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A member of the Sea Tiger unit of the LTTE was all the way
along with us by guiding us in the tsunami ravaged areas.
The LTTE member was telling us that they were discovering
everyday the dead bodies of the tidal wave victims from a
pond which was once a rain water catchments - source, but
now a sea water overflowing area.
He said that the bodies were being burnt immediately after
recovery and asked us to wait to witness that day's
excavation.
The heavy devastation had not only shattered the coastal
areas but also the planet earth itself by changing its
orbital direction by the explosion it caused.
We had a chance to meet a Catholic priest who narrowly
escaped from the tragedy near his totally perished church in
coastal Mullaitivu.
His visit to a nearby church that fateful day saved him and
left a spiritual leader alive, who could lead the remaining
few who have lost their kith and kin and almost everything.
The flood ravaged ruins of the houses were scattered
everywhere and I managed to get onto a piece of debris to
have a wider view of the area.
Now I could see the far corner of the village "Kallapadu", a
southern coastal hamlet of Mullaitivu which was totally
devastated by the giant tidal waves. My inner-eyes started
to visualize in a distance spectrum gradually and now I
could experience the tragedies of the coastal hamlets "Semmalai"
and "Alampil", which were almost sunk underneath, where a
few years ago, during my tenure as an officer in CARE
International in the war - torn periods of the northern
region, I visited extensively and was amazed by the
hospitality of those village folk, but now everything has
perished.
Still I could hear those melodies of a cinema song which was
aired over a radio while I was resting under the shade of a
flock of densely grown coconut trees.
Oh! What an illusive world, now everything has changed and
everything has disappeared. When I turned my attention from
the solid ruined wreckage where I was standing towards the
distantnorthern horizon, the devastation of the coastal
villages Manarkadu, Nagarkovil and Chempianpattu were coming
to mind.
All were destroyed leaving a few to witness to the horrific
tidal waves to the forthcoming generations.
Our next destination, the Mulliavallai hospital which is
located nearly fifteen kilometers away from Mullaitivu
towards the jungle interior, is telling many stories of the
events immediately after the tidal wave disaster.
The hospital, which was originally for maternity purposes
has now turned to caring for the injured people from the
tidal waves. It is struggling with a General Practitioner
who is assisted by a retired medical practitioner and a
junior medical officer from a different hospital, while
their medical service requirement is to be provided by at
least twenty medical officers when compared with a standard
developed country which has a healthy medical history.
The German volunteers were busily unloading the medical
equipment from one of the medium - sized lorries out of the
six-vehicle convoy which was moving always together.
These volunteers who came to Sri Lanka as part of their
student exchange program to complete their internship are
from various universities in different fields in the streams
of Economics, Business Administration, Sociology and so on.
They were very active in their humanitarian task which they
chose voluntarily.
The German TV personnel were busy documenting the
experiences of those young European adventurers who were
volunteering in Asia by risking their lives to the epidemics
which are always associated with tragic devastation and
other jungle borne diseases, dengue and the malaria.
Friederike Wagner, a second year student of a leading German
university was relating his experiences a couple of hours
ago.
The satellite transmission of that documentary would reach
millions of Germans in a few hours and certainly make them
heroes and heroines in their motherland.
While we were passing the bridge which links Mullaitivu to
the mainland, speedily hurrying black - cranes from the sea
to the land frightened me, making me wonder whether there
were new tidal waves on their way.
A couple of hours earlier we were told when we were passing
that bridge towards Mullaitivu, how the tidal waves washed
away the vehicles and the passengers who passed-by. |
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