Nick Westover

Children of British Columbia’s nascent Karen refugee community playing baseball at their apartment complex in the Vancouver area.

I thought I’d start this blog off with some current imagery but today’s news is rather compelling.

Today, as the Sri Lankan government declares victory over the LTTE, I’m reminded of a visit to the Kilinochchi area a few years ago, just before the effective dissolution of the two year old ceasefire. As the capital city of the de facto state of Eelam (complete with thorough customs inspections), Kilinochchi was an orderly strip of the A9 highway where many people had been returning to set up homes and businesses enabled by the peace process.

Working there photographing international development and humanitarian aid efforts for more than a week I would eat every day at Pandyan Restaurant, run by the LTTE. It was the best food in town and among the best South Asian food I’ve had. Other regulars were an older couple from the UK, Jaffna Tamils as I recall, returned to help out. He was a doctor and she was teaching at Kilinochchi Central College which had classes from primary up to secondary levels and approximately 1500 students. She invited me to visit the school which I didn’t have time for on that particular trip but managed to see on a subsequent visit a few months later.

There was a new building at the school but much of it was quite literally bombed out as it had been at the centre of some heavy fighting prior to the ceasefire. Spent artillery casings were piled into a corner of the school-yard. I made some photos that morning which are still very evocative for me.

Mahinda Rajapaksa is quoted today as saying, “My government, with the total commitment of our armed forces, has in an unprecedented humanitarian operation finally defeated the LTTE militarily.” With little independent information coming from the area and the SLA fighting a ruthless guerilla force mixed with “tens of thousands of civilians” hemmed into 3 square kilometres one wonders how humanitarian that operation has been. One also wonders, in the absence of a negotiated peace, how the Tamil population will be treated, or perceive their treatment, in this new order and how long before the assassinations and suicide bombings begin again.