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SRI LANKA ARCHIVE: June 7-25, 2006

Jittery Jaffna

In the northern city of Jaffna there is a shell of a church destroyed by earlier fighting. Some here worry that it may not just be a symbol of violence past, but of violence to come.

By Kevin Sites, Wed Jun 7, 8:50 PM ET

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JAFFNA, Sri Lanka - Since the 1980s Sri Lanka has been embroiled in a civil war between a mostly Hindu, Tamil separatist minority and the largely Buddhist Sinhalese majority. 

An estimated 60,000 people have died in the conflict.

The northern city of Jaffna has seen some of the worst of the fighting. But a 2002 cease-fire between the government and the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam — or Tamil Tigers as they're more commonly known — brought some hope to the city and the region for peace.

Now with outbreaks of violence on an almost daily basis, some fear the cease-fire may be about to fold even as new talks are underway between the two parties in Oslo, Norway.

The shell of a Protestant Church of Christ, destroyed in a 1995 government offensive, is one of the most dramatic symbols of the past fighting. But it also could be a symbol of more violence to come.

As we toured the remains of the church, the caretaker talked to me about the possibility of rebuilding, even as the region teeters on the brink of renewed war.

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VIDEO TRANSCRIPT

KEVIN SITES: What we're looking at right now is the external walls of Christ Church. This church happens to be in an area where the Tamil Tigers were operating, and it was shelled, apparently by the army and by the Sri Lankan navy. Most of the roof was destroyed and collapsed, and what we're seeing right now are just the outside walls that remain standing.

We've been talking with Arthur, who is the caretaker here. He's been watching over the church, after it was damaged. He moved here because his family was displaced by the fighting between the Tigers and the army.

This is his nephew and niece, David and Regina. They've been playing in the church. And it's a good spot for them to play — although most of the debris has been removed, the walls seem to still be pretty sturdy. It's about dusk here in Jaffna, and the light is just beautiful coming in through all these different windows and all these adjoining walls.

Now there are actually Sri Lankan soldiers to my right and they've asked me not to shoot (videotape) them. They'd like to keep this as a secure area and they don't necessarily want us giving away their positions to Tamil Tigers.

Pretty much all of the roof has been destroyed; it's completely been blown away, and all that remains standing are the outside walls. There is a wooden cross that's still hanging from an archway where the altar would be of the church. And Arthur, the caretaker, isn't sure whether that cross was placed back up there by members of the church after the bombing, or if it remained hanging from the roof during the bombing. There are some plaques here, basically from people that had probably helped support the church financially.

Now, we're looking around. There's another young man, hi there — and that's Regina, and that's David — and they live over in the rectory house, through that archway, with their uncle and their mom. They like to play in this church, they like to hang out there, and who wouldn't? It's a beautiful structure, especially at dusk.

KEVIN SITES: Arthur, you said there's a possibility the church could be rebuilt.

ARTHUR (church caretaker): Yes.

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SITES: Now, what would it take to rebuild the church?

ARTHUR: The Bishop came last month, came from Colombo, and they are waiting for the funds I think.

SITES: How much money do they think it will cost to rebuild it?

ARTHUR: For the roof, they need two million.

SITES: At least two million?

ARTHUR: At least two million, yes, for the roof.

SITES: Because it seems like they might be able to keep some of the outside walls, but still, a lot of work.

ARTHUR: They asked to patch it up.

SITES: They just want to patch it up, not rebuild it?

ARTHUR: Yes, to show the history of the church.

SITES: They want to keep the outside walls and keep some of the damage to show the history — that despite the bombing that the church remained standing, basically. I see, that's a good idea.

ARTHUR: Yes. If they rebuilt the church, the history would be finished, no?

SITES: It would be disappeared, it would be gone — so it's a good idea to keep the outside walls at the very least.

ARTHUR: Yes.

SITES: When do you think that might be done?

ARTHUR: Hard to say, you know, because now, the situation... (laughs)

SITES: The situation has gotten worse again, hasn't it?

ARTHUR: Yes.

SITES: Do feel less safe than you did before?

ARTHUR: Well you see, now they are at least talking about peace.

SITES: They're talking in Oslo right now...

ARTHUR: Yes, is peace coming? I think so.

Sri Lankan military

SITES: You hope so — but there have been more violent attacks lately, yes? Do you feel less secure?

ARTHUR: Can't say, you know?

SITES: But you felt more secure right after the cease-fire in 2002. Things were good then?

