well sit down n have a drink together.. i mean true it is vain… to not care about anyone else.. but i can tell you my friends are multi racial and ethnic.. i have lived here for 16 years now.. and i have never looked at anyone with a squinted eye.. and the funny thing is that i was brought up just great.. without judgement placed on people i don’t know.. Whats the deal with racism. I think racist comments should be deleted off anyones blogs.. I’m a sri lankan buddhist who is highly offended..
well if it makes you feel any better there were nonfamous colombo tamils killed in that landmine too.. a mother and a father were killed leaving behind a son and a daughter. so i guess you shouldn’t make assumptions about the ‘depth of feelings’ of ‘worthless colombo 7 tamils’.
“the south hasn’t really experienced the war like the people of the NE have, except for a few bobs here and there and checkpoints… you all don’t really know what the war is about or the depth of the feelings in the northeast or the depth of the feelings amongst the tamils… and don’t think what the worthless “colombo 7 tamils†tell you about the “views of the tamilsâ€â€¦ they know nothing”
the “south” does know about killing because as a result of the above the evil of suicide bombing came into existence. The south knows about war because the sourth sends it’s young, poor, rural men to respond to it’s racist infliction of brutality on a small group of people that it eventually wants to get rid of.
the south knows it’s power and the south uses it against it’s citizens all the time and uses it against all types of it’s citizens
thes man by all accounts was above that – hence he is admired and he will be remembered and so he should.
when the only thing you get taught day in and day out is religous bigotry, racial violence, discrimination and segregation – it is a wonder why anyone would stick their head above water and try and say something different.
even in the sri lankan blogsphere – we have a drunken self-pitying fools in the face of other people’s tragic family loss and those who are trying to rise above the tradgedy and deal with reality.
my mother knew many such sinhalese writers, teachers and talented people – before the JVP struck – she came back to Ceylon after just 5 years – and they were all, all gone. Yes, indi is right here. we have lost some very special people who I know (having met just a few of them) would have done their best to stop the “revoluion”
as for mines – remember only one thing, when a mine detonates – it cares not who you are, it only fulfils it’s purpose which is to make money for the country that manufactured it, to kill people for the country that bought it and to destroy lives that don’t deserve it.
RIP
‘thes man by all accounts was above that – hence he is admired and he will be remembered and so he should’
what man?
Strangely and truly enough you’re right. We as a younger generation do not deserve the war that is passed down by generations.. We do not deserve a war that has been polluted by various ideals that were not the cause of the war.. We do not deserve second grade crap.. It it is right we deserve our own war.. war against crimes, war against drugs, war against all sorts of s**t like that.. Growing up i believed that my generation could make a difference and fight for what is right. I hoped with all my hearth that we would not get inducted into a corporation of old hickey gentle like looking men dressed in white calling themselves polititians. But majority of the new generation was/is thinking and talking like the older generations.. They have just absorbed what ever has been discussed around dinner tables etc.. So much for the individuality and uniqueness that everyone hopes they will have in their itty bitty personalities.. But recently Strangely enough i started reading quite a few blogs and found most of these people just like me.. Sick.. Sick and tired of this old crap.. I thought to myself that there are old leaders who started this war.. They are growing old.. They are dying.. I will outlive them.. We will outlive them.. and by then.. would the war have been forgotten? Will the war be forgotten? Well.. it’s upto us to forget this war.. to move on.. To not even look at the younger generations of ours and tell them of this sick hate our ancestors brought upon this lovely country. They don’t deserve any of this crap.. They don’t need so much hate.. So i will wait.. Just wait.. Till they all wither and die.. Maybe a new country will be born of this. I hope so.. but it is only the duty of our generation to clean up the mess..
war is hell : get stuffed. wtf is ‘ depth of the feelings ‘? death is death, pain is pain and war is war, no matter where you are or how many people die. people in colombo have borne the brunt of the war too, maybe not as directly as those that have suffered in the north and the north east, but we’ve had security, buildings, family and friends taken away from us because of the war, too. try telling the families of those that died quite by accident in the bomb at the central bank, behind the galadari or most recently the mine in wilpattu that they don’t know the ” depth of the feelings ‘. try telling any of those people that they don’t know anything about war, or pain.
pain doesnt need to be heroic and death doesnt have to be glorified ; they were still people and other people loved them.
I think that the main reason the LTTE succeeded so far, is mainly due to the lack of descipline in the governments of Sri Lanka. If the any of the governments from 1983 onwards really and truly wanted to end this, I’m sure they could have; either by force or otherwise. If we compare the LTTE and the GOSL, the only difference that can be seen, and that matters, is that they are organised, and extremely desciplined in whatever they do. Look at the governments we’ve had so far. All of them have one thing in common. Corruption a la! Of robbing citizens and filling thine pockets, encyclopedias could be written.
Even now, all we need is a government dedicated to developing the country and ridding it of the LTTE. “Impossible” is nothing especially in this day and age. At the moment, the JVP, SLFP, UNF, JHU and every political farce are screaming at the top of their voices at every incident. One thing is for sure, as long as the government remains recumbent the way it exists now, we can expect the LTTE to force Ealam from the backbirths in office, and then everyone will look up and wait.