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Journalism of Courage
COLOMBO, Nov 11: A grave humanitarian crisis is looming in Sri Lanka as tens of thousands of people, following LTTE orders, emptied out of Vavuniya, the largest government-controlled town in the north on Thursday. After a string of humiliating military defeats at the hands of the LTTE, the problems for the government only just seem to be beginning.
As the mass exodus began overnight, the Tamil Tigers proved they are as much masters of psyops as they are skilled in combat. The LTTE had on Wednesday repeated announcements on its clandestine Voice of Tigers radio asking people to leave the town within 24 hours.
Witnesses said people were moving out with a few essentials in whatever transport was available train, vans, three-wheelers and cycles. Shopkeepers were loading their merchandise into trucks to take away to safer places.
The night mail from Vavuniya is reported to have arrived in the capital with hundreds of people. Another train arrived here in the afternoon, packed with people and their belongings. T Sinnama, a grandmother who got off from the train here said there was a heavy rush to find place on it at Vavuniya. She had wanted to leave yesterday with her daughter and her baby, but had to wait till this morning.
The government agent of Vavuniya, the town’s chief civilian administrator, was unavailable and according to unconfirmed reports, may also have evacuated. The exodus was triggered off by widespread panic and fear that the LTTE was about to attack Vavuniya and that asking civilians to vacate was a preparatory move.
Indeed, after their successful advance southward through the Vanni mainland during which they recaptured 10 garrison towns and over 30 kms of road they had lost two years ago to the army the Tigers are within striking distance of the town.
Vavuniya has been with the government since 1990 when it was recaptured from the LTTE by the Sri Lankan Army. It has been the Army’s strongest bastion in the north, falling exactly on the border of the territory that the LTTE claims for its “Eelam.” Besides being the brigade headquarters for the area, it also has an Air Force base.
The town’s 100,000 population includes people from all over the north who had made it their home after being displaced in various battles through the years. It used to be a bustling little place with the rough and ready, nervous edge characteristic of all “frontier” towns.
But today, apart from the military establishment, Vavuniya is a ghost town. Witnesses said shops are shut, schools are closed, houses are locked.
Even the Bank of Ceylon, the main state-owned bank, has pulled out and relocated at Anuradhapura, 90 kms south. Military personnel were the only visible human beings as they patrolled the streets.
Reports said the Tamils of the town were leaving for Mannar in the north-west, the Sinhalese for Anuradhapura to the south and the Mulsim population to Puttalam, on the western sea coast north of the Sri Lankan capital.
The whole scenario is a throwback to December 1995, when the Tigers ordered the civilian population of Jaffna peninsula to move out into the Vanni. That time it was to done to deny the Sri Lankan army, marching into Jaffna, a proper victory, so that it became a mere conquest of land without people.
This time, it is not exactly clear what the LTTE’s motives are. But if it attacks Vavuniya and succeeds, the implications for the rest of Sri Lanka and for President Chandrika’s prospects of being re-elected in the December 21 presidential polls — are serious.
Military anaysts are also not ruling out the possibility of the LTTE launching an attack on the Jaffna peninsula — captured from them by the army in 1995-96 while the military’s resources are concentrated on protecting Vavuniya.
