In early December 2011, I had the privilege of making an extensive tour of the Northern Province with my wife. Kilinochchi District was of special interest to us. LTTE supremo Prabhakaran’s four-floored underground luxury bunker in Pudukudirippu, the many other impenetrable and amazing fortifications, the runway and underground hangar at Iranamadu, a huge concrete tank/swimming pool for training of Sea-Tigers, improvised tankers using bulldozers, heaps and heaps of abandoned vehicles, and still roofless buildings are grim reminders of the LTTE stronghold that Kilinochchi was and the war that raged therein.
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| Remnants of a violent past: Wreckage of a shot down helicopter |
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| North today: The writer in Prabhakaran’s underground bunker |
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| A march past on the A9 Road
in Kilinochchi |
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| The runway at Iranamadu |
It also gives an insight to the intransigence of the LTTE in that it had never been serious about peace negotiations, but made use of every ceasefire agreement as a respite to prepare for a conventional war for secession. It further reveals the courageous spirit in which the Tamil Tigers prepared for the war.
Alongside these grim reminders is the heartening contrast of restored irrigation works and bridges, widened roads, cultivated paddy fields stretching to the horizon, vegetable plots and fruit farms, schooling in full swing, police involvement in community activities and smiling faces everywhere. Involvement of the Police and the United Nations International Children’s Emergency Fund (UNICEF) is seen rather conspicuously. Under the guidance of S/DIG Northern Range – Gamini Silva, DIG Kilinochchi-Neil Daluwatta has made wide strides to win the hearts and minds of the people in Kilinochchi District.
DIG Daluwatta’s approach has been to first study the needs and aspirations of the people, their culture and religious pursuits, and to help them in keeping with their aspirations. The concept of community policing empowering the people, has caught on in a big way. Appreciating each other’s dedication for the wellbeing especially of school children, the Police and UNICEF are complementing each other in community work – UNICEF doing the funding.
A highlight of the reconciliation process was a grand march-past that comprised the police band, 14 police platoons from the seven police districts, police kennels, police combat squad, police vehicles, a squad from the police community centre, three civil defence platoons, a civil defence first aid group and three school bands, on December 8. S/DIG Gamini Silva took the salute on the A 9 Road, opposite the Kilinochchi Headquarters Police Station.
The marchpast was followed by an awards ceremony held at Hindu College Kilinochchi under the auspices of S/DIG Gamini Silva, in the College Hall which was packed to capacity. Hindu, Buddhist, Christian and Muslim dignitaries invoked blessings. A group of girls from the Sinhala Maha Vidyalaya Irattaperiyakulam, Vavuniya sang Jayamangala Gatha and a group of girls from St Theresa’s Vidyalaya, Kilinochchi, welcomed the audience with a Bharata Natyam Dance. The Government Agent Kilinochchi, Ms R. Katheeswari, representatives from the three armed forces , school teachers, school children, parents, DIG Kilinochchi-Neil Daluwatta, DIG Mannar J.C. Proctor, SSP Vavuniya, H. Adikari, SSP Jaffna N Padmadeva, PA to the S/DIG-SSP Lakshman Wijeratne, SSP KKS Gamini Perera, SP Mulaitivu Janaka Perera, SP Mannar Laksiri Wijesena, SP Kilinochchi Saliya de Silva, and people from many other walks of life were present. Also present very unobtrusively was the UNICEF Head of Jaffna, Attorney-at-law Charuka Samarasekera, monitoring the proceedings. Motorcycles, typewriters, cupboards, and children’s clothes were among the many awards.
S/DIG Gamini Silva in his address to the gathering publicly instructed police officers to create awareness of statutory offences, such as motor traffic laws, without enforcing them rigidly and to give the people time to get used to these laws as they knew no rule of law for three decades. This was hailed as a very valid course of action by the academia present. The people-friendly approach of the S/DIG is worthy of emulation in the rest of the country too.
When I take my mind through all what I witnessed in Kilinochchi, and my indulgence with the people there, my heart bleeds for the misguided Tamil youth who sacrificed their lives for a cause they believed in. Where they went wrong is in the means to the end – a malady prevalent too often in government action as well. Let us also remember in mitigation, that it was the intransigence of respective Sinhala majority governments that did not implement agreements, not even amendments to the Constitution that would have removed the discrimination against minorities that led to the demand for secession.
The lives shed on either side will not have been in vain if we learn lessons from the past and go for genuine reconciliation. Now that we have the recommendations of the Lessons Learnt and Reconciliation Commission (LLRC), it will be a good basis to start the reconciliation process.
( The writer is a Rtd. Senior
Superintendent of Police) |
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