Besieged!

With explosions rocking the length and breadth of Sri Lanka’s landmass, President Mahinda Rajapaksa painted an optimistic picture of the war and all else that ails the country, during his Independence Day speech at Galle Face on Monday. Staring at their televisions on the morning of February 4, citizens sighed and accepted their collective fate. As for the President and his men, thank heavens, they have good speechwriters to salvage this ridiculous state of affairs…

By Dharisha Bastians
There was a curious eeriness that marked the dawn of February 4, 2008. At 5 a.m. not a leaf stirred and even the waves seemed to break ashore more quietly than usual. Less than 14 hours earlier, the Fort Railway Station was rocked by a suicide bomb explosion that claimed 14 lives and caused injuries to some 92 others. The dawn of Independence Eve on Sunday (3) was also violent, when a hand grenade exploded within the precincts of the Dehiwala Zoo injured four persons.

In both incidents, the blatancy of the attacks was chilling. Fort Railway Station on Sunday is a day of comings and going, people returning to the city after a weekend at home, or families with children who wanted a holiday train ride. Sunday at the zoo is also family day. One day before, pilgrims en route to Anuradhapura were massacred en masse. It’s a heinous trend.

It was the most natural thing in the world therefore to expect the worst at the massive military parade and celebration planned at Galle Face on Monday. Evacuation plans were in place and most of us watched with bated breath until the ceremony was finally over. The security net thrown over the city was unlike anything residents had witnessed before. Every conceivable path to Galle Face was blocked from days ahead of the parade, and at midnight, the government and mobile phone networks announced that text messaging (SMS) would be barred from between 6 a.m. and 12 noon on Monday. Undoubtedly the Defence establishment was preparing for the worst.

It was no easy task therefore to attempt to stage an attack at Galle Face to disrupt the parade. But it was inevitable that instead, the LTTE would strike elsewhere, wreaking havoc in some rural village or terrorising passengers on a bus or train. And like clockwork, 15 people were killed in Welioya when a claymore mine was blasted a mere hair’s breadth away from the Army’s 223 Division headquarters. Just to follow up, four army personnel were killed in Buttala which seems to be a favourite target for the rebels of late, and despite official denials, early last morning, the navy has reportedly lost all contact with one of its Dvora fast attack craft with seven crew members on board off the Mannar seas. Eelam War IV, if anything just got a tad too hot to handle.

Attacks
The spate of attacks on civilians gives credence to government claims that the LTTE is getting incredibly desperate. Holed in on all sides with the military determined to eventually take the Tigers’ Wanni stronghold, the LTTE is resorting to typical terror tactics – strike at will anywhere, anytime and hope to get a hit and cause chaos in its wake. Enough of these claymores and suicide attacks on civilians in Sri Lanka, and the war is going to become extremely unpopular once again, perhaps forcing the government to turn the heat down on the LTTE on the battle zones, to prevent reprisals in the south. In the face of a massive government military offensive, the LTTE has apparently thrown caution to the winds and is no longer concerned about international opinion and the ramifications of their targeting civilians. Now, any target is a good target as long as the LTTE is concerned, because the organisation’s only aim seems to be to create as much havoc as possible hoping to make a dent on the popularity of the current regime.

Volatile
The current situation is a volatile one and has resulted in an overwhelming awareness of one’s own mortality for the average citizen. Since the blast at the Fort Railway Station on Sunday, and the explosion targeting a bus in Dambulla the previous day, public transport systems have seen considerable decline in commuter numbers. Officials claim this is normal soon after an explosion and loss of life and expect this fear factor to ease up, and things to go on as usual in less than a month’s time.

The government also decided to postpone its mega Dayata Kirula exhibition being held for the second time in two years, to showcase the manner in which individual government ministries are following the policies set out in the Mahinda Chinthana. The exhibition which was to be held for seven days starting on February 4 has been cut short to only three days, and will be held from February 8-11 instead. All schools in the Colombo Education Zone have been declared closed this week, and will resume after their extended independence holiday on February 11.

Topmost on the parental priority lists might be their children’s’ safety, but there is equal concern about students falling behind on their schoolwork, and already school principals have begun speaking of classes in the weekends, and extra school hours to ensure syllabuses are covered before the end of term.

Civilian life at standstill
All these things taken individually might not seem overly significant in a nation fighting a war. But collectively, they speak of a citizenry for whom civilian life has come to a virtual standstill. When our children cannot attend school, people are afraid to use regular transport methods to travel to their workplaces, and the country at large is uncertain when they leave their homes in their morning if they would return at night, terrorism has won the day. The question is how long will we put up with this insane state of affairs? Until August, promises the government. The skeptics are not convinced. To under-estimate the intensity of the fight against the Tigers would be a grave mistake. The prevailing state of uncertainty cannot go unchecked forever and if the government is planning to prolong the conflict in order to hold on to power indefinitely, that too would be a colossal error in judgment.

Tough
That said, Sri Lankans are a tough bunch. We have been bruised, battered and completely overcome on many an occasion, and still managed to rise again from the ashes. Time and again our lives and dreams have been shattered and still, patiently, painstakingly we go on rebuilding. A timeline for the peoples’ patience needs to be set however, for it is finite and will eventually give way to incredible resentment and hostility towards the government in office. Good speeches therefore won’t help the President to save face forever. Finish the war and finish it fast. The people might be with your military strategy for the time being but their support for the eradication of terrorism is neither permanent nor unconditional. The more they must tighten their belts and watch as their loved ones are brutally slain, the less enticing a prolonged military push looks. After one week of constant attacks that has left the citizenry reeling, the strain is definitely beginning to show.

The time has come to walk the talk, and it can only be hoped that the Commander-in-Chief and those at his command can rise to the occasion.