UKTamilNews.com

Residents say that for normality to return to Little Jaffna, the government must lift the state of emergency and remove roadblocks and checkpoints. “As long as these issues exist life is not normal and the uncertainty prevails just like before – you never know when you would be picked up [by the security forces],” said the computer store manager, speaking in his air-conditioned office.

Only the sounds of buses and newspaper delivery boys punctuate the calm of the Colombo dawn. Yet Maheswari, 60, is already up and preparing to pray at a Hindu shrine and then clean her small, ground floor apartment in this predominantly Tamil suburb of the capital.

“I have been waking up at 4.30 every morning to clean the house and get ready for the day, even though I don’t have any goats or cattle to tend to anymore,” said Maheswari, who in 1991 fled her home in the northern town of Jaffna, one of the flashpoints in the nearly three-decade conflict between Sri Lanka’s government and Tamil Tiger separatists.

In the same building as Maheswari, Walter Fernando, a member of the majority Sinhalese community, is up an hour later and getting ready for work, but not before he has meditated before a statue of the Buddha.

Maheswari and Mr Fernando represent the two main ethnicities and religions in Sri Lanka with a history of animosity, but here, in this tiny part of the capital, they have lived side by side in a state of amity.

 

Known as Little Jaffna because of its large, dominant Tamil population, Wellawatte is in every way – culturally and socially – just like Jaffna, the heartbeat and pulse of Sri Lanka’s 12 per cent, or 2.2 million, minority Tamil population. The town is dotted with Tamil restaurants, mostly vegetarian, selling favourites such as dosai (pancake) and vadai (a doughnut type of rice cake), scores of grocery stores, pharmacies, internet cafes, telephone call centres and shops selling Indian saris. And much like Jaffna, its population is predominantly Tamil, with only a smattering of Sinhalese.

Mr Fernando, like many other Sinhalese in the town, insists there has never been any animosity towards his Tamil compatriots, even when the rebels set off deadly suicide bombs in the city during the war.

Bandula Sirimanna, a veteran Sinhalese journalist, says the two communities have lived peacefully for many years and that only a handful of Sinhalese were involved in the anti-Tamil riots that followed the start of the conflict in 1983.

 

“There hasn’t been any mass strikes against Tamils after 1983 despite severe provocation from Tiger bomb attacks in Colombo. After the war ended in May, there was passionate celebrations by the Sinhalese over the end of the [Tamil Tiger rebels] but Tamil residents were not harmed,” he said.

It is nearly two months since the government declared the war against the Tigers over, having killed their elusive leader Velupillai Prabhakaran, among the world’s most wanted men, and rounded up most of the remaining rebels.

 

This should have been a cause for celebration for Tamils such as Maheswari, who initially backed the rebels’ call for a separate homeland for Tamils but were later disillusioned by the prolonged fighting, hot-headedness and intransigence of the insurgents during the two or three rounds of peace talks with the government.

Yet for Maheswari, and other Tamils in Wellawatte who refused to give their names out of fear, the future is still uncertain.

 

Some say they still fear both the security forces, known to randomly round up and detain Tamils, and the remnants of the Tamil militia. Because of this residents are reluctant to speak openly or be photographed.

“There are government agents all over because of the belief that there could be Tigers hiding out here,” said a young Tamil manager of a computer store.

Security checkpoints and a large military presence are still the order of the day across the capital, with the government warning that though the rebels have been defeated, there may be a few hiding in the city. Areas like Wellawatte are generally seen as providing shelter to the rebels, and the Tamils here are used to police raids and detentions.

 

Last year, the government tried to evict hundreds of Tamils living in Wellawatte and other areas of the capital, saying they were a security risk, and was stopped only by a Supreme Court ruling.

Emergency rule, in which anyone can be detained for months on suspicion of terrorist activity or supporting a terrorist group, has been in force in Sri Lanka since 1983 when 13 government soldiers were killed in a rebel ambush in Jaffna. It was the biggest attack to the military, triggering mass riots in which dozens of Tamils were killed. Hundreds of Tamil families fled to the safety of Jaffna and other areas in the north, which led to an intensification of the ethnic conflict and the expansion of Tamil militancy.

 

Sinhalese make up more than 74 per cent of Sri Lanka’s population, followed by Tamils and then Muslims with eight per cent.

Tamils have complained of discrimination in education, jobs and land use by successive majority Sinhalese governments since independence from Britain in 1948. While Tamils held prominent positions in the government under the British, the roles were reversed after independence.

 

Residents say that for normality to return to Little Jaffna, the government must lift the state of emergency and remove roadblocks and checkpoints.

“As long as these issues exist life is not normal and the uncertainty prevails just like before – you never know when you would be picked up [by the security forces],” said the computer store manager, speaking in his air-conditioned office.

fsamath@thenational.ae