Wary peace as war-torn island recovers from 26-year conflict

Refugees return home, ex-guerillas forge new allegiances and Sri Lanka’s army is never far from view, writes TOM FARRELL in Batticaloa, Sri Lanka

ON THE surface, Sri Lanka’s eastern town of Batticaloa seems to be leaving a harrowing past behind it. Home to 480,000 people and hugging the Indian Ocean, the town was badly affected by the island’s 26-year conflict and its outskirts were lashed by the December 2004 tsunami.

Troops still appear on the streets and there are still police checkpoints where bags are prodded and ID cards scrutinised. But there are fewer soldiers and the South African-made armoured cars that once growled along the sweltering streets are now a rare sight.

Most of the 250,000 internally displaced persons who were forced into camps around Batticaloa during the fighting in 2007 have returned to their villages. In that year, President Mahinda Rajapakse sent the military into the territories west of the lagoon that demarcates the town, at the time held by the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE) aka Tamil Tigers. They captured the last Tigers base on July 13th 2007, although even now, a small number of guerrillas are at large in the district.