Strategic city struggles for sheer survival

Nightmare for 50 children cut away from their parents and other agonizing stories

Trincomalee: Five months after a cycle bomb attack at the market place here drastically changed the security situation, life is yet to return to normal for residents, traders, hotels owners and others. Most shops put up shutters well before dusk, fishermen have been restricted in their activities and most public transport comes to a standstill as dusk falls.

The hotels that had a flourishing business no longer have sufficient guests prompting some of them to close down or scale down operations.

Those that are functioning are finding it difficult to get supplies with some of them being forced to buy fish from Chillaw to cater to their guests who are mainly foreigners working for International Non governmental Organisations.

“As long as there are activities involving INGOs we have some business and our rooms are occupied. But otherwise, we hardly have any guests,” says Rohihtha de Silva General Manager of Welcome Bay hotel, one of the main hotels in the area.

“When the situation was normal we used to have full bookings and even locals were patronizing the place in large numbers,” he said.

Within the town some 2,000 displaced people are languishing in six schools. Most of them have fled from adjoining villages that have seen intense artillery and mortar attacks between government troops and the LTTE.

In the town, every 100 metres is dotted with check points manned by police, army or homeguards. Push cycles and motor cycle are thoroughly searched as some of them have been used for attacks by the Tigers in the past.

The increased attacks in Trincomalee town – including claymore mine attacks on the security forces and a series of shooting incidents –have prompted the security forces to intensify their searches.

“With the LTTE setting up mines even on push cycles we cannot take a chance,” says a policeman manning one of the many check points in the town.

The scene of the devastated market place where the cycle bomb went off on the eve of the Sinhala – Hindu new year where at least 19 peoples were killed and 36 shops were damaged, has remained unchanged. Most of the shop keepers have opted to keep the shops in the same condition.

“We were first offered compensation, but later we were told we would have to obtain a loan. But most of us are reluctant to rebuild our shops as we fear they would be affected again,” says President of the Trincomalee district Chamber of Commerce Raja Rajmohan.

He says that since April, Banks have restricted their credit limit while some of the main companies also have curtailed their credit facilities.

Mr. Rajamohan says many of the businessmen were already facing financial difficulties and if the situation continues for another three months they will be badly hit.

Shops put up shutters by about 4 p.m as the town gradually starts getting deserted.

Private bus services keep off roads after dusk while many of the villagers keep away from the town due to lack of transport.

The fisheries industry is among the worst affected with most fishermen being forced to restrict their fishing to shallow water fishing during the day and that too only for a limited number of hours. Fishing boats which otherwise would have been at sea can be seen along the shore surrounding Trinco town, Nilaveli and Uppuveli areas.

Some of the fishermen have left the area and gone to Mannar and others have left to India.

Visitors to Trincomalee feel and see the effects of the security situation when they go along the Habarana Trincomalee road. The number of vehicles have drastically reduced. According to police some 1000 to 1200 vehicles travelled along this road, but now there are only about 200 vehicles a day.

The cross loading checkpoint where all items brought in lorries are unloaded and checked by the police has been attributed as another reason for the reduction of vehicles. The checkpoint is similar to what was put up at Omanthai where all vehicles entering the uncleared areas and those leaving the uncleared areas are searched.

The check point came up three months back as a security precaution to safeguard the Trinomalee town as well as prevent smuggling of weapons , ammunition or explosives from Trincomalee to the rest of the county.

Government Agent for Trincomalee, Ranjith Silva told The Sunday Times that sporadic incidents taking place on a day to day basis was affecting normality in the town.

He said that many of the Muslims and Sinhalese displaced from Muttur have returned, but the Tamil civilians were not returning due to threats from the LTTE.

However displaced Tamil civilians said that there was no guarantee about their security, as even before the full scale fighting started several civilians had been abducted and killed when they were on their way to town.

As Trincomalee struggles with the deteriorating security situation and uncertainty the security forces have been able to secure some of the surrounding areas of the town including Sampur and Mutur.

In Muttur most of the displaced people have returned, but the reconstruction work has been slow while in Sampur the displaced are yet to return.