Sri Lanka is no stranger to death

THE island nation of Sri Lanka observes the second anniversary of the Easter Sunday terrorist attacks this year.

On April 21, 2019, in a series of co-ordinated suicide bombings, Islamic insurgents targeted three churches and three hotels in Colombo, killing 267 people and injuring more than 500.

Fondly referred to as the teardrop of India for it’s strategic location, and formerly known as Ceylon, Sri Lanka is no stranger to death and destruction for it was the site of a 26-year-long civil war between the majority Buddhist Sinalhese and the Tamil minority in which an estimated 40 000 to 100 000 people lost their lives.

The armed struggle for the Tamils, who wanted their own state, was led by the notorious Tamil Tigers.

History will tell us that 77 years ago, on April 5, 1942, Colombo was the site of the Easter Sunday raid in which the Japanese bombed Ceylon.

It was an aerial attack during an Indian Ocean raid by carrier-based aircraft of the Japanese Army whose objective was to destroy the Ceylon-based British eastern fleet anchored in the harbour.

Many ships were sunk and aircraft fell from the skies like hailstones. While timely intelligence allowed the British to skilfully manoeuvre out of the way, the operation was a tactical victory for the Japanese.

I was fortunate to have visited Sri Lanka in 1996 at the invitation of my two attorney friends, Ash Kirpal and Reggie Reddy. So we three singletons packed our bags and headed off in our swashbuckling and hedonistic pursuits to an unknown sunset. Twenty-five years later, the memories are still fresh. We were on our way to Sri Lanka after spending a week in India, and the short flip was turbulent.

I try in vain to recall whether there were travel restrictions to the troubled region because I think it became a way of life for many, although the risk ratio for any traveller was ever present.

On our way to the hotel in Colombo, there were several roadblocks as the police searched us and eyed us suspiciously. Amid rolling green hills and quaint fishing villages, we visited tea estates and elephant sanctuaries and the towns of Negombo and Kandy.

While there, we heard of serious fighting taking place in the jungle off Jaffna, but decided to make the most of our stay. On our second day, July 24 1996, the Dehiwala Train Bombing took place in which 64 people were killed and more than 400 injured. We only came to know about this via television news broadcast as hotel staff tried to play down the massacre. Needless to say, our families back home were freaked out and worried. The Tamil Tigers’ most notorious claims were to the 1991 assassination of Indian prime minister, Rajiv Gandhi, and the 1993 killing of Sri Lankan president Ranasinghe Premadasa.

With its leader dead, the terror machine broke down in 2009 with no replacement parts to further their evil cause.

The government of the day had won, until Easter Sunday 2019 when the ghosts of guerilla warfare, armed struggle insurgency and suicide bombings came back to haunt it.

It is so sad that one of the greatest cricketing nations of the world still finds itself on a sticky wicket of hatred, fanaticism, religious intolerance and death and destruction. Ordinary Sri Lankans will continue to live with the serene and calm waters of the Indian Ocean on one side, and on the other, blood blooming like a field of poppies. KEVIN GOVENDER | Shallcross