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Journalism of Courage
In Vietnam the enemy was often unseen; unseen that is to those who were reporting a war that at that stage wasn8217;t really a war but a battle of attrition. American imperialism against North Vietnamese style communism. The problem is, American imperialism with about 1,500 Marines, is very much in evidence, especially in the tsunami-battered island of Sri Lanka, communism is a dying breed. There are areas that appear as though they were part of a carpet bombing raid.
The Sri Lankans are a largely gentle people, as in Vietnam, still traumatised by an enemy they once trusted 8212; the sea 8212; but now fear and are desperately hoping that it won8217;t attack them again. They have been through enough. From north of Trincomalee to south of Batticaloa, the region has been turned into a wasteland dump.
As in Vietnam, some food and clothing relief for villages has found its way into the shops, to be sold to those who can afford the prices. Arguments start and there is mistrust. This is why, days before, Muttiah Muralitharan refused to off-load any relief items for the misplaced and refugees. To do this he defied police and officials; he had the clout to do it. Others do not carry the same presence or status.
It is why fishermen and their families in the south are angrily protesting at the way relief is being distributed. Goods from several truckloads have found their way on to shop shelves. It is only when you arrive at Kinniyai, a one-time village about 20 kilometres south of Trincomalee, that the full force of Boxing Day 2004 hit you 8212; as it did us. In Trinco, the town was saved by its natural harbour. In Kinniya, there was no such luck. It fronts Koddiyar Bay which was badly hit by the tsunami.
There is now a refugee camp for about 8,200, maybe a few more or less. One of the problems though is that there are no plates and no eating utensils; something that is taken for granted. What we did find was that the camps controlled by the LTTE were smaller, better run and more organised. People were not complaining, all they wanted was to rebuild their lives. It was the same in the Mekong Delta in 1965. Villages destroyed for no reason, people wanting to know where to go, walking aimlessly around what was once their home.
Last week, while on the south coast, there was the rumour of another tsunami and people went running. It was a false alarm; it8217;s too early to play April Fool jokes, but it seems this was one designed by the looters to rob what they could find. Along the east coast, they don8217;t exist. They are an orderly people. What they want is for their lives to be back together.
At the camp in Kinniyai, this may take a long time. First there has to be a census; then to discover who comes from where. In South Vietnam8217;s Mekong Delta, they were farmers; in Kinniayi, most are fishermen and their families. There are a few farmers, but not many. They have nothing left to farm.
Most of the Batticaloa area is full of derelict houses from the years of civil war. In Vietnam they belonged to the French or landowners. There is no such person on the eastern fringes of the island. And as you drive along, looking for normal lush, it hits you how the tropical vegetation: green and bright, has been replaced. It is all dry and dying, as if someone has been spraying agent orange over this part of the island; in this case the flora has been killed by the saltwater.
Sadly, this in turn has ruined hectare after hectare of farmland around the island; it is one of the things you soon discover; something too, that has barely been mentioned. Land and crops may take a year to recover. And ever-omnipresent is the stench of death. We are told that more than 1000 bodies have been recovered and placed in mass graves.
Just how large this death toll is going to be is hard to tell. Army types tell you that it is going to be more than 50,000. And this are not the casualty figures from the latest war zone battle. What they are perhaps looking at is beyond 70,000. That is an awful lot for an island the size of Sri Lanka to lose at one time.
The force of nature has turned an island into what looks like a battle zone and in some cases, where life becomes cheap; it is going to take time to recover. In Vietnam, reading for relaxation were Neville Cardus8217;s Summer Days or Clarrie Grimmett8217;s Tricking the Batsmen. This time it is Batting for the Empire by Mario Rodrigues, a political biography of Ranji.
Word slips through from New Delhi and a colleague via an SMS when asked what happened to the Test at Newlands. South Africa won and levelled the series 1-1. This is not South Africa though; it is tsunami-wrecked South Asia and the reality of death and a modern holocaust wrought by nature, and it is not the time to celebrate anything. Maybe later, when some forms of life return to normality. Now is the time to mourn.