ARTHUR: Yes yes, those days were very good, and we were very happy ... now we are very afraid.

SITES: A9, the road that comes from Sri Lanka into Eelam, into the Tamil Tiger controlled area, that opened again after the cease-fire. But now it seems like it's constricted. The flow has been less. So things are a bit more tense in the area. But you're hopeful that they'll talk it out in Oslo, and that perhaps the cease fire will continue to hold?

ARTHUR: Yes, yes. You are coming from which area?

SITES: I'm from the United States. I work for Yahoo!, for the Internet, and we cover conflict zones. This is one of the conflict zones that we wanted to cover — to come and see the different areas of Sri Lanka that have been affected by the fighting between the government and the Tamil Tigers.

Now, you're a Christian man?

ARTHUR: I'm a Christian, yes.

SITES: Most people in this area are Hindu, yes?

ARTHUR: Yes.

SITES: So [this church] is very important for you, in terms of your religion, to watch over.

ARTHUR: Yes.

SITES: Well it's a beautiful structure, even despite the fact it's been bombed, and it's an interesting mystery whether that cross stayed hanging during the bombing or if it was placed back up there — you don't know.

We hope you get your funds, and that you're able to rebuild — and as you said, just to put a roof on and keep the outside walls so you can maintain the history.

ARTHUR: If the peace comes, I think there are a lot of countries willing to give money, no?

SITES: If the peace remains, people will be able to help you out?

ARTHUR: If foreign countries are willing to give some money to rebuild those things... this is a question mark, no?

SITES: There's a big question mark right now. We'll have to see what happens. Hopefully, peace will hold here.

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Comments

Join the discussion. Here you'll see the comments in the order they were posted.

