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Killinochchi all abuzz

By Nirupama Subramanian

KILLINOCHCHI (Northern Sri Lanka) APRIL 9. The top civilian administrator here says he has been struggling for the last three months to get a home connection. There are no communication facilities here. They are just about getting the post office started. There is no hospital, and there has been no electricity since 1990.

Located 60 km. north of Vavuniya in the heart of LTTE-controlled Vanni mainland, this town is now playing host to an estimated 400 journalists here for a news conference tomorrow with Vellupillai Prabakaran, the leader of the Tigers.

The event has assumed enormous significance as it is the reclusive leader's first appearance before the media since 1990, and comes against the backdrop of a fresh attempt by the Sri Lankan Government and the LTTE to end the island's ethnic conflict.

The rapid pace of the initiative has generated hopes of early peace among the people of this town, who have been the worst hit in the battles between the Government and the LTTE for control of the town located at a strategic point on Sri Lanka's A9 highway.

Four times since 1990 it has changed hands. The last big battle here was in 1998, when the LTTE wrested control of the town in a massive attack, killing and wounding hundreds of soldiers and forcing the Army to withdraw to Elephant Pass.

``The people of Killinochchi have been tested to their limits'', said the district government agent, E. Ayathurai.

After taking control, the LTTE managed to clear Army minefields in parts of the district to enable those who had been displaced by the fighting to return and resettle here. Over 40,000 mines were removed by the LTTE with nothing more than garden rakes and other rudimentary implements, Mr. Ayathurai said.

In the last two years, an estimated 12,000 people have returned to areas in Killinochchi certified by the LTTE as safe from mines but the scars of war are still visible all around. There is hardly any construction here that has not been damaged or destroyed by shells.

Till last year, the Government did not make available reconstruction aids to the area because it was in the hands of the rebels. The economic embargo was eased only this January when the peace process was put on the fast track by the newly-elected Government.

``The situation has improved a lot after the restrictions were removed. If the process fails, it could go back to what it was'' Mr. Ayathurai said, adding the people did not want that to happen. They could not bear it any more. This will certainly act as indirect pressure on the LTTE to make the process work,'' he said.

On Monday, the stretch of A9 highway from here to Jaffna was reopened under the terms of the February truce accord between the Government and the LTTE, providing the first land route between the mainland and the peninsula in 12 years.

Though there is no public transport yet on the route, the move is expected to greatly ease travel to and from the peninsula and is seen as an important symbol of the joint effort by both sides to restore normality to civilian lives in northern Sri Lanka.

``For the first time, the travel people believe that the Government is sincere about bringing peace. This is the first time that the Government has placed trust in the LTTE and that has given hopes to our people'' said Tirukulasingham Thangapalan, the news editor of Voice of Tigers, the clandestine radio station operated by the LTTE.

Mr. Thangapalan said if there were any doubts about the LTTE's sincerity, Mr. Prabakaran would remove them on Wednesday at the much-awaited news conference.

For reasons of Mr. Prabakaran's security, the venue and time of the event have not been notified yet to the gathering of journalists, only told by LTTE organisers to be ready for it any time after 9 a.m. tomorrow.

Till then, the LTTE is playing the good host, providing food and shelter to the hundreds of journalists who have besieged northern Sri Lanka.

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