While Sri Lankans are finally having a respite from the regular carnage that terrorism dealt them for nearly 30 years, for those whose lives were directly affected by the indiscriminate bomb attacks carried out by the LTTE, recovery has been a slow, lonely and arduous journey. The spotlight that once focused so intensely when the LTTE attacked the Central Bank in Colombo on January 31, 1996 has since dimmed in public memory with only the occasional remembrance of the brutal attack.
For the nearly 1,400 persons who survived the bombing, many having suffered both physical disabilities and psychological trauma, the end of the war has brought some kind of closure but their daily struggle to bring about the “completeness” that they lost in their lives on that fateful day still remains.
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| Indika: Wants to share
her findings |
For Indika Niranjala Devi Bulankulame who undertook a landmark research for her Ph.D. in Sociology on “Residues of War: Survivors, Victims and the Crises of Emotional Interventions in War-Torn Sri Lanka,’ an in-depth interaction with survivors brought to light how so many lives were altered so dramatically within the span of a few minutes and how their struggle to cope continues till this day.
“The people I talked to had a notion of “completeness” in the way they lived their lives before the blast. Their lives’ path changed completely after they were injured. So they are always striving to get back that ‘completeness’,” said Bulankulame, who became the first person in 2009 to be awarded a Ph.D. from the Department of Sociology of the University of Colombo.
For a young girl in her early 20s, scarred for life by the effects of the explosion, it meant the end of her dream of becoming an air stewardess while for a father blinded in the bomb attack, it denied him the chance to see the face of his youngest child. “The man’s wife was expecting a baby when he was blinded in the blast. His biggest lament is that he is unable to see the face of his child,” Bulankulame said.
She undertook her Ph.D. project in 2005 and completed it by 2009 with long administrative delays along the way with a large part of the work done when the war was ongoing. What triggered her interest in looking at how the lives of those who have survived bomb attacks have shaped up was a chance chat with a taxi driver who was driving her to a hotel in Colombo for a function.
During the conversation, Bulankulame noticed the hoarseness in the man’s voice and queried if he had undergone an operation which had caused his voice to change. “I had experienced a change in my father’s voice after he underwent an operation and was curious to find out if he had faced a similar plight. He told me that he had been injured in the bomb blast at the Central Bus Stand in Pettah in 1987, the long term effect of which has been the change in his voice,” she said.The taxi driver‘s story got her wondering how the lives of bomb survivors and their families would have changed after such a sudden devastating incident. “I wanted to find out how people survive a catastrophic incident of this nature and understand the matrix of bomb survival.” The Central Bank bomb survivors were chosen because tracing the survivors was easier in this instance. “In the Pettah blast for example, there were people from all parts of the country who become victims. In the Central Bank blast many of the victims either worked at the Bank or nearby offices so it was easier to contact them,” she explained.
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| Jan 31, 1996: Scene of mayhem and destruction |
For Bulankulame who has a M. Phil in Social Anthropology from the University of Sussex, the Ph.D. undertaking was one of the most challenging experiences of her life. “It was a major challenge for me but it dwarfed next to the everyday challenges that I discovered are faced by the bomb blast survivors,’” she said.
Many of the victims she interviewed had the support system of their families but as there is no organized network for many of them, even getting to a hospital for medical treatment which many of those with serious disabilities need to do frequently, is an uphill task.
Bulankulame who has made several recommendations on how the lives of bomb survivors can be improved says that it is now time to look at a long term plan to ensure that as they age, the survivors will not be left destitute. “The survivors I met were between the ages of around 18 and early 60s when they fell victim to the bomb attack. Even though many have a support base now, as they grow older this may shrink, which is why we need a long term process to look after them.”
“This is a category who cannot be seen and not much is talked about them. They are no longer in the mainstream and their voices are no longer heard. We have to bring them back into the mainstream,” she says.
Bulankulame who is now attached to the Department of Social Studies, the Open University of Sri Lanka feels it is not only the state that should come forward to assist survivors but the private sector too.
“I would like to share my findings as there is a lot we can do for them,” she says. |
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