Hatton to Kandy, Kandy to Vavuniya. This is were it gets interesting.In Sri Lanka the predominant ethnic group is the Sinhalese, with the major minority the Tamils. The Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE) is an army and political force fighting for a separate state for Tamils in Sri Lanka. One year ago a ceasefire was called between the two warring factions – the predominantly Sinhalese government and the Tamil Tigers.
The South & West parts of the island, which contain all the major tourist attractions, are populated by a majority of Sinhalese and are controlled by the government. A Sri Lankan army presence is quite visible in certain parts of Colombo and elsewhere, but other than this there is little current evidence of an ethnic conflict.
That is until you get to Vavuniya. Beyond is Tiger country, or Tamil Eelam to be exact, a small part in the North of the island controlled by the LTTE.
My destination was Jaffna via the A9 highway, but on the way I had to pass through Tamil Eelam. I caught a bus from Vavuniya to the Sri Lanka army checkpoint of Omanthai. My bags were searched and my passage recorded. I then had to walk through No-Man’s Land, a 300m wide patch of land declared free of guns and controlled by neither side. The International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) acts as a go between, sending messages between the sides.
On the other side of No-Man’s Land is the LTTE controlled area. I picked up an entry form and hopped on a bus that took me to the LTTE checkpoint a short way down the road. As a foreigner they just waved me in, the Tigers didn’t bother to search my bags or put me through the registration process that nationals went through. I hopped on another bus that took me across Tamil Eelam to Muhamalai, the end of tiger country and the beginning of Sri Lankan army/government occupied territory. To exit I had to pass through two more checkpoints, one LTTE, one Sri Lankan army.
Tiger country, from Omanthai to Muhamalai is less than 100km, but including all 4 checkpoints it took about 6 hours by bus. The LTTE taxes commercial goods going through this area it controls. I noticed a lot of the women in the Tiger army. There were lots of NGO (donor funded non-government organisations that carry out usually humanitarian type tasks) billboards advertising the dangers of land mines, as well as LTTE propaganda posters. It looked a very poor area, no doubt mismanaged under arbitrary LTTE rule.
North of Omanthai is a former battle zone and relics still remain – buildings, skeletons of their former shelves. Barbed wire protects current military installations. I saw a mutilated armoured vehicle of some sort.
Jaffna was nice and so was a trip out to the most northern part of the island, Point Pedro. The beach was covered with barbed wire and army encampments.
There was a particularly impressive Hindu temple just outside of Jaffna where you not only had to take your shoes off, but if male, your shirt as well.
I left Jaffna with the memory of an encounter with a stranger in the street, who approached me and asked “Can you solve the problems?”
