Eastern awakening?

Published on

Under a full moon, I was on the night train from Colombo to Batticaloa. As we raced past towns, Buddhist temples and houses, festive lanterns indicated celebrations of the long poya weekend. Amidst this tranquillity, a year after the end of the war in the country, some friends in Batticaloa had wanted me to see the changes in the area. Seven years after my last visit, I was anxious about what I might find: the resettlement of those affected by the war; the much-talked-about development initiatives; and what these meant for the east, with its murky politics.

With very little news coming in, at times Colombo had seemed very distant from the east. The war had come to an end in the east three years ago, with the government announcing that it had driven out the LTTE and that the war front had moved to the north. For a few years thereafter there was much attention paid to the east, particularly with successive elections and the government's economic reconstruction initiative, called the Eastern Awakening. However, the severe escalation of the war in early 2009 in the Vanni and the subsequent humanitarian crisis, including the internment of hundreds of thousands of displaced people, created a major shift in attention, with both international and national attention turning to the north.

Loading content, please wait...
Himal Southasian
www.himalmag.com