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DATE=10/10/00
TYPE=BACKGROUND REPORT
NUMBER=5-47139
TITLE=JAFFNA
BYLINE=JIM TEEPLE
DATELINE=JAFFNA, SRI LANKA
CONTENT=
VOICED AT:
INTRO: Sri Lankans have voted to select a new parliament. The vote was called after the last parliament could not agree on a plan to allow for more autonomy in Tamil-majority areas in the north and east. For 17-years one of the world's most vicious conflicts has been raging in those areas where a guerrilla force known as the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam has been fighting the Sri Lankan government. At the heart of the conflict is the Jaffna peninsula. Correspondent Jim Teeple was recently allowed a rare visit to the region where he found its people struggling to cope - cut off from the rest of the world.
TEXT: // SOUNDS OF HAMMERING...EST AND FADE UNDER TEXT //
Two men put the finishing touches on a casket in Ishan's casket shop and funeral home in what is left of downtown Jaffna City. The once graceful tropical city with lush gardens and a relaxed way of life is largely reduced to rubble.
The men work quickly and silently not wishing to talk to strangers. There is plenty of work and unfinished caskets are stacked near the workmen, each waiting for a few finishing touches.
Ishan's casket shop and funeral home sits on Jaffna City's dusty and windblown main street. Directly across the street from Ishan's is The People's Bank, where branch manager Bala Chandra says, unlike the casket shop, he has little business.
Fighting in and around the Jaffna peninsula has displaced 140-thousand people. Bala Chandra says that makes running a bank very difficult.
// BALA CHANDRA ACT //
Business is affected mostly by the displacement of the people and the business dislocations that is the thing.
// END ACT //
Mr. Bala Chandra says most people are trying to get off the Jaffna peninsula, but that is not easy.
In May The Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam cut off the strategic Elephant Pass that links the Jaffna Peninsula to the rest of Sri Lanka. Since then the only way out of Jaffna City is by an overcrowded boat that makes a hazardous journey twice a week down the coast, or by restricted military aircraft when the airport is not being shelled by rebel artillery.
Thirty-thousand people have put their names on a list to leave the city.
// OPT // There are an estimated 400-thousand people left in government-controlled areas in the Jaffna peninsula. For 17-years a brutal war has raged all around them, as government forces and the Tamil rebels have fought for control of the peninsula. In 1995 Sri Lankan forces captured much of the area pushing the rebels out of Jaffna City, which they had controlled for years. In April and May the rebels surprised government forces with a fierce attack quickly capturing Elephant Pass and fighting their way into the city's suburbs. // END OPT //
Now the people of Jaffna City have little to do but wait for the next offensive.
Bishop Thomas Savundaranayagam is the senior Roman Catholic priest in a town where there seems to be a church on every other street corner. Most Tamils are either Christian or Hindu, while Sri Lanka's majority Sinhalese population is Buddhist. Sitting in a quiet garden just next to his war-damaged cathedral, Bishop Savundaranayagam says anybody who could has left Jaffna.
/// SAVUNDARANAYAGAM ACT ///
This ethnic war has been so prolonged that it has left people in a trauma state especially the children. Many of our people have gone away only the elderly and the people who cannot go away from here are remaining in Jaffna now. Most of our people especially the elite - the educated people have left for different places.
/// END ACT ///
Jaffna has changed hands three-times during the past 13-years. In May, when it almost did again, the Tamil rebels approached to within three-kilometers of the city center before their advance was stopped in the city's Columbutheri neighborhood.
The neighborhood was once home to Jaffna's elite. Their once-graceful houses with quiet porches and red tile roofs now stand deserted and destroyed their yards littered with mines.
Colonel Chandana Rupa Singha's men recaptured the neighborhood on September 13th. Standing next to a ruined house he says he and his men will fight as long as they have too, but it will be up to the politicians to ultimately end the war.
/// RUPA SINGHA ACT ///
Actually I think as soldiers we have to fight the war with the L-T-T-E we have to fight the terrorists. But I think politically the politicians will have to take suggestions but as military persons we are only concerned about military success.
/// END ACT ///
Colonel Rupa Singha says Tamil rebel positions are just one-kilometer away and that he and his men expect an attack could come at any time. The area where he stands was once full of palmyra trees which Sri Lankans tap to make a popular drink called toddy. Now the trees have all been cut down to make bunkers for the Colonel's men.
The war has destroyed Jaffna's once-thriving agricultural industry. Jaffna was famous for its mangos, raisons, and fishing once the largest industry in town. But there are few farmers willing to hazard a trip into mine-infested fields these days, and no fishermen are allowed to venture out to sea because of military restrictions.
Just like the military men who guard their city the residents of Jaffna spend their days waiting for the next round of fighting. (SIGNED)
NEB/JLT/RAE
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