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Sri Lankans hope tsunami will unite their nation but government, rebels already back to bickering
Associated Press,
Thu January 6, 2005 12:00 EST .
DILIP GANGULY - Associated Press Writer - COLOMBO, Sri Lanka (AP) On the edge of Tamil Tiger guerrilla country, soldiers long engaged in spilling rebel blood donated some of their own this week. In the capital, Colombo, a woman prays that rebels and the government forget their animosity. A Tamil taxi driver says the tsunami tragedy is a God-sent opportunity to forgive and forget. ``The people in the affected areas ... have in fact been receiving more government assistance than those affected in the south,'' the statement said. Most of Sri Lanka's 3.2 million Tamils live. Most of the 14 million majority Sinhalese live in the south. The renewed bickering upsets Sinhalese shop owner Sumana Gamage. ``You need a friend when you are sad. Here we have both the sides sad, but they are not becoming friends,'' said Gamage. ``I pray for this to come true.'' Arumailingam Srigaran, a Tamil taxi driver in the mainly Tamil city of Batticaloa, 210 kilometers (130 miles) east of Colombo, had similar hopes. ``This is a time for the two sides to work together. It is the people who will lose if they stand divided,'' he said. Earlier, members of the rebels' Tamil Rehabilitation Organization had accused the government of not helping them, and even of grabbing their relief supplies. ``Although we appealed to the Sri Lanka government for relief supplies on the same day the tsunami struck, no relief from the government has reached us,'' the organization's chief, K.P. Reggie, was quoted as saying on the pro-rebel Web site TamilNet. Reggie said relief supplies have instead come from international groups and Tamils living abroad. The Dec. 26 tsunami killed more than 30,000 people and left 800,000 others homeless in Sri Lanka, in both rebel and government-controlled areas. Even soldiers have been swept up in the mood of reconciliation. ``The night of the tsunami, our garrison in Vavuniya got a message from the local hospital that blood was needed,'' said military spokesman Daya Ratnayake. ``In no time, 122 soldiers gave blood.'' Local Tamil journalists corroborated the army's account. There have been other examples of longtime antagonists finding common ground in adversity. In the eastern village of Valaichchenai, the divide between Muslims and mostly Hindu Tamils is so deep that the road through town has been an unspoken barrier between the two communities. When the tsunami struck the Tamil side, hundreds of survivors fled inland to the nearest sanctuary an already-overcrowded church. In the neighboring town of Oddamavadi, the Mosque Federation offered help. ``In a critical situation, we didn't see any problem,'' said federation head M.H.M. Hakeem. The federation turned over a three-building school complex to the refugees. Muslim bakers donated bread, and grocers provided food. Many took turns cooking meals for the 400 people gathered there. The community dug into their pockets for money. The two communities have a bloody during the two-decade war, as Tamil rebels tried to assert control over the area. Each year, Muslims mark ``black day'' anniversaries of massacres by guerrillas: an August 1991 attack on a mosque that left 200 dead, and another fray a week later, when 139 Muslims villagers were hacked to death in their sleep. Sri Lanka - 's top political analyst said a solution was not in sight to the Sinhalese-Tamil division. ``They are continuing with their past rivalry and antagonism that existed before tsunami hit, and they will continue until there is a political settlement,'' said Jehan Perera of the think tank National Peace Council. Associated Press writers Art Max in Valaichchenai and Krishan Francis in Colombo contributed to this report.
Published: Thu Jan 6 12:51:22 EST 2005
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