CRY FOR JAFFNA
Uprooted lives, transient existence, unending war. The civilians of Sri Lanka's north wait for the day when they can once again call a place home.
The pictures on government television show rice sprouting green in newly made fields and classrooms crowded with eager students. Unofficial visitors and travellers from Jaffna descnbe another reality: a city devastated by years of bombardment, houses plundered first by the retreating Liberation Tigers of Tamil Elam (LTTE), then looted by the occupying army. "Here is your house," announces one official to a woman returnee, and she breaks down in tears. All that remains is a pile of rubble.
The Sri Lankan Army, fearing mines and booby traps in the abandoned buildings, chose rather to shell and bomb what was left behind by the LTTE and to bulldoze new roads for their vehicles. Much of the landscape is unrecognisable.