1
i been looking at kevin and his hot zone for a while, since it started. I never commented on any of his articles untill this one. I'm from sri lanka but grew up in the U.S. I just hope this isn't onesided journalism like BBC, who just clearly pick's side, at least when it concerns's it's former colonies. I just hope that it sticks to unbiased and clear facts instead of listening to rumors. I'm not that pleased either that kevin starts out the Sri Lnkan hot zone piece, with a church and christanity. This is terrorist problem, and nothing to do with religion. It never has, to some ignorant viewer these sends a bad impression of Sri Lanka which happen to be a democratic country, that just has terrorist problem. I will wait and see.
Posted by sujan032783 on Thu, Jun 8, 2006 6:19 PM ET
2
I agree with the previous posting. I am originally from Sri Lanka myself but now live in the US. My biggest problem is that journalists tend to refer to the war in Sri Lanka as a Civil War between the majority sinhalese and the minority tamils. That's absurd. This is not a civil war - but a terrorist fight. The LTTE is no different than the Al-Qaida in Iraq. They were not fighting a civil war for the Iraqis - but a terrorist fight against the Iraqis and their supporters. If the Sri Lankan government goes to war against the LTTE - it is a war against terrorism, just like US va Al-Qaida. So call it as it is. The LTTE is a terrorist organization, recognized as such by the US, Canada, the EU and a host of other nations. It's not the Sinhalese vs. the Tamils - but Sri Lankans vs the LTTE terrorists.
Posted by vwlvr_1 on Thu, Jun 8, 2006 7:42 PM ET
3
Kevin, you say in your report that local residents say that the army has been heavy handed. You should have explained that the reason for being heavy handed could be that the army has a hard time distinguishing between civilians and Tamil tiger terrorists. Before you make even an innocent remark such as the army is being heavy handed, you should provide some background information as to the brutal murders of over 300 civilians and soldiers at the hands of these same terrorists, during the cease fire. Additionally, you mention that most of the army is from the south and the west of Sri Lanka. Are you suggesting that a country's army should only employ people from the region that it is servicing? After all, Sri Lanka is a sovereign country and has the right to deploy its army where ever they feel that deployment is necessary, within its borders. Also, it is only natural that the majority of the Sri Lankan army consists of members from the dominant ethnic group, just as a majority of the US army is made up of Caucasians. Your implications in this article smacks of bias and would serve you well to either be objective or get out of the business of reporting from hot zones.
Posted by vabeygun@rogers.com on Thu, Jun 8, 2006 8:40 PM ET
4
Kevin Thank you for exposing the truth about life in the war zone North-East (Tamil Eelam). I come from the hill country but had lived and served the displaced and refugees up in the north. It was the Sri-Lankan Arm Forces who demolished many religious worship places in these areas. There was another massacre of the innocent civilians many were women and children during the bloody offensive “Operation Leap Forward” by the Sri-Lankan Forces.. Having dropped leaflets asking the people to move to places of worship the Sri Lanka air force there after attacked the places of worship where Tamil civilians had sought refuge. St.Peters Church and St.Peters School in Navaly at a great distance away from the line of battle and where hundreds had sought shelter was deliberately bombed on 9 July 1995. “Thirteen babies were among the 65 dead found under the rubble of a Catholic church bombed by the Sri Lankan air force, an International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) reported. The death toll in this incident later increased to 120. 13 babies died in their mother's arms. (Reuter 11 July 1995) There would be many try to cover up the whole story, and try to picture the situation as terrorist problem. As a saying in Sinhala, ‘Can one really cover up the whole pumpkin in a plate of rice?’ If the Arm forces consist of more than 99% of Sinhalese would you like to call it a national Army or ‘Sinhalese Army’?
Posted by rajdans on Thu, Jun 8, 2006 9:28 PM ET
5
Kevin , great story i was happy to (but sad to) see the ruins of my church. i havn't been in Jaffna for 17 years, i grow up with church i would love to help re-build. this is an act of state terrorist who says they are in Jaffna to save tamils.
Posted by vathiththan on Thu, Jun 8, 2006 10:51 PM ET
6
Kevin, It's a great story. I was born and grown up in Tamileelam ( Sri lanka). I was in war tone area until 2001.I would say Most of the people who is commenting on this report left sri lanka atleast 10 years from the peace process time. Non of the wetern medias bring the true stories of what happend in north and east. In your report when you say 60,000 people got killed atleast 55,000 people were tamils. this is not an act of state terrorist or whatever people would call it. This was an out come of tamil people's struggling.Even though we had a properly build school My school was under the trees most of the time because of the sri lankan airforce. They bombed every single place whereever they saw schools, temples, churchs and any puplic building. I can go forever about how we got attacked by Sri lankan Gov. Anyways Thank you Kevin
Posted by amuthan_22 on Thu, Jun 8, 2006 11:33 PM ET
7
Hi Kevin, Thank you very much for giving this documentry. I know the sri lanka forces has been destroying many temples mostly Church. I dont know which one is this. Sri Lanka government bombed not only Churches but also innocent people. Who knows how many people died in this church. Anyways Thanks again. take care of yourself in the dangerous zone.
Posted by selvazero on Thu, Jun 8, 2006 11:46 PM ET
8
Hi Kevin, The fact of the matter is - Sri Lankan populace is dealing with a the most ferocious terrorist group the world has ever seen. I would recommend that you read the EU resolution for the banning of the LTTE and in very clear language they list the atrocities they have committed and held back this entire country. So its very incorrect to name this as a civil war. I wish you had done your homework better - and does not reflect the lack of it in all your other postings for other countries. This is the link to EE's resolution: I would recommend that Kevin reads this: http://www.europarl.europa.eu/omk/sipade3?TYPE-DOC=MOTION&REF=P6-RC-2006-0281&MODE=SIP&L=EN God bless, Gerard Wickrema
Posted by gerardwhizbiz on Fri, Jun 9, 2006 5:16 AM ET
9
Kevin, First of all, we appreciate your presence in that war zone area, and we thank you for the unbiased report that you have written above. We need people like you to be there to report what is exactly happening in the north and east. I want to bring to your attention that some of these people who commented here, especially the first three are very ignorant and possibly from the same group who asked the civilians to refuge in Churches, bombed the churches and killed the civilians, including babies in mass numbers earlier in later part of 1990s. It was easier to kill them in mass when they were refuged in Churches and temples. These first three guys who commented on this page, sujan032783, vwlvr_1, vabeygun@rogers.com, probably do not even know who they are, their origins ( how they came to Sri Lanka- these people were kicked out by an Indian King because they were violent to begin with, from India, the Sinhalese race) or could be from the same race, the Dumb Sinhalese Chauvinist, who deliver an address that the Buddhism is the only religion in Sri Lanka or Sri Lanka is a Buddhist country; these people do not even know what is Buddhism is about or what kind of a person Buddha was. These guys have no clue that Buddha was a Hindu and a strong believer of equal rights, fairness and kindness. They do not know that the evolution of Buddha was based on equality to people. What they have done to the Tamils (Hindus and Christians) was systematic discrimination in all sectors and genocide. They went beyond discrimination to raping, butchering, looting the houses and burning the innocent Civilians who are Christinas and Hindus since 1958, which is when the first butchering of Tamils (Christians and Hindus) took place. The then prime minister, Bandaranayake, himself was the culprit for scheming the beginning of massacre of Tamil people. I will give you just few incidents to make it clear, the kind of a brutal murderers these Sinhalese race and the government are: 1) The government has gone out to all the Christian schools that were funded by missionaries and looted them, starting from books, lab equipment to even the good furniture and sent them back to South. 2) The government has asked the Civilians to refuge in the Churches and target bombed those churches and killed them. 3) Many churches were burnt even in the south by Sinhalese thugs aided and abetted by Buddhist monks. 4) THE GOVERNENT HAS PACKED HUMAN FECES (@#$% ) IN THE BARRELS AND DROPPED THEM ON CHURCHES AND TEMPLE IN THE NORTH. Kevin, you be the judge and tell us, who in the world would do a thing like this. Even Hitler did not do anything like this. The three dummies are claiming that the LTTE is the cause. Idiots did not even know that the LTTE is formed in late 70s after many anti Tamils riots organized by SL government, discrimination, standardization of education to block the Tamils students from entering Universities, looting the entire town of Jaffna over night and burning one of the best libraries in South East Asia, which was located in Jaffna and many more. Idiot Number 3 was claiming that the 300 Civilians were killed by LTTE, but the truth is the other way around. Everyday the civilians are shot by the army and the Karuna group which lives with the SLA. Just in the last two hours while I am writing this, a entire family was butchered in Manner after the mother was raped by SLA in front of the kids. The SLA has used the carpentry tools, which they found in the house itself to butcher the family. Another family of 13, including a 4 month old baby and a 4 Yr old kid, was shot dead two weeks ago by SLN. Many prominent Tamils including Mr. Joseph Pararajasingham were shot dead at the Church by SLA or by their hooligans, which SL government deny, but the captured ones by LTTE already told the journalists how they are living with the SLA and how they are being used by them. Many incidents in the last month were staged by the SL government to blame the LTTE by killing the civilians and make them react so that they can get them banned by EU, which they succeeded as the EU did not have any clue of what is going on in the North and East. So far the LTTE has been only targeting the armed forces, who are the brutal killers of Civilians. The evolution of LTTE is the result of SL government’s genocide, not the cause of the problem. But, still the LTTE is the most disciplined rebel group or even an army in the world. Too bad the US government has it’s strategic plans to get into Sri Lanka, and in order to achieve that they have to take sides even though they know what the truth is. Dominic Joseph
Posted by prithy97 on Fri, Jun 9, 2006 6:05 AM ET
10
I see some postings justifying what the SL govt is doing because they are fighting with "terrorists". No matter what, the government should protect the civilians. In SL, the govt and the armed forces look at Tamils as a population that doesnt deserve protection. They just see them all as enemies. It is for the world they paint a picture that they are fighting with "terrorism". No one seem to think the "origin" of the terrorism. When SL govt and SL sinhalese killed and burnt Tamils in 1958 and 1977 was there a terrorism any where? SL govt should take the responsibility for the "terrorism" that is in the country today. They simply dont want the Tamils to be there. It is sad to see the country today. It is a civilization going backwards. The world cries about childsoldiers - I agree with that. Where is that world when the children are hacked to death in SL? - sick and tired of SL. by Fernando
Posted by mahesan_c on Fri, Jun 9, 2006 9:43 AM ET

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  • BBC: Sri Lanka - includes a map, political history, and a timeline of key events.
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  • Wikipedia: Ethnic conflict in Sri Lanka - provides a background to the conflict between Sri Lanka's government and the Tamil Tigers.
  • "No More Tears Sister" - documentary airing as part of the P.O.V. series on PBS retells the life of Rajani Thiranagama, a human rights activist assassinated amid Sri Lanka's civil war in 1989.
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  • Red Cross in Sri Lanka - aims to persuade weapons bearers to comply with international humanitarian law, protect civilians, and help allow for the free movement of the people.
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  • U.N. Development Programme: Sri Lanka - works with national, regional, and local groups to achieve sustainable peace and better living conditions for the people of Sri Lanka.
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in memoriam

The Kevin Sites in the Hot Zone team dedicates this site to Marla Ruzicka, a fearless voice of compassion, who was killed in Iraq on April 16, 2005, while trying to lessen the suffering of others. For more information, see Civic Worldwide